Hmmm, I'm not sure where I should put my leads ...

Yeah, I read 0 on TP4 (various values on the others).

So, with still one lead to the ground, I read a voltage only on one side (lower) of the 20A fuse clip.

Is there a way to determine which is the culprit ?
Can a fuse clip go bad all of a sudden ?
On the other hand, there's still resistance on the fuse.

Alright, I take it back, the fuse opened in half when I tried to remove it, so I guess that one's bad ...

Fluctuating values ? It must have been what I read at a glance and mistook it for a solid resistance value. Anyways, the fuse is properly broken now that I snapped it in half.

Oh man, I cross my fingers now that all my future issues will be fixed with a fuse replacement.

Getting on it right away !

By the way, I'll put on my will that if I should die of insanity because of this machine, I'll be buried with it. So you guys can forget about your evil schemes to put your hands on my precious Nine Ball. You'll never get it !

I actually already read your guide some time ago vid, and made a few updates on my rectifier board (new header pins and connectors, new varistor, fresh thermal paste). But what I mainly got from the long list of things you advocate to do, is that if that board really gives me trouble, I'll buy a new one.

Edit : Scrap all that !

I deleted my previous (long) message because in the end, it is a stupid mechanical problem.

The big left target bank fails at pulling up all the targets when most of them are down. But when the playfield is in service position (vertical, slightly upside down), all is fine. Gravity, right ?

I did a thorough cleaning of the mechanism a couple of month ago because it was bathing in soot (from all the coils in there I guess). I believe adding any kind of lubricant inside a pinball machine is not recommended. Besides, all of the moving parts in there are fairly loose.

Any thoughts on that ?

I'll bump the thread with an additional issue (but please have a look at the previous post) :

The pinball throws a ball in the shooter lane while one is already in play. But it does it only once per new ball. If I drain the ball in play and use the given one, the machine won't give me an other one. Then on the next ball, it does it again.

I spent some time a month ago adjusting the switches to rule out this cause, and they are properly adjusted, as far as I can tell. I didn't dismantle the little block containing the two switches under the central drain hole, but they click fine when balls sit on it, and I assume the inside is well protected from dust.

The other regular switches contacts were dirty and I couldn't clean them with just rubbing paper between the close contacts, so I used my nails to scrap them. Could I have damaged and rendered them unreliable ?

I don't get how this test mode works. The manual says that if a switch is closed, it's number will flash on the player score display and remain so until the thing is fixed. Well, when my machine fails at pushing up the left drop targets after pulling them down during the test (see other issue on post #269), letting quite a few switches closed, nothing unusual is notified on the player score display ...

I'll play dumb but I'm not sure I'm following you. The manual doesn't detail how to go specifically into switch test mode. It is implied that after pressing the self-test button, the machine goes into the different modes one after the other. I can attest that there's a mode going on (allegedly the switch test one) after the solenoids test and before it does the solenoids test again. If so, it just goes too fast, as I exit the solenoid test and enter the switch test with all the left bank targets down and their switches closed (because of the other unresolved issue), then back to solenoids test mode 10 seconds later. Or am I missing something ?

It should also be noted again that my self-test button doesn't work and I have to short the J3 pin 1 in order to initiate the self-test.

Can I short 5 times in a row the J3 pin 1 to enter the switch test mode, or do I necessarily have to redo the connector ?

By the way, I AM dumb because it does say in the manual how to enter the switch test mode, as you showed me.

I have fixed the "extra" ball issue.

The switch test allowed me to see that the shooter lane switch did not register when I plunged the ball as soon as it is fed into the lane, as I enjoy rapidly shooting the ball just as it arrives in the shooter lane. The machine then give another ball a few seconds later, thinking something prevented the ball to reach the shooter lane.

It was tricky to see the issue since the switch registers if the ball sits just half a second in the lane. I tightened the gap of the switch to be more reactive, but just letting the ball sit in the lane for an instant before plunging will do the trick no matter what.

Thanks Superchicken for your valuable input. Now, if anybody has any idea about the gamebraking problem I detailed in post #269, I'll be glad to hear it, because I assuredly don't know what to do ...

My targets are originals, as far as I can tell.

Besides, when the bank fails at reseting (when there's 5, 6 or more targets down), the targets don't lift for even a mm. There's just a tremor throughout the targets.

I may have an idea of the cause, but I didn't think much of it because I got the machine like that, and after getting it running, it worked well for a couple of weeks. I probably should have mentioned it earlier, and I realise now it might be a facepalm moment for some, but here we go :

Big coil.jpg

As you can see, there's no sleeve inside the coil, and there's an indent on the coil shaft from the arm of the rod that goes into the shaft. Could it weaken the coil ?

If the coil was cooked or had a bad transistor, it would not work at all. But it works fine and vigorously up until about a couple of targets are left standing up. I'm talking about any combination of targets. There's no worn tab and any target can be pulled up, by the coil or by hand, and sits fine on it's tab.

For example, the bank could start to tremor but not reset when only targets 1 and 4 are still up, or only 2 and 7 still up, or just target 8 still up, but have no issue with any of those targets if three, four, or more targets, in any configuration, are still up.

My thought was that the magnetic field created in the coil is weaker by the damaged sleeve and has a harder time "grabbing" the tip of the rod in that area of the sleeve when the load becomes too important.

I switched the damaged sleeve with the one that was on one of the smaller targets bank, and it fixed the problem ! Except that now the smaller targets bank is the one having the issue, but now I know what the deal is and I'm kind of relieved. I just have to buy a new sleeve to replace the damaged one.

Stay tuned for the next (inevitable) problem on the same bat-time, same bat-channel !

My parents bought for my birthday 3 month ago a reproduction backglass for my Nine Ball. While the reproduction is rather good, it doesn't have the same colors (darker blue, whites that appear more grey and plain) and in general doesn't fit as well as the original on the machine.

My original backglass lost some paint, especially in the yellows, hence the reason why I wanted a reproduction, but I'm thinking of putting it back, with less lights on the back, in particular where the paint is gone. I'd also like to put lights that produce less heat, to avoid furthering the paint loss (the backglass is not flaking, apart from what is already gone, but I believe heat would not do good).

I know I can put 47 type bulbs instead of the 44, but can I also put leds ? From what I understand, they flicker unless some modification is done to the lamp driver on some card, but is it also the case for the lamps in the backbox ? I'd rather keep it simple.

Thanks for the link Superchicken, but I'd rather buy them them in France to avoid insane shipping costs.
This retailer sells a few types (and the coil sleeves I need):
http://www.ecflipp.fr/fr/23-leds?
But he has only the filtered 44 type in stock in white. I believe they'll be fine ...

I may end up making an order from Bay Area Amusement because they're the only one to have the loop bullseye drop target that is missing from my machine, and those damn small rivets I can't seem to find anywhere.. They also sell various leds :
http://bayareaamusements.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=LBL
In case the leds from the french retailer are not the most suited ones, which ones from BAA would better suit the the back of the backglass ?

Yeah, I read this thread yesterday, which prompted me to consider leds for my backglass. I think I won't bother with an adapter for a few bulbs. If leds don't work, I'll put regular incandescent 47 types bulbs in.