I lost my playfield scoring the other day on Sure Shot . Not all of it, but most.

Game starts fine, lights come on for inserts and GI, pop bumpers work, saucers will kick the ball out like they are supposed to. With the exception of the slingshots though, none of the switches are registering in the score. The slings score 10 points and you can hear the chimes working, but nothing else scores anymore.

Switches seem to all still work such that when you roll over a billiards ball number, it lights up the corresponding one in the rack. It doesn't give you points during the game and no chimes go off, yet at the end of the ball bonus, it gives you the 1,000 points per lit ball. So that part works still.

It seems intermittent too, like it will sometimes start a game and the playfield scoring still works, but then part way through ball one it stops.

I'm not particularly familiar with how the big scoring wheel contraption underneath the playfield works, but I presume this is where my problem is? Would some or a few of the leaf switch contacts on this wheel being dirty cause this? Any other areas to focus on to see if I can spot the problem? I don't think it's a wire that came loose or I would expect to see this problem all the time and the scoring to never work.

Thank you for the suggestions. I don't have an answer, yet, to those but will once I look!!

Ok, I think I may be getting somewhere.

I tugged on all the black wires on the underside of the playfield that I could see and they all seemed secure.

I got looking closer at the relays and mechanisms on the bottom of the cabinet, also seeing if anything was obviously loose or disconnected.

What I found was this single quick connect (circled in green in the photo) with the blue wire going from the connector to what looks like a relay or small winding attached to the scoring disc. The blue wire looks like it was not factory and perhaps someone replaced it years ago? The little peg end that inserts into the connector piece mounted to the floor of the cabinet is not very snug. You can lift it up and out pretty easily as well as rotate it.

I unscrewed the connector from the wood and got a closer look at it. The female end that this peg goes in is a little rusty/corroded and perhaps a little too wide. You can pinch the sides a little closer together to make better contact and this is what I did. Put everything back as it was and started a new game. My scoring returned, if only for a portion of the first ball or two. Then it went back to no scoring during play and only grabbing the bonus points (slingshots still counted the entire time).

I will go back in and take this connector out again and clean it up better with some sand paper until I know the peg is held more firmly in place. Then try another game and go from there.

Sure Shot poor connection no scoring (resized).jpg