Greetings fellow Pin-Ballers,
I'm a little new to this. I enjoy a good game of pinball, and grew up around the electro-mechanical games. I never thought I'd actually *own* a pinball machine, but I've fallen into a deal I couldn't refuse: A free pinball machine! All it cost me getting a few brothers-in-law to assist with it's relocation. I figure that'll be some burgers and some cold drinks once it's up and running.
All said and told, I'm the excited owner of a 1973 Bally Monte Carlo (#monte-carlo-bally-1973). I'm not an expert at grading, but I can say that the condition of the cabinet is pretty gosh darn good for a 49 year old game that has over 25,000 plays on it. The backbox and glass are in equal condition. I've not noted any major problems there.
I've spent the past week watching some YouTube videos about machine upkeep from the likes of PinballHelp, and have begun Retro Gaming with Hopper's series detailing his tear down and restore of another 1973 Bally Monte Carlo.
The playfield is dusty/dirty. I know that some of the "dirt" on the field is old wax, as it's small bits of white material. The bumpers are mostly dry-rotted and need to be replaced as well. I know that I can clean up the playfield with some cleaning wax, and then rewax the field. These jobs, I think I can handle.
The jobs I don't think I can't handle on my own, are as follows. I'm trying to describe in detail what is happening, so that others more experienced than me can make suggestions. I appreciate any and all advice. Here's my notes:
1. When I plug in the game and turn the switch to on, nothing happens. No lights, no sounds. The machine has no coinslots, only a credit button. When I push the button one of two things happen:
A. The lights on the backboard come on. The Game Over light in the lower right corner usually is glowing. Lots of noises come from the backboard as the score resets to 0, and some noises come from below the playfield but the ball is not popped out.
B. The same thing as above but the ball does pop out. A full game of 5 balls can usually be played (though sometimes only 2 or 3 balls are allowed before Game Over flashes.
It's hit or miss if A or B happens, though if a ball does pop out usually you can play the full game, and press the credit button again for a new game.
2. If the ball does pop out, much of the game still works and responds. I took off the top glass, and was able to press all of the buttons, the flippers work, the bumpers respond to the ball and scoring appears to work as well. The only thing of note is that the playfield lights do not come on.
3. The machine came with original documentation. A circuit diagram was included and one of the previous owners had circled the Ball Count Unit Reset Solenoid C-28-1100. Not sure if the issues listed above would be explained if this solenoid is bad. Not sure how to locate it either . . . I know what capacitors look like, but my 1990's high school electronics class didn't cover solenoids.
I've gone as far as to get out a voltmeter and confirm that the transformer is outputting the voltage as marked on the card inside of the machine, which it does. After that my knowledge of electronics is falling a little short (it's been 20+ years since high school electronics).
I'm really excited to own this machine and have the opportunity to fix it up and get it working. I did create a shared Google Folder with some images in it (link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-OSszsdjdlz-BGDuDTD-OoTxl70huxvQ?usp=sharing)