My Ship Ahoy stopped playing and scoring in the middle of a game and did not eject the ball after draining. After restarting the power, the coinslot and backbox graphics, scorebox, ball number and Tilt, but not the Game Over, lights were lit. Trying to start a new game did none of the usual things, like resetting the ball count, zeroing the scoring reels, spinning the motor, lighting the playfield, ejecting the ball, activating the flippers, etc. With the playfield up, all of the fuses and voltages seemed fine and the only things I saw happen with a power restart were the TX Tilt relay and coin slot coil energizing. I gave up, made dinner then went back to check everything I could think of, but nothing seemed wrong. Even though the top motor pin was under one of the three level D switches, I decided to spin the motor a third turn to put the pin under the next switch. When I turned on the power, the machine started right up and played perfectly thereafter.

Can someone explain what might have happened?

Thanks,
Jeff

When I had issues with the AX relay, the motor kept spinning and the machine reset would not complete. In this event, it does seem like the motor pin was not in the home position, but visually did appear to be directly under one of the three D switches. Also, I would have thought that if the motor had somehow stopped out of the home position, either a repower or new game start would cause it to advance and reset. Thanks, Jeff.

I appreciate your explanation though doubt I’ll be correcting you about anything anytime soon. I don’t know what made me even think to try turning the motor, other than I happened to be looking at it after poking around and finding nothing for an hour. If I get curious, I may try your suggestion, otherwise just keep it in all in mind in case it happens again then start with the motor.