Hi Mark... as mentioned, no need to panic. I'm 97/100 fixing EM's on the tour and three of those were either rewired incorrectly, had wire harness issues, or lacked the time to get deep enough into the weeds. In your case with no schematic, limited time frame, and having rebuilt the ball count stepper (it was physically unable to step up regardless of voltage), score relay, serviced all of the other relays on the motherboard as well as a few motor switches (and identified the player step-up unit as incrementing only partially)... we have improved the overall functionality and are already much closer to getting it resolved.

Main thing we need at this point is a schematic to trace out the paths to the ball step-up unit and credit button. Currently asking around... a friend may have one.

Most typically, this type of issue is a dirty/misaligned motor switch.

Schematic is available here: http://actionpinball.com/parts.php?item=PM0379

Thanks CJ... you really picked the right avatar for Pinside, Mr. Quick-on-the-draw.

Mark, this is your ball step-up circuit path. The green checks are the relays I cleaned and gapped... they should be good. Barring the fringe issues like bad solder joints and wiring, let's assume everything is OK to the motor switch.

Check out the lowest switch pair on motor stack 1 (adjacent to the index). It should have a blue-red and a black-red wire attached. Is it clean and opening/closing properly as the wheels go around?

step path (resized).jpg

Also, as another test, the player unit/coin unit portion of the circuit can be bypassed with an alligator clip (BLU-R coming off the score motor switch to R-W attached to the ball step-up coil).

Since we know the player unit needs to be rebuilt and adjusted, always test while in a 1-player game (and ensure the disc is squarely rotated to the reset position... rivets lined up with the wipers).

BTW, if Makerspace trip is in the cards, as an extra bonus I'd be able to show you the full score reel rebuild method and do a mini-class on anything else remaining. It would come in handy since you have 16 reels and many aren't revolving properly.

I hear ya. Take deep breaths and give yourself some time... no rushing. It will all make sense with a mindful approach and some more practice.

During the tour I spent about four months on the road standing for 12-14 hours a day working on these things. Often without a day in between to rest. Lots of pressure to fix things while staying on schedule because I had no wiggle room across 15,000 miles if something went wrong. It could have been very stressful but the practice of EM maintenance itself is a Zen process if given the time.

Nothing to do but relax and give it the time.

Johnny is THE nicest guy in pinball! Glad he was able to get it running. C'mon by the Dallas Makerspace VECTOR Committee one day for some of our EM classes if you'd like to do more.