Do they reset at new game start?

OK, if you got through the tests, they probably won't reset then either.

Pull the glass and (take the ball out) raise the playfield up on the kickstand. Push the reset plate up towards the playfield. The targets should get pushed up and latch in place.

If the reset plate won't move, the sleeve is probably melted by a shorted drive transistor (new coil, sleeve and driver trannies).

If they reset by hand smoothly, you have a loss of power or ground (ON signal) to the coil.

Measure DC Volts at the lugs of the coil. It should have the same reading on both lugs...the same as any other coil nearby you can measure for reference.

If you have voltage at both lugs of the coil (no broken wires), put the playfield back down and pull the backglass. Refer to manual and locate the header pin for that coil (Sol # whatever). Using a jumper, hold one end on that header pin and tap the other end quickly on the ground braid. It will probably spark. That is normal. Don't hold the lead on the ground braid more than one second.

Let us know what you discover.

Use a multimeter to verify you have power at the coil. If not, you have a break in your power line to the coil.

If you do have power, take a test lead and clip it onto the top exposed metal tab of the driver transistor (Q13 I think) on the driver board and briefly touch a ground panel. If it fires the coil, you have the same problem I do, and I can't help you quite yet, as I haven't been able to fix mine yet

If it doesn't fire the coil you've got a bad coil, or a standard 'coil won't fire' driver problem with a multitude of fixes depending on what broke. I would start by checking the coil resistance, and ground continuity from the coil to the backbox in this case.

No, you will see potential (Solenoid B+) on both lugs at rest since it's just a piece of wire. When the tranny fires, it provides a path to ground and then the coil becomes a "load". At that instant when the coil fires, one lug will still be potential and the other lug will be ground (through the wire back through the tranny to ground on the solenoid driver board.

That sounds correct, granted the others test the same way. In some rare cases, they will test okay but are still internally failing. They're cheap enough to replace, may want to just shotgun replace it if you have one and see if it fixes the issue.

I've had the game intermittently working a few times only to be fooled into thinking it's fixed, but last night I replaced the pre-driver transistor array U1 (its a CA3081 I believe?) with a new one (socketed it of course) and so far so good. Played about 10-20 games and haven't seen a problem pop up.

Unfortunately replacing a 16 pin DIP IC isn't everyone's cup of tea so I don't know how much this will cheer you up. On something like a Sys 11 it's way easier to troubleshoot and replace a pre-driver.

Good job on troubleshooting so far identifying that the coil and playfield circuitry appears to be adequate. It sounds to me like you certainly have a board problem which on the easy end can simply be some solder reflowing, or on the hard end could require some IC's to be replaced. Wouldn't hurt to repin any connectors involved with an issue like this (or all of them if the parts are on hand) but at a minimum I would reflow the headers and replace Q13 to be 100% sure nothing internal is an issue. Check the other two legs of the transistor to make sure they are making connections to the end of their circuits as well.

One tactic I use for older boards (especially with Williams awesome 40 pin connector) is physically (carefully!) flexing and holding the driver board flexed in different ways during a coil/switch/light test to see if functionality comes back. Unfortunately if you don't get functionality back it really doesn't mean anything, but if it does come back it indicates a poor connection somewhere, either at a solder joint, a trace, or even inside an IC.

For Meteor I pressed in the center of the driver board right on U1 actually and while flexed in that state, the coil would always work. When relaxed it was rare if ever. Since I'd already replaced the driver twice, reflowed and checked every connection related to the circuit, I concluded it could in fact be the internal components in the old IC chips acting up (especially since my E target was starting to fail too, also running thru U1). So I replaced U1 and all seems well right now. If it craps out again I shall report back.

For right now, if I were you , I'd try pressing reasonably firmly on U3 during a coil test, but I take no responsibility for you breaking stuff. If you don't want to do that, I'd be sure all related circuits are fine, and replace U3.

Nicely done. I don't roll eyes at anything that fixes it, but be aware it may be temporary and more permanent measures may be necessary.

Enjoy the game, it's one of the best from that era IMO!

I would replace the sockets in those things for good measure - old bumper sockets suck. They also suck to change so that's something to keep in mind if you ever do have a bumper apart - just change the thing even if its working.

