I've recently fixed some things on my Lethal Weapon 3 and have come across another issue. When a ball goes into the outhole it doesn't go any where. I can move the balls over manually and the ball kicker will kick them out and the ball launcher works. But the balls just keep piling up in the outhole area. It would seem that I have an issue with the Outhole Ball Return.

Has any one encountered this before? I am thinking maybe the switch is bad or the coil is bad, I haven't had a chance to check it. I really don't know how the whole process is supposed to work. I am unsure what should happen when a ball enters the outhole.

Would that be the diagnostic menu test? I went through the coil test and it never fired. I am still trying to fumble through those menus. The test I did was firing all the coils one after another. It went through the test a few times and it never fired. I am starting to think that I may have a bad transistor. It looks like Q46 is for the outhole.

Will do. Thanks WOLF. Unfortunately I won't get a chance to check it out until tomorrow... that alone is going to drive me crazy!

I finally got a chance to take a look at the machine. The transistor for the outhole is Q46 according to the manual. That transistor checks out. The coil checks out fine too via my dmm. Through the Diagnostic menu I tested all 4 switches in the outhole/ball trough area. They all registered. From the coil menu I tested the outhole coil and it will not fire. I've checked all the fuses and they appear to be fine. I'm at loss. I have no idea why that coil will not fire.

I tested the diode and it was a little over .6, like .645. I replaced it just to be safe and nothing has changed.

As noted in the thread below, I have a capacitor on the Power Supply Board where one of the legs is not connected to the board. It is at C9. There is a picture of it in the thread. Another pinsider (pinnaf), took a picture of his machine and it is connected. Any chance that is related? How would I test the capacitor to see if it is even good? There is a note in my manual that say to disconnect C9, but that note is on the schematic for the Flipper Board.

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/lethal-weapon-3-ball-launch-coil-fires-then-locks-on-start-up

It is on the Power Supply Board and not the Flipper Board. I haven't looked to see if there is a C9 on the Flipper Board.

There is no C9 on my Flipper Board. The manual also says to remove C4, C9, R12, R13, R28 and R29. So it would appear that C9 should not be connected.

beatmaster, when I start a game the machine will search for the balls if I don't have them in the trough. I can manually place them in the trough right now as I have the apron off. If the balls are in the trough the machine does not search for them. All 4 switches in the trough check out via the diagnostic menu. Is there another way I should test them?

The trough eject works. The only thing down in the trough area that seems to not work is the outhole coil. I cannot get it to fire.

It does change the display indicating which switch I activated. All four switches activate according to the diagnostic menu.

It feels like the machine is so close to being ready to play I can taste it! I really appreciate you both taking the time to help me troubleshoot.

The plunger does move freely. How would I jump power right to the coil?

Just re-checked it and the transistor is ok. But you're right, better to be safe and double check.

WOLF, I grounded a wire then touched the metal tab on Q46 and nothing happened. Was I doing this right? I read another way to test the coil is to ground a wire then touch the non-banded side of the lug on the coil and it should fire. Should I give that a try?

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm going to check that out. I think I may have discovered the problem though! The solder joint on J1-1 is bad. When I check the connection between the J1-1 pin and the banded end of the D1 diode there is no connection.

Gah! Now I'm thoroughly confused... not that it takes much.

I resoldered J1-1. Connection was good. Hook the PBB back up and same problem. So then I decided to ground out the coil and it fired. So there is some good news in that. But now I have no idea where to go from here.

WOLF, I did check the continuity from the outhole coil to J-2 on the board, then from J-2 to J-1, and then J-1 to CN-11 and everything checked out.

I did run through Diagnostics again and I can now fire the outhole coil from there! So good news on the J1-1 resolder. So at this point does it look like a bad switch even though they check out in diagnostics? I am not sure what else it could be.

I have no idea, but it's working now! I have no idea why but when a ball drains and hits the outhole switch it fires the outhole coil. I don't know why it just started working. Everything seemed to be ok and there shouldn't have been a problem, but for some reason there was... and now there's not.

Hopefully it keeps working... time to go plays some games and find out!

Thank you WOLF, Crash, and beatmaster for all your help, not only in this thread but all the other threads too. I'll report back if I run into anything. I'll keep my fingers crossed.