Hi there. I am a new pinball table owner. I picked up a 1970 Bally Zip-A-Doo pinball machine recently and was hoping that I could get some advice on how to get it operational. It looks to be in very good shape. The seller says that it was his uncles and was in storage for about 20 years before he was given it and that to the best of his knowledge it worked when it was stored away. It was dissembled and he just bolted the legs and the back panel on and sold it as is. I now have it. I am a complete novice with pinball machines but I am pretty mechanically OK. I have refurbished 1940's slot machines but this is my first pinball table. This looks to have been rigged for free play. Someone removed the front lock from the change area and it appears that some wires were rigged there. I hooked the two connectors up for the rear score section and plugged it in and at first nothing came up. When I hit the left flipper all the lights come on. At one point I did something that got the flippers actually working but I have not been able to achieve that again. I guess I have a few questions:

A. Is there a boot sequence for these 1970 Bally machines?
B. Is there a place where one can find or buy schematics for these?
C. Is there a preferred troubleshooting method for these units?

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I am in Virginia Beach as an FYI and I can post some pictures if anyone would like to see them.

Thanks! Keith

I got it working. I think the problem was that there were no credits in the machine. So to get credits does one just spin the credit wheel behind the machine? Somehow I had played with a lever in the coin area and I think I got one credit to register. Then we spun that credit wheel up to 24. Now it is decreasing as we play. I am ordering the schematic and a replacement rubber kit for it today. Thanks for any input guys. I appreciate it. When these are set for free play how does one get the credit to register? Or is it that this is not really set for free play so I have to trick it to think there are credits in the machine?