Hi. My Revenge from Mars Skip Ramp suddenly sticks in the UP position.

The ramp should fall back down when the coil is not energized.

Only gravity seems to control the down position. There is no spring, and i confirmed this with the manual on page 2-17.

I replaced the coil sleeve, cleaned the bell armature, and all other parts with no luck.

I took it apart again, and gave the bell armature a light wet sand to remove any possible burrs. Still no luck.

I lightly oiled the metal to metal points, even though they all appear clear from binding. Still bo luck.

I thought maybe the bell armature and coil stop could be magnatized. I took them out again, and checked if a screw would be attracted to either, but no.

The ramp only stays up after being lifted using the coil power. When i raise it manually, it does not stay in the up position, even when i slam it up as hard as i possibly can.

To rule out any power still going to the coil, i turned the power off, and the skip ramp stays raised, until i give it a little tap, or some other vibration from a fliiper, etc.

What am i missing here? Is there another way to check for magnatism?

This is a home use only machine, with very low plays. It has never been abused. Thanks. Sparky

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Wow, you guys are quick.

Indy, i was thinking about adding a speing as you suggested, but it always worked before with this setup. We'll see.

Infinite, where is the plunger link? At the roll pin? Thanks. Sparky

Hi infinite, the setup here is a bit different from a common flipper setup. There is no metal to metal hitting a coil stop that would cause mushrooming as far as i could tell.

I didnt see anything obvious anyway. I could take it apart again, and send a picture if you would like. Thanks. Sparky

Ok, ill take it out now.

Here are some pics.

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Infinite, the tip looks good, but should not come into play here, since it has that piece on the end.

To eliminate that as a cause, i removed the "flap pusher", reinstalled the assembly without ir, and it still sticks UP.

please look closely at this pictureto see what was removed, and what little remains.

While operating it by hand, i think i feel some magnetism pulling the bell armature to the coil bracket.

Puffy, i thought it would be an easy cleaning, but something else is foung on here.

Anyone know how to demagnetize parts?? Thanks. Sparky

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Hi Mickster, the nirmal pisition is down. I thought i would have a spring too, but i guess the weight of the flap pusher plus gravity is what is relied on.

Indinite, i read that on google, but since "I" didnt magnetize it, i dont know which way is the opposite way.

I dint want to accudenly magnetize it more, if it is magnetized as if now, however, I did find that hitting the object could disturb its magnetism, so i think i will knoxk them around a but, and see what happens.

Thanks.
Tried dropping the coil bracket on my ceramic tiles a bunch of times, and tapped the ends of the bell armature on the tile as well. Not sure if it broke up any magnetism, but the problem still persists.

I just tried an alternate bell armature that i had. Its brand new, but not the exact replacement. It still stays up.

So, to recap, new coil sleeve, different bell armature, no flap pusher, and it still stays up after the coil is energized, until i give it a slight vibration.

Hi guys, after trying everything i could possibly think of to get this to work without a spring (as originally designed?), i put in an old style williams conical shaped flipper return spring.

It now works as it should, so i will be buying a new spring made for a bell armature.

"THE SPRING DID NOT FIX THE PROBLEM, IT CREATED A DIFFERENT ONE"

READ NEWER POSTS BELOW!!

If it is actually slightly magnetized, the spring seems to overpower it enough to drop the ramp as it should. Thanks for wveryines input, hope this saves someone else five hours. Thanks. Sparky.

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Hi mbwalker, thanks for the tip. I now got it working. This is good to know, and ill try it out when i take it apart again to put in a correct style spring. Sparky

Thanks. Cool to know!!

PROBLEM PERSISTS!!!!

After playing a couple of full games with the spring installed, i realized that the skip ramp did not stay in the FULLY UP position.

This ramp coil works similarly to a flipper coil.

It has an "end if stroke switch", that switches the coil to use LOW POWER when it holds the ramp in the fully UP position.

The low power of the coil was not powerful enough to over power the spring i installed, so the ramp would start to "sag" down after it would get hit by a ball, causing balls to not fly high enough to fly into the ball catcher.

Balls would only go high enough to hit the front of the ball catcher.

MBWALKER suggested that i remove the coil sleeve to test for magnetism. I ran the test without the coil sleeve, and the bell armature still stuck to the coil bracket.

So there is DEFINITLY magnetism holding the flap up.

As a temporary solution, i put a thin layer of duct tape on the coil bracket to seperate the bell armature from directly touching the coil bracket.

Now the ramp drops when it should, and stays in the FULLY UP position without sagging.

Anybody have any insight into this magnetism holding a bell armature?

Surely this cant be a first...

The duct tape i used is black, and can be seen in the picture.

Thanks. Sparky

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MB, the parts that are magnetizing together, are the large round bottom end of the bell armature, to the bottom of the coil bracket.

So the tape is on the side of the bracket that momentarily touched the bell armature.

I will have to check if a new bell armature is available, since it seems like a game specific part.

Otherwise, probably a demagnetizer.

I thought about a weaker soring, but decided to try the tape first to confirm the magnetism.

Since the metal no longer touches, it dosnt stick. The magnetism is weak enough that the tape is just enough to do the trick.

The weird thing is that the parts only seem to stay magnetized after the coil has been energized.

But after i break the bond for a second or two, the magnetism ceases, and will not stick again until after i energize the coil once again.

Mickster, has this ever worked for you??

Lick frog, if you get a chance, could you check if yours has a spring? You should be able to look/ through the coin door. Thanks

Grumpy, those ate good ideas, ididnt know that the end is replaceable. Is there a guide somewhere on how to do it? Thanks. Sparky

Ok grumpy, i get it. Are brass ends readily available, and would i need to grind one off and swap it? Thanks

Grumpy, thanks for the info.
Have you had this problem with the magnetism before?
It seems like youve had to deal with this in the past.

Mb, rubber would also work.
It would have to be as thin as possible, so this ramp would lift to its highest position, otherwise the ball would not fly as high as it should.

Im curious to find out what causes this to happen. Ive magnetized screwdrivers purposely, so i understand the magnetism.

Id like to find an article ir post about this occurance.

Im guessing with thousands of machines out there with multiple coils each, that somebody has addressed this already. Anybody able to share a link? Thanks. Sparky

Yp, at first i thought the idea of adding extra weight would work, but i think it would end up the same as when i put in the spring, causing the ramp to sag during the "hold" up position.

I havnt changed the coil since i dont have one on hand, but was wondering if it is starting to fail as well.

Mb, thanks for the priduct suggestions, since it sounds similar to the tape fix, ill just keep the tape for now.

Ill also check out that link.

I just hate having a piece of tape where it shouldnt be. Ughhh.

Thanks. Sparky

PNBL, i actually filed the groove smooth as well, but that unfortunately didnt do the trick.

Eddie, thanks for the input.
My guide tabs have plenty of free space around them. They arent even touching when the plunger is "stuck" up.

Which spring did you use? Did you happen to notice the ramp sag during the hold up position?

This is definately some kind of residual magnetism after the coil is turned off.

When the parts are disassembled, they are no longer magnetised, and wont even attract screws.

Grumpy, ill give it a look. Thanks. Soarky