Just an FYI, pinrepair.com indicates typical in-home repairs cost $50-300 in the Detroit area while pinballvegas.com indicates the average cost is $75-300 in Clark County, Nevada. I know neither can come to you to repair as you are out of their service area, but at least you have ballpark pricing.

check your score reels. make sure they are all resetting to 0 first. Easiest thing to check

Check to see if the coil is bad or a wire fell off it. You can put your multi meter on ohm and compare the coil to the others to determine if it's shorted.

Check the switches on the 10's score reel - going by memory, once the 10's is at zero, the machine sets the 100's to zero, then the thousands, etc. Your machine probably has the score motor running continuously? Likely the machine is not seeing all the score reels at zero,

Manually set all score reels to zero and turn on the machine, then try to start a game. What happens?

I’m still leaning toward bad switch on 10s reel. Did you check switch closure with a meter? They can look closed visually but not be closed electrically.

yup, the game doesn't know that reel is at 0. I bet one the switches is closed that shouldn't be, or open when it shouldn't be. Should be 2 maybe 3 switches in a stack.

Time to pull out jumpers and jump the zero position switches, one at a time, starting with the ones reel and working your way up. Hopefully, you have a schematic to see which ones are zero position.

When you did this -- you say the "wheels spin" -- do they all stop at zero?? And the motor stops running? All 3 switches must be open at the zero position for the motor to stop running.

(From Pinrepair.com)
1960s & 1970s Gottlieb Start-Up Sequence.
Games with score reels.
1. Inserting a coin or pressing the coin door start button (Gottlieb calls this the "replay" button) activates the "S" (start) relay. The start relay will lock on from its own switch and a score motor switch.
2. The "S" relay will energize the main hold relay to illuminate the game (if this is the first game after power-on).
3. The "S" relay will start the score motor running.
4. The "S" relay and the score motor increment the total play meter.
5. The "SB" relay (the secondary start relay) is activated through the score motor. The "SB" relay energizes the reset relays ("Z1" and "Z2"). If a single or two player game, there may be only a "Z" relay.
6. The "Z2" relay will reset the player 3 and 4 score reels to zero through the score relays (4 player games only). The "Z1" or "Z" relay will reset the player 1 (and player 2 if present) score reels to zero through the score relays.
7. The "SB" relay resets the player unit through the score motor.
8. The "U" relay resets the reset bank (or Ax, Bx, relays on 1975 and later multi-player games and Ax on single players) through the score motor. It also resets the bonus unit or drop target banks (if the game has these).
9. On multi-player games, inserting more coins or pressing the coin door start button activates the "PBx" relay, through the score motor. The "x" represents the player number (from two to four).
10. If the ball is in the outhole, the "O" relay activates. The "O" relay, through the score motor and a switch on relay "XB", will kick the ball to the shooter lane. Note: the "O" relay will not activate unless the bonus unit (if the game has one) is reset to zero (there is a bonus unit zero position switch).
11. When the ball re-enters the outhole after game play, the "P" relay kicks the ball back to the shooter lane. Switches on the "XB", "ZB", "P" relays and some score motor switches advances the player unit (if present) and player relays ("PBx").

With power off, adjust all of your score reels to something other than zero. Power up, try to start a game. Do all the score reels go to zero? If so, and the score motor is still running, look at the "Z" relay(s) while the motor is still running. Is/are it/they still energized?

I am getting to a point where I can't help much without a schematic. I'm not even sure if the score reset relays are labeled "Z" in this machine. The only machine I have close to that era is a Sing a Long, and it does not have any relays labeled "Z". Do you have a schematic?

Part of owning a machine is the learning curve required to fix them when something is wrong. I know its frustrating, but once you repair one and get it going, there a large feeling of satisfaction. Plus, you can report what you found and did to fix it, and possibly help the next person with the same problem. Hang in there, the problem will be solved!

If the first player 100s reel doesn't move at all when you start the game, then the runout switch could be open. It's one of three switches on the reel, and it should be closed at every position, except zero. It's the switch which tells the game "I'm not at zero, so keep sending me pulses from the score motor until I am".

https://gottliebpin.com/archive/GTB-Ref/195/gtb-pb195-cab.jpg
https://gottliebpin.com/archive/GTB-Ref/195/gtb-pb195-backbox.jpg

This should show you where the relays are located. This is from Pinball Resource website.

Maybe Steve Fury’s video on gottlieb reset can help. https://rumble.com/vtu4f3-1971-1976-gottlieb-pinball-4-player-reset-sequence-animation.html