I'm working on my son-in-law's Space Mission. The goal is to get it up and working so my two grandsons can grow up playing pinball. The machine has lots of problems that I can't resolve so far. So I will be posting a bunch here about it.

Problem #1. The Coin Door Mechanism won't let the quarters drop down into the coin box. Instead the quarters always get diverted to the coin return slot in the coin door.

I messed with this last night and couldn't figure it out. I saw how the coin mechanisms are spring loaded and open up to one side. I couldn't figure out if there was a way to divert the quarters down to the coin box so they would activate the little wire credit switches.

On the outside of the coin door there is a coin release button mechanism that is supposed to help you get your quarters back to the coin return slot. When I press on the button I see that a lever presses down on a bar that pushes some levers. It seemed to be working fine and not stuck in the down position.

When I activate the wire credit switch that the quarters would move, the credit wheel adds a credit....so that part is good electrically.

Any advice. I'll post a few photos tonight.

Ah, that makes sense. I wasn't even thinking about the coil not pulling in on the coin door. Thanks Xenon75. I'll check that out to be sure. I think the machine was on because I could move the wire switch with my finger and add credits to the credit unit and the knocker would go off.

I'm also not sure if I am missing some hardware from the coin door/coin mechanisms. I'll post photos.

Thanks Mnrocketry. Awesome information. I'll check the coin mech coils on the coin door. I bet they were not working.

Looks like one of the coin door coils has been removed and the other one is not activating. So I guess that explains why the quarters always end up in the coin return slot.

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I jumpered voltage to the coin door lockout coil and it drew in. When the coin door lockout coil was energized, the credit button would start a game.

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Problem was the bottom switches on the score motor index cam were not touching. For some reason there was fish tape between the switches. Reconfigured the switch stack and the coin lockout solenoid powers in when the game is turned on and the credit button starts a game and adds players.

Awesome! It’s working great now that the switch on the index score motor cam is closed.

That’s good to hear that I’m not missing a coin lockout solenoid. It was looking like there was only 1, so I was a little confused.