You can use aligator clips to make jumpers. Can jump the solder tab to the back of the spring loaded tip. Can use jumper wire to connect from bare wire to the lamp socket barrel.

Also can try swiveling the base in lamp test to see if you get any life out of them.

To test the SCRs on bally games i use what is shown in the picture. One side of the lamp goes to the +voltage through alligator clip. I usually pick this up off the bare wire in the back box, make sure to get feature lamp and not GI.

Other side of the lamp goes to a .100" molex connector. During all lamp test it is plugged into the appropriate pin on the lamp driver. That tests the SCR. If it lights with the tester in the back box than you have a wiring issue. If it does not light up than you have a dead SCR.

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http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/images/d/d7/Fixing_Lamps.jpg

I will first put my DMM on the two points where the wires are soldered onto the socket. If power at those points but the bulb is not lighting you know it is the socket. Go to the PinWiki site listed, excellent fix method.

Looks like a pain but if you get set-up you can very quickly do a bunch of sockets. Don't be lazy with this job, just mark all of the "kind of working" sockets and do them all at once. Set-up is what takes the time. Very little difference in time if you do 1 socket or 20 sockets. For some of my early EM pins I just do 100% of the controlled lamps, it is just easier to do them all at once and never worry about them again. I like to use a small wire wheel in a Dremel tool to clean the socket for soldering. Only takes a few seconds per socket. Also "tin" the socket with solder before trying to solder the wire on, it will make your life much easier.

Instead of the method shown in the photo where a separate jumper wire is soldered to the bare ground wire and then attached to the socket you can solder the socket to the "arm". You will really need to use a wire wheel for that method, it is very hard to get that joint cleaned any other way without completely cutting your fingers up. You just need a small solder bridge between the two parts, not the entire way around the socket base.

Obviously make sure the bulb is working. I will pull a working bulb from somewhere on the pin to test. I don't trust a new in box bulb to always work. Pull one from a working socket to test with. Also periodically put your test bulb back into a working socket to make sure it is still working. The bulbs tend to be delicate and will break during the often vigorous activity of trying to make the socket work.

Feature lamps always have +voltage. They turn on via the SCR on the lamp driver giving them a path to ground.

Yes, but isn't the pos. voltage supplied thru the bare trace wire under the pf and not to the solder tabs of the socket like most people would think?

Correct, positive voltage is supplied to bare wire under the PF and in Backbox. You will notice on the rectifier board schematics there is nothing labeled for a dedicated Feature lamp return like for GI.

The solder tab on each socket with the color specific wire it goes back to the lamp driver board. If you can not figure out of it the socket is good you can detatch that wire, add it to a new / socket to test. You can also use a jumper wire and attach tab of a different controlled lamp to the one in question. That will prove the socket is working or not, just make sure to remove bulb to not over drive an scr.