I recently picked up a quite nice (and quite rare) Hay Ride project from another pinsider. I've got it *sort of* flipping, but there's a startup issue that has me a little stumped.

With a ball in the trough, attempting to start a game leads to the score motor running and running.

With no ball in the trough, if you start a game, everything resets as it should, and all playfield switches, flippers, scoring, etc. work perfectly. As soon as the ball drops into the trough, the score motor starts running and doesn't stop.

I'm a little stumped, and welcome your thoughts. What I think is the relevant portion of the schematic is attached.

I'll note, though it's probably not relevant, that I have wedged the tilt relay closed, as I search for a replacement coil. Given that this relay is closed during game play (unless the game tilts upon which that relay releases), I don't think it makes a difference, as all I'm doing is effectively bypassing the tilt feature... but I mention it anyway, in case there's something I've overlooked.

hay ride (resized).jpg

It does not. I just checked the coil with my ohmmeter, and there's no reading at all. Maybe that coil is bad. Hmmm...

The label on that coil indicates it's a "184-213". A look at the 1965 parts catalog indicates this is correct. A quick google search for an interchange turned up nothing.

My Gold Rush has the same ball eject mechanism. The coil is unlabeled, but is physically identical. That coil is 14ohms.

GOT IT!

On the ball eject unit, the wire coming out of the coil to the coil tab was broken-- which is why I was getting no reading with the ohmmeter. I repaired the coil, and the game fired right up and kicked a ball into the shooter lane.

The game still has some issues to sort out, and I need to clean and lube the steppers... but things are moving in the right direction.

Maybe not as entirely sorted out as I thought. I was tinkering with it at lunchtime, and about 1/2 the time when the ball drains it causes the score motor to run endlessly. It appears that it's not triggering the ball count unit. I'll have to troubleshoot that path-- there may be a dirty switch somewhere.

Cleaned and lubed the ball count unit-- seems to be working perfectly now! Fingers crossed that it stays that way!

FWIW, the ball count unit didn't look dirty at all. The rivets had some minor tarnish (not crust, just not bright and shiny). A quick hit with a brush on the Dremel, and some superlube on the rivets, and it's working. Point is, just because it *looks* ok, don't assume that it is.