Well, it is not reaching the state it wants to be in to start. The usual culprit is the score reels not going to zero position. There should be leaf switches saying they are zero.

Search around, you will find lots of material on this.

Try to isolate. Unplug coin door in case a coin switch or pinched wire there is the cause. Then the PF etc.

Easiest way to find the problem would be to look on the schematic to see what switches send power to the score motor. Check the following relays and switches:

25 cent coin switch
25 cent relay
10 cent relay
Eject relay
Bonus reset relay
300 relay
Coin relay
Outhole relay
Reset relay
Score motor switch IND - D

Try puttin a little finger pressure on the score motor disk with it running, you may have a stop blade bent/broken???
if not, you will need to go through it all again and rechk all the switches. it usually takes goin through a machine twice to get all the bugs out.

yup, sure is...WD-40, then start a game! POOFF!!!!! bugs all gone!
Remember, 105% possible on the reactor... but not recommended.

Hi fotoboy +
my theory is (JPG red lines): Your Coin-Relay stays pulled - Score-Motor-Switch-5A is moved by the turning of the motor - but the upper part of the switch does NOT open. Sneak-in / around the upmost-blade a lace -> start a game -> Your phemomena begins -> gently pull upwards on the lace at the time the follower plunges into the "valley on Nylon-Wheel-5" -> You OPEN this switch - do we have luck ?

What happens in a functioning pin - "light-green": the Reset-Relay gets activated and keeps-on pulling until all Score-Reels reach "Zero-Position". "dark-green": Through pulling Coin-Relay and pulling Reset-Relay the SCM-1A does actuate the Reset-Coils on Coin-Unit and Player-Unit. "light-blue": The pulling Coin-Relay lets the Motor run. "dark-blue": You push the Replay-Button -> Replay-Relay gets activated -> "violet" -> Coin-Relay (a better word would be: Start-Relay) starts pulling and keeps-on pulling until SCM-5A opens.
"orange question marks" - If there are several faults together happening: Your phenomena could be activated through another wiring - BUT Player-Reset-Relay AND Reset-Relay would have to be faulty. Greetings Rolf

0Cabaret-Work1_(resized).jpg

Well, you did say you are a semi-newb and that you rebuilt the score reels. That's alot of score reels! Also, another indicator here is that the motor never stops once a game is started. That tells me the machine thinks it's not fully reset, and is running it's motor trying to complete the reset.

At the beginning of a game, the last job the machine needs to do is reset the score reels, so if everything but the score motor stops when the reels reach "0", each reel will need another look-see. There are 3, (I think), leaf switches next to each reel. You can peek in between each reel and check each switch without even removing the reels from their housing. All switches should be open.

It's a very common problem, especially after having worked on the reels. You need to be certain each reel is OK before moving on to other causes. Several newbs think that since the score reel made it to "0" it is OK.......That is not the case.

After you solve this and are in a happy place, please post some pics, that game looks really nice

>I also bypassed the forever buzzing lock relay

You may have created your current problem by "solving" this one.

Everything has to be reset to zero or one depending on what it is to start a game. The score motor will continue to run to try and make that happen until everything is reset. Look at the backglass and see if all scores are at zero, player up is at one, ball in play is reset to one, etc. Whichever one is not is the culprit.