check circled switch, this does the decrement of the ball unit in head

20840847_10214440404551039_1348857522400190321_n (resized).jpg

Do you have a schematic diagram? You say you're new to EM repair, but what's your general level of repair and troubleshooting ability? The circuit for decrementing the ball count unit should be fairly easy to trace out with a schematic. Pinball Resource (pbresource.com) would likely have one for your game if you don't have one.
You say this happened after lifting the playfield, or do you mean it only does this only when the playfield is lifted?
A start would be to pull and reseat all the Jones plug connectors going to the motor board from the playfield, and the ones going to the light box (head). Do this with the game unplugged from the power source.

There are jones plugs for the pf into the bottom relay board and then pf into the head... probably pf to head.

Use two hands and wiggle them loose grasping the connector on each end.

If you have traced the wire to a single point thats the one to reseat. The others will be operating other components. In this case its likely your headed to a switch stack and stepper in the head and if you want to confirm a good connection thats the one.

Careful using continuity in an EM. Its often easier and always more reliable to jumper the suspected fault with a wire and a couple alligator clips. Just do it with game off and be sure your right or have spare fuses laying around... be prepared to power off or pull jumper if you lock something on like a coil etc...

If this is a new to you game its probably equally or more likely that your stepper unit is frozen. Do you hear any buzzing or mechanical/electrical sound when you close the switch? Did you confirm wires are not broken/loose on the switch? Start simple and mechanical with an EM thats new to you and has not been restored/gone through. Then when you have confirmed things that should move can move and confirmed wires exist and have solid connections- trace circuitry.

If its been working a while (10 games whatever) and then became intermittent and finally stopped I would think mechanical or poorly gapped switch.

Try cleaning the switch contacts. Cut up a non-glossy business card,
put a small amount of alcohol on it and slide it through the contacts
while applying light pressure. If you see black streaks on the paper
the contacts were dirty. Repeat till clean.
Steve

Yes, it does pull out. As I said, slowly wiggle it off with firm and steady pressure. They can break, so be careful.

Business cards generally don't clean EM contacts well. The better solution is a flexstone or a wire brush on a Dremel tool.

Not t throw a wet towel on the contact idea... but I think they said it suddenly stopped working after having raised the playfield and then also maybe that they fixed a few broken wires?? If thats the case- its a near certainty that you have another connection broken somewhere.

Did you make a mistake opening the game and rip a few connections out? Or were there loose or broken wires you fixed. Did you get them backwards?

What do you mean by above

No matter your skill level, get a schematic.

did you manually try to advance and decrement the ball unit? Moves freely? If yes then I'd pull out a jumper, find a red-white lead (24v supply) and jumper that to the lug of the coil on the ball unit to ensure it will move with juice applied. then find the coil lead at the jones plug, still decrement?

Mayne a good pic of your switch (like pinhead52 posted, but a little closer) would also be good for people to see... Just to see that the wires are on correctly/switch contacts are correct/not shorted to bracket or something odd like that.

That was his pic, he a posted it to facebook...

do you have alligator clip jumpers? invaluable for finding the open in a long chain of switches. You'll see there is a red-white lead on 1 side of the switch. Can you put a volt meter on that and then the black lead on the close by ball gate coil? Got 24v? Alternatively alligator jump (think of car boaster cables) from this red white lead to the non black lead of the ball gate, does it open? If it does then jumper to the other side of the contact to see if it decrements the ball unit. If not probably jones plug... but yes you need the diaqgram

sqhd (resized).JPG

Sorry bout that. Missed that point.

If I'm reading right - it worked, then playfield was lifted/put back and didn't....keep thinking gap got bent too far open, bent and shorted to something, broken wire, etc...

Im feeling slow tonite or something....

Is it me or is thay switch bent so that it is always shorted closed??

The extra blade between the two looks like it comes from outer blade and is bent up against inner blade making switch ALWAYS closed. No?

I could be seeing it wrong

What I am seeing, for example...in first pic at top of thread, the switch to the right has that little blade bracket bent to only touch outer leaf.... on the switch in question, it looks bent hard against other blade.

Hope that makes sense

For the switch to work you need 24v at the red-white lead. The volt meter from this lead to a black common would tell you whether you have the voltage there...If there is no voltage there then you need to back trace the red-white

The switch looks fine, the inner leaf is a separator. you can pull down on the rollover wire and see whether the contact closes. Or just press on the contact to momentarily close it.

The inner leaf is an insulating material? I was thinking it was metal like some other ones are. If it is paper etc, obviously it is fine; if it is metal, would look shorted to me.

it is metal... cant/shouldnt short the contact together.... you getting a buzz from the ball unit? did you burn out 1 of the coils? there's your mangled contact

To me, it looked like outer blade and middle got smashed in, but only outer got bent back out. Notice how bent out in the middle the outer one looks.

If that is prob, If it shorted on all the time, I wonder if it burned up a coil or blew a fuse.

Or would it just never register correctly if it doesnt go from open then to close?

I would make it look more like switch to right of it, yes. See how other one has that middle blade bent kind of like upside down V? It comes out then bends back against outer leaf for extra strength/spring. It touches outer blade right by soldered wires (the stack of little insulator pieces etc that have the 2 screws)...so, if that is bent in and touching other leaf, yes it would be as if switch is always closed.

I would make sure those 2 little screws are snug too...they can get loose. Then adjust each leafe section and clean contacts as needed.

Pinhead52 can maybe offer some more insite off hand as to which coil/fuse could be affected.

Best wishes in the repair and let us know!

For sure check the switch- you should be able to confirm no conductivity across switch when open pretty easily, and then confirm conductivity when closed- you'll get this- its a good place to start pinball troubleshooting- its right out in the open!

The Jones plug is probably corroded/stuck. You can in fact break them pulling them apart if your not careful. I would leave that dog sleeping for the moment, you may have to spray it with something like a screw release/penetrating oil. You can do this, but be careful and use it sparingly so as to not gunk up anything else and then clean it really well when you do get it apart. I tend to use a metal polish on these as some half assed attempt to provide at least a small barrier to oxidation. It may be that you do have a problem there, but follow through on the switch and jumpering first- then when you know where it problem is you can fix it.

I can tell you, I have- on more than one occasion, looked at a switch I identified in a schematic as being likely an issue- swore I had it right and 30-90 minutes later after trying 5 other things came back to the switch and figured out it was wrong- take your time and do NOT move on from a component you think is likely the problem until you understand how its supposed to work and have confirmed it to work.

get the diagram...

Don't tear into too many different things at once and stir more problems.

Lets start with this:

- Was the switch indeed shorted?
- Is it definitely not shorted now?

...maybe a new clear pic of what switch looks like now. Especially that center tab and the contact points.

I'll wait and see pic, but point is NOT wether machine works or has power...it is about fixing things one step at a time (versus shot gunning it and jumping all over).

So, lets get that switch adjusted, cleaned, and verified that it is in fact opening and closing properly; then we move on to next thing.

Could you tell that the center blade was in fact bent into other blade (we will call it left blade when looking at original pic)??

The focus on the "bad switch" is not on the blades but the screws under it...I honestlt can't tell wether it is shorted or not....too blurry for eyes, sorry.

See how center blade on good switch switch bends back to the right and only touches the right blade? Does bad switchs center blade ONLY touch right blade (I can not tell gap size between center blade and left blade. Sorry)??

Edit : When I said focus, I meant your camera is not focused closely on the blade/contact