I bought a Surf Champ in November from a seller in PA. The seller said there was an issue with the slingshots not scoring 10 points, but I thought it could be remedied. I met with him and played a couple balls just to make sure it powered up and most things seemed to work okay, although there was a definite scoring problem with slingshots.
When I got home I realized the plug on the power cord was shot - very unsafe. I didn't even want to plug it in. So I decided to buy a new power cord from PBR and connect it to the transformer. I reassembled everything and powered it up. It worked. I hit the start button and the game reset. I heard a buzzing sound coming from the backbox - as if a relay was stuck and vibrating.
I fired the first ball and after it went through one of the rollovers and hit a pop bumper, the game stopped. "Tilt" light came on and everything stopped. I unplugged it and lifted up the playfield and saw that the 25VAC (15 amp) fuse had blown. I'm still struggling with reading the schematic, but it appears that fuse goes to the transformer on one end and the bounce switch on the other. Not sure where it goes from there.
I replaced the fuse and tried it again. Hit the start button and the score reset, popped up a ball. I heard the same buzzing sound coming from the backbox. This time, I just ran my finger over one of the top rollovers a couple times. Game died, "Tilt" lit up. I lifted up the playfield and saw the fuse had blown again.
Since the game worked (somewhat) before I replaced the power cord, I'm guessing I created the problem. Another pinsider I know suggested that I must have somehow created a short on the playfield when I removed it. Any suggestions on how I might go about diagnosing the problem? (Please keep in mind I'm still a relative newbie, but willing to learn.) I also have the schematic and lots of photos. Let me know what you want to see.
Thanks!
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