Do all the targets reset when you turn on the game?

Check your outhole and trough switches. When the ball is sitting in the outhole, that switch should be closed.

Broken coil wire. Bad coil. Bad connection on driver board. Bad transistor.

It'll be one of those things. If all other coils on the playfield seem to work fine, then the fuse under the playfield is fine.

Could also be that the ball is either not resting in the trough correctly (stick on switch and too far for kicker to reach it) or that it didn't come out all the way (resting on the very end of the trough, right before the ball shooter). I've seen both of these happen in my game before it was adjusted properly.

Can you see the ball sitting in the outhole? If not, take the apron off and find the ball.

Start a game. Normally, the game will fire the outhole blind (without checking to see if the ball is sitting on the outhole switch.) Without scoring any points take the ball and drop it in the outhole. This should reset the targets and kick the ball out again.

If the targets reset the switch is operating normally. If the ball doesn't kick out check as schudel stated above.

Does the outhole kicker fire in solenoid test?

There's a test button on the inside of the coin door. Push it 4 times to get the solenoid test. You'll know you're there when the pops, flippers, etc fire one after the other. See if the outhole kicker fires.

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I think he meant using the games diagnostic menu software to see if the coil test can make that coil fire.

I only have exp with modern sterns but i figure there is something similar to the modern stern coil test in the older sterns.

There is.
Press the Test button once. (Button on the coin door, next to the volume control.) The game will cycle through all coils, firing each one (and flash all lights, and count up on the displays).

Open the coin door and look for a button, it may be a small red button.

First press of the button tests nearly everything, lamps, sounds, displays, and coils - this should suffice for testing the coil

2nd does score display test

3rd does solenoid test . It cycles through the various coils, let it run and eventually it should fire the coil in question if the driver board, wiring, and coil are good.

4th is sound test

5th is switch test - I'd recommend trying this too. Remove all balls from the game and reset all drop targets. A display should read 0 meaning no switches are activated. Drop the ball in the outhole--a number other than 0 should now be displayed. If 0 is still up, you know it's not detecting the outhole switch.

6th press of the test button takes you to bookkeeping mode: how many games played, etc. You can keep pushing the button to cycle through bookkeeping until the game restarts in order to exit the test.

Edit: looks like my order is out of sequence. Refer to the diagram in the above post for your game. Same basic rules apply. Whichever red button cycles the tests is the only one i think you'll need to use

Just to clarify - did you press the test button 4 times to reach solenoid test, then watch as it cycled through each coil (flippers pop bumbers etc) and they all fired except the outhole kicker? You should be able to watch the outhole kicker coil fire (or not) with the coin door open.

Two of the buttons should be for volume (probably with + and - labeled on them). I don't have a machine here for reference but it should be clear which is the test button. You can also tell which is correct because after pressing it the displays should change. Continue pressing the test button until you see/hear the solenoids firing one after another.

You don't have to wait, you can push the button as often as you need. Whichever button starts the test is the only one you need to use.

Reset the targets by pulling them up with a small tool, or pliers, whatever you can use to lift them to their 'up' state.

We want no targets registering when putting the game in switch test. The display should say 0 if no switches are active. Then you'd place a ball in the outhole and it should display a different number (I'm not sure exactly which, but something not-0)

Whoops, double post

think i have this same problem.
looks like this...

That is NOT factory.
Likely, someone hooked one or both of those buttons up to the credit switches. Only one button there should be your test button.
One button should be your test button. The other is your memory clear. The third is likely a credit button.

Joel, if I'm seeing this correctly, it looks like your coil winding is broken. If so, unwind one turn, cut to length, strip the end and resolder to the coil lug.

outhole_coil (resized).jpg

Yeah, i'm terrible at diagnosing problems. that's probably it. THANKS!
should've posted this video a month ago. I don't care what folks say, Pinside is pretty awesome...

Bring it down to Naples and I'll get you patched up

Nailed it. My first guess in post 5.

Fairly easy fix.

Can't tell from that pic. Wrong angle and too dark. If you have an ohmmeter measure the resistance across the coil lugs. Should be about 10 ohms, I believe. If that reads good then it's time to look for the problem in the backbox.