I picked up a non-working EM version from an estate sale last week and after a few days, I have now have it coining up and starting 1, 2, 3, and 4 player games (my first EM!). I can play games, but I've got a pretty good punch list to get through before I claim it 100% working.

Question for the group: my Night Rider has a steel undercarriage. In all of the pictures I've seen online of the EM and SS versions of NR, I've not seen this undercarriage. I'm assuming it's there to protect / deter breaking into the machine from the bottom to steal the cash box. I make that assumption because the floor itself is still in good shape, i.e. this is not a repair job. I'm just curious if any knows if Bally did this at the factory for some units or as an option, or was this more likely an operator who did this himself. It's very clean-looking and fits well...this isn't a hack job. Holes had to be drilled through the cabinet, tho, for the bolts (secured by nuts on the inside of the cabinet).

After I get this pin working 100%, I'll be deciding if I'm going to take the refurb further by repairing some cabinet dings and re-stenciling. If I do that, I'll likely be filling in the cabinet holes drilled out for that steel undercarriage and not reinstalling it. I don't like the way it obscures the cabinet artwork, and this pin won't be routed (at least by me, anyway).

Do any of you guys with Night Rider have this steel undercarriage? Is it factory?

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It covers the entire bottom. From the inside of the cabinet, the wood floor appears strong and undamaged. I'll know for sure about the exterior floor when I do a full tear down, but that won't be until spring or so.

Couple of rules / behavior questions for the Night Rider owners. Picked up that non-working EM NR above a month or so ago and now have it to point where just about everything is working. Now I'm paying closer attention to the scoring/rules.

On my NR, the bonus count never goes advances past 15,000. The shots still score, but the bonus count stops at 15,000. Is this normal behavior or do I have something new to debug? Don't pay attention to the dirt and grime - I'll do a full tear down and shop job once I get everything working reliably:

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Second thing that's odd that I just noticed today - sometimes (randomly on any score value) the scoring from the saucer does not score. You get the bonus advancement and the ball ejection, but not the score. Here's a quick video of what I'm talking about:

First few seconds show that with the 1000 score selected, you get no score (no chimes) but the bonus advances (I do this twice). I then move it to the 50 score, and you can here the chimes of it scoring and bonus advancing (I do this once). I then move it back to 1000 score, and you can hear the chimes of it scoring and bonus advancing (I do this three times).

This doesn't just happen on the 1000 score....I've experienced this on each of the saucer score values at one time or another. This isn't normal behavior, is it? There is something likely wrong with the Top Hole Unit assembly I'm guessing? I had to replace a fried coil and a melted plunger assembly in the Top Hole Unit as part of the punch list to get this pin flipping...perhaps something else is compromised with it?

Issue Above: scoring with saucer is sometimes skipped (but bonus advances) is definitely not normal. I decided to take apart the Top Hole Unit assembly to inspect it and lo and behold, I found an open trace on the scoring PCB - that's gotta be the issue:

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So before I go through the trouble of unsoldering this PCB from the wire harness so I can get it on my bench to repair the open trace and clean up the rest of the traces, does anyone know if these PCBs are obtainable from anywhere (I'll probably reach out to Steve at Pinball Resource)? If they're around and not too expensive, I'd like to just replace the PCB as long as I have this thing apart.

Second question - I'm assuming the white jumper wires to get around the screw holes is factory? It's exactly the same on both the scoring PCB and the lamp PCB in this Top Hole Unit assembly, and the age appearance of the jumper wires look to be the same as the rest of the wires in the pin.

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Let's fix a broken/lifted trace! I'm not going to win any soldering awards, but this trace "repair" now ohm's out from the contact pad to the wire just fine, and there's enough clearance for the contact wiper to rotate. Got other things on my To Do list today so hopefully I can get back to this soon, reassemble, and re-test that saucer scoring issue.

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Does anyone have a clear photo of the card by the arrow of the EM version of the playfield (I grabbed this off of the IPDB)? I just finished a playfield swap on a new CPR Night Rider and one of the last steps before I move on to restoring the cabinet is reproducing the under-playfield cards. I have all of the other cards on my original playfield, cabinet, and backbox but this one is missing on mine. Thanks in advance....

Playfield Underside2 (resized).jpg

Way cool - this helps a ton. Thank you!

I'm going to clean up the EM board in my Night Rider.....anyone know what kind of label went by the big red arrow (mine seems to have been ripped out)? The stapled remnants look pink, probably was red, maybe a voltage warning since it's near the transformer?

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Here's a Before and After:

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I noticed on the EM Night Rider cabinet that there are thru-bolts used to mount the Tilt Board and Chime Box.....the bolts go all the way thru the cabinet and the boards are secured on the inside with wing nuts. They didn't seem to do this on the SS Night Rider cabinet and opted for the standard wood screws from the inside to secure the boards.

I'm thinking of filling in these holes and mounting the boards to the cabinet interior like the SS version so the bolt heads aren't visible in the cabinet artwork. I'm making enough cosmetic changes in this restoration that I'm not that hung up on originality when it comes to those bolts.

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Any owners out there of the EM version of Night Rider who can help with a scoring issue? I'm in the process of restoring my machine - playfield swap complete and the cabinet EM board, tilt board, and chime box (along with all of the playfield mechs) have all been cleaned and refreshed. While I wait for a string of decent weather to work on repairing and repainting the cabinet, I'm making sure the machine works while I have it spread out on my workspace.
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I've fixed a number of electrical and scoring issues along the way over the last few weeks, and I think I'm down to my last one: a scoring issue with the Drop Target banks. In case anyone has suggestions on where to start, here's the issue:

1 - Right Bank will reset when its 5 targets are down without waiting for the 5 targets on the Left Bank to be down despite both plugs being set to Conservative. 3000 points are awarded, and the SPECIAL lamp gets lit.