I believe the lines you are looking for are RT BUMPER (J2 pin 23) and LT BUMPER (J1 pin 4) on the lamp driver schematic. The lamps on these old machines are directly driven (no lamp matrix) and can have only a few simple things go wrong. You have a bit of a luxury here in that it seems those lamp lines are shared by a few other lamps (Left and Right outlanes it seems - reversed from the right and left bumper for whatever reason)

The limits of my work has been to replace the sockets, fix wiring, or replace the appropriate 2N5060 for that lamp line. Note that despite looking like a pre-driver transistor these are NOT the same.

Based on my brief read of the schematics, if your outlane lights are working its probably a wiring problem under the playfield. If your outlanes are not working its probably the 2N5060s - I had 2-3 of them bad on mine (I also burned one up as well working on the lamps powered on - don't do that ). Note that I have found you HAVE to go into lamp test mode (or play a game) to properly test certain lights on Meteor - the attract mode doesn't use both bumpers if I recall... only the right one I think?

http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/E-120-25

Or you can upgrade to
http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=299
or
http://www.pinballlife.com/index.php?p=product&id=1245
but be aware these take 555 bulbs and Meteor uses 44/47 style. The old ones are pretty frustrating to deal with as they are hard to work with under the playfield and often have loose-bulb problems over time I find. Up to you which way you go.

As far as testing these things goes, yeah it's annoying to have the lamps on and off. The better the multimeter you have, the better you'll see the cycling on/off in test mode. Testing with a bulb is also perfectly acceptable if you have the fixturing for it, you just have to verify against working lamps that your fixture works

And yes, I would guess there's a break in the power or ground line to that socket. Find where the daisy chain goes from that socket to the outlane that its related to and figure out why one works and the other seems to be left out of the fun. What's nice is if that outlane is working, you should be able to use continuity on the DMM to figure out which side (power or ground) the break is on between the two, rather than trying to trace back to the boards - also try comparing it to the wiring of the other bumper.

Absolute worst case, run jumpers from the bumper (haha) to the proper outlane light and see what happens.

Personally, I bet its the 2N5060 for that line. Easy fix, just an annoying part to have to acquire if you don't work on old bally/stern games

It's a Silicon Controlled Rectifier and I have no clue how to test one. That's beyond my knowledge at this point - I just replace parts, rarely do I check them haha.

Time to repin connectors

The problem with fixing the past issues with light sanding is that it is temporary. You are removing corrosion and making a connection in the short term, but you are also removing the plating that was intended to prevent corrosion and high resistance in the first place, thus you will inevitably be back to square one sooner than later. The classic fix from years ago was to plug and unplug the connectors a whole bunch of times and they magically worked - this is essentially equivalent to a light sanding. It's a good way to get 'up and running' to enjoy (or operate) a machine, but it's not a solution to the ultimate issue of old worn out connectors.

First step imo at this point would be to replace the headers and ideally repin/replace the connectors if you have the tools to do so. Since you know this was a problem area before that we fixed up with a 'quick fix' it's a logical place to start before worrying about IC's or transistors.

If you grounded the tab of Q13 and that fired the coil that just tells you that the path to the coil is good. It does not mean that Q13 is good. You need to test Q13 with a MM. Set the MM to diode test and see if you get between .4 and .6 between the outside leg and middle leg. It could still be bad even if it tests good. But if it tests bad then you know its bad. So I would replace that before replacing any chips. If replacing Q13 doesn't work then replace U1.

TIP102

Does it work in solenoid test? Did you also replace the diode (1N4004). I always replace them together. I'm guessing what ever blew out the transistor the first time took it out again. Or if it works in test, the switches on the drop target bank need to be cleaned with some non-coated card stock and adjusted.

I always swap the 1N4004 on the board when I do the TIP102, but a bad diode on the coil could be the root cause.

No, flipper switches totally isolated from switch matrix.

Flipper button and EOS switches should be filed occasionally to eliminate pitting and build-up.

You can use a 2.2uFarad 250V NON-POLARIZED cap on both the flipper button and EOS switches....if I remember accurately.

I haven't used caps on both switches, but I have used them on EOS switches and they seem to help.

No idea how I stumbled in here today but yes mine was bulletproof after replacing U1. I don't have my extras any more or else I would send them out to you

.

Drop bank 1 wouldn't reset regularly but after much fixing/troubleshooting I found that by physically pressing on U1 and flexing the board I could make the coil behave properly so I thought that the IC itself might have some internal issues. Replaced it and all was well.

Can't recall if it's socketed - I no doubt replaced the socket if so, and added one if not.

Note I have sold the machine so I can't attest to longevity past a few months, but it never showed up for me again.