Hello guys,
I finally decided enough was enough after the shame of calling a "pinball guy" to work on my 1977 Williams Liberty Bell, and decided that I should pick up a non working EM on the cheaper end of things and learn how to repair them on a non working one, rather than risk the health of my existing toy.
I came home with a bit more than I bargained for with a barn find 1975 Williams "Little Chief", non working. There were not that many issues with it and no real big issues, mostly a few small parts missing, a few solenoids gone bad, and the right side rail, and backbox cover plate retention hardware gone missing; but, overall, its really been a great experience in learning how to repair EM's and how they work, and I've fixed every major problem I've come across with it so far!
One final major problem I'm struggling with is that when the ball hits the switch under the apron to end the ball, and switch to the next player, it doesn't ever make it to the next person, it hits the switch, the machine adds the points from the bonus like it should at the end of play and puts the ball back out into the shooter lane; but, it doesn't manage to cycle to the next player for some reason, and still considers the ball in play to be ball 1 of the player playing.
If you adjust the player wheel manually in the back, it plays as that player fine, but only if adjusted manually.
It seems that the signal that the round has ended and it should advance to the next player is not reaching the player wheel.
Does anyone have some suggestions on what could be at play here?
The "Match Unit" Armature is damaged, so the match unit doesn't work correctly currently, and I haven't been able to track down a spare part. Is the operation of the Match Unit somehow influencing the movement of the player wheel and causing the malfunction?
Or is there perhaps a power issue? The female end of the main Jones Connector was missing, so I had to replace the Jones Connector with crimp on quick disconnect ends. It seems I got them mostly right, since all 4 player scores function correctly and things seem to be working as required; but, maybe I missed just the one that controls that somehow?
Thanks for your insight guys
Alex