2 - Left Bank will not reset when its 5 targets are down (as expected when both plugs are set to Conservative for the first time the set is downed at the start of a new ball). When the targets are downed in the Right Bank, both banks are reset and 3000 points are scored (instead of 6000), and the SPECIAL lamp gets lit.

It's as if for the right bank, the Drop Target Adjustment plug is being interpreted as Liberal even tho it's in the Conservative setting.
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I've checked the blades for all of the switches in the Drop Target, Drop Target Reset, and Total Sequence relays and they all look good - none are stuck closed or shorted for Normally Open, and none are gapped for Normally Closed. Blade contacts were cleaned and continuity confirmed with my MM.

I'm going to stare more at the Drop Target later today and trace the wires with my MM from the Drop Target Adjustment and Right and Left Lane Adjustment plugs and make sure I've got connections where there are supposed to be connections. After that....I'm not quite sure where to go next.
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Thanks in advance for any help you can provide....

OMG - 5 minutes after I made that post above, I figured it out. And there's a reason why the right bank was behaving like it was set to Liberal. Because it was, and it was my fault.

Weeks ago I made reproduction labels for the Jones plugs, including the ones on the playfield underside. The original for the LEFT AND RIGHT OUT ADJUSTMENT was still on my original playfield, so that was easy to copy. The original for the DROP TARGET ADJUSTMENT was missing from my playfield, so I reproduced it based on the photos cp1610 provided earlier but I did not pay attention to the LIB-CONS legend. ASSUMING consistency in positioning, and using the LEFT AND RIGHT OUT ADJUSTMENT as a guide for LIB being on the left and CONS being on the right, I did the same for the DROP TARGET ADJUSTMENT label. Nope. DROP TARGET ADJUSTMENT is CONS on the left and LIB on the right. Can't believe I missed that.

Moved the plug over, and the damn thing is now behaving and scoring like it should. I don't know whether I'm relieved that the fix was so simple, or mad that the problem was caused by my lack of due diligence in making the labels and following my assumptions. Actually, feeling both.

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Nice job. Do you have a restoration thread on your EM NR project?

Hitting a drop target is supposed to advance the bonus. This is from my EM manual, but the SS scoring should be the same:

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I'm putting my EM Night Rider through it's paces after finishing the restore to establish reliability, stability, and playability. I've got a nice punch list started, and this issue is at the top. Hoping one of you has run into this and have suggestions for what you did to remedy it. I'd imagine this issue is likely applicable to any pin.

Every once in a while, I'd say every 2 games out of 10, the sling kicker arm (both sides have done this) will escape out from behind the rubber. When this happens, about half of the time one or both of the sling switches will get stuck and engaged as both leaves are forced together. I quickly have to cut power before anything burns up and remedy the situation. One time I wasn't quick enough and one of the switches got so hot, the two leaves melted and fused together.

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All leaf switches are brand new. Coils are new and the correct part number. Posts are new and the same height and cutouts (for the rubber positioning) as the originals. The kicker arms are original. Rubber set is new and I've confirmed the ones for the slings are the correct size, but they do seem kinda springy (which makes me wonder if that is contributing to the kicker arm getting to the outside of the rubber). Also - while the kicker arms are original, they don't look like any kicker arms I've seen on Night Rider....usually they're the ones with the plastic tips (both SS and EM). I've come to learn than my EM NR is an earlier production run, so maybe Bally switched these out at some point in manufacturing.

Any of you guys experience this? No way I can trust this machine to be played by the family yet when I'm not around.

Yep, that's the one I usually see. I wonder if the ones in my EM NR were found to be prone to the very issue I'm seeing, and Bally changed them somewhere down the line.

These look like the ones in my EM NR: https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/A-3459

These with the white plastic cap with protruding lip look like what I need, but they're out of stock at Marcos: https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/A-3459-1

Will have to look around...

FYI in case you're in the market - I've decided to let my award-winning Night Rider go (along with a couple of other restorations) in order to fund a new project.

Machine - For Sale

For Sale: 1976 Bally Night Rider EM Archived

Fully restored (full original status) - “The restoration of this award winning 47 year old EM pinball machine is a mix of new and original parts. This Night Rider recently took home three awards at the 2023 Rocky Mountain...”

2023-10-08

Broomfield, CO

Mathazar

4,250 (Firm)

Archived after: 24 days

Viewed: 223 times

Status: Didn't sell to Pinsider

I probably played 500-600 games on my NR EM after restoring it. I consider myself an above-average player, and I rolled it maybe 10 times (all on 5-ball settings). Never was able to roll it on a 3-ball setting. The game can really be brutal, in a good (challenging) way. I took it to the Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown back in October and it got over 400 public plays on a 5-ball setting....no one rolled it, and I know of several really good (ranked) players who tried.

Here's some game play on my NR EM....worked really hard, but pulled out only 50K (on a 3-ball setting).

EDIT: I posted this a couple hours ago but apparently I haven't watched my own video in a while. I just watched it and I rolled it on a 3-ball setting to 151K. Can't believe I forgot about that. Has to be the only time I rolled it on a 3-ball setting (I did get an extra ball along the way) and I managed to capture it on video, lol.