So.... I found a Tales of the Arabian Nights game a couple weeks ago on Pinside, drove the long drive to buy it and commenced repairing things. It played but the spiral ramp diverter coil was burned and froze and it almost looked like someone used a fire extinguisher on that spot. Ramp was garbage anyway so I got all those new parts, took it all apart and cleaned the playfield real good. I should mention that the quick test said “ramp diverter broke“, and “magnet broke”. It also said check two switches that I resoldered, and they were fine. (Oh and genie magnet hole broke, but it works fine). Got it all together and found that the magnet was just unplugged, so... everything worked great for two days. Only fault listed now was genie hole broke, and it wasn’t.
Today I was changing some backglass lights with the machine on and suddenly smoke and hissing from the power board, as one of large capacitors swelled and split...
WHY???! Now i don’t want to change anything out without knowing the cause, and I should mention that it’s a newer or at least not original board...
Can someone please advise me on where to begin?? Thanks!

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LTG Alright I will. I’m not familiar enough with what happened yet to see if the magnet circuit would have reason to melt that cap...?

Astill... alright I could attempt to do that, but is that probable cause though? thanks!

Zaza okay I’ll do that! Do you mean flasher bulb sockets located near any and all coils then? could I have triggered it by changing bulbs it that moment?

Okay thanks to all! Thanks Dumbass! Zaza, ... unfortunately it will have to wait for me to get to taking any checks. Especially if I have to take out diodes to check them?? Oh and sorry I see that I may have inadvertently swiped your player initials “ZAZ”.! Been using it for years since my daughter for some reason, changed Dad to Zaz

No board plugs had been disconnected since I’ve had it ..
Thanks Pin Guy!! I’ll post what I find when I’ve investigated it all

I’ve just read the PinWiki link above and it mentions a potential cause being a shorted flipper coil diode... I had just rebuilt them and had even more recent to the melting beginning, adjusted them. So maybe it’s that feeding back higher voltage or is that a different capacitor??

Not at all!! I will take photos for sure! I guess I thought you meant I may have crossed them just previous to the melting! We played about 50 games in three days use . I have some knowledge even to component level (old navy equipment) but certainly not enough to know what so many of you pin guys do!

Here’s some shots of connections
Also any thoughts on why the duct tape on those ic chips on the other board? Seems like they’d be warm ...

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I read quite a bit of that post thanks! I should definitely put the diode on the large resistor before it’s over. I played at least fifty games after I “fixed it” and hadn’t disconnected any cables. So I’d assume that if they were crossed that would immediately blow the cap, or very soon after?? I had to tighten the bats on the flippers that I’d done a rebuild on, and I’m hoping I may have bent a diode to short on the coil!? Haven’t checked yet, but I played one long game after I adjusted the bats and then ten minutes later while looking in the box it melted.

There’s a plug pushed on j34 with no wires attached. The plug on j117 has just that one red/wht wire . The single red/white wire is certainly long enough to reach j34, but if it’s the wrong jack and voltage.... would it play so many games plugged this way?
At least 50 games played since Tuesday.
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Zaza!! Thanks so much!! and I’m just wanting to learn but how did it last so long this way?

RCA1 yes it is, and might have a bearing on the game acting up?! I mean look at the Sultan on the backglass!!
ZAZA! Thank you so much! I’ll be carefully removing board today to decide if my old micro/miniature circuit board soldering and repair techniques are adequate to do myself, it’s been 40 years ago I was trained on that.
So that new coil I put in the diverter ramp would probably have torched soon?
Thanks again to ALL YOU GUYS!
I’ll let you know what happens next.

Slochar and mrclean two thumbs up!!

Argh!!! Now my initial quest for said capacitor 10,000uf 25v radial is turning up a bunch of blanks!
Can someone lead me to a parts supplier for such things??
Thanks

Here’s the closest thing I can find, not sure about 35v instead of 25v or if it physically fits the board...?

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Thanks Edward472 Got it !

Sorry to not have responded for so long, I had some health issues had to deal with..
Thanks for all the help, the TOTAN is up and kicking butt after receiving the replacement capacitor, soldering it in place,
and following ZAZA's catch, connecting the plug at J134 instead of J117 it had been plugged into.