Got my first goof up to deal with. Went to clean the stepper in the backbox. I marked the two Bakelite discs as to what position they were in. Then I removed the one with the shoes and cleaned the rivets. Then I manually worked the stepper unit to see how it was functioning (not great, needs to be cleaned) then I went to put the Bakelite disc back on. Realized that this is a continuos stepper so I can't hit the plunger to have it go back, and who knows how many times I hit it.

Any way to figure out where "home" is? I realize there are basically only nine positions possible, three for each position rotated three times, but now my game is acting differently and when I hit start the score motor runs continually and stepper in the backbox keeps trying to advance but it's sticking. Going to try and clean it later tonight.

So I think I got it back the way it was. Sadly I didnt take a picture like a dummy, my phone was charging clear across the house and I figure marking the spot would be enough. At least I marked that spot though, it gave me a reference point as to where it was at one point. From there it was a process of elimination. I held the disc with the shoes in the marked position loosly and away from the disc with the rivets. Then I manually stepped the unit until the screw holes lined up ans then I would try it. This at least gave me a 33.3333% chance of being right. In one position the score motor started constantly turning, in another the something else started repeating over and over, in the last position I tried it more or less started behaving teh way it once did.

I can turn the game on and start a game, but once again it wont reset the score (which it did a couple of times) Cant add players, Wont end ball. It does now count bonus.

From now on my dumb ass will take pictures.

Also my apologies for not calling you back last night Steve, I didnt get home to look at it until after ten and didnt want to call so late.

Had a busy weekend, thats why I didnt give you a call Steve, but I may call in the calvalry soon. First I want to clean the score stepper units like you suggested, than all of teh stepper will at least have been cleaned. A little lost though as the best way to clean them, where to take them apart.

And so I clean the same as others with the 3M pad, and use the super lube after?

Do I remove these covers by taking out the two screws and the C clip? This is what I'm talking about.

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Great! Will watch them in a bit.

If it's not one thing it's another. Now the player one score resets, but now none of the switches score, nor do the flippers flip.

600 grit??

edit-- nevermind, confirmed that 600 is good

Ok two questions.

How aggressive do I want to get with the cleaning? This far enough? There's little spots of grey but I'm unsure how much I want to scrub. I'm putting alcohol on a rag, wiping around, then sanding with 600 grit.

Second. What's the little black round thing that's under the C clip in the second picture. Mine flew off upon removal and ten minutes of crawling around cannot locate it. How important and if I need to where can I get a replacement?

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Thank you both, especially for the parts info. I did FINALLY find it after crawling around another ten minutes, then I promptly dropped a clip which took another ten minutes.

I used the super lube as well.

Good tip!

I noticed this too and made my cleaning area bigger. Thanks for that tip though.

Fine by me, I would rather use the 3M sponge. I already did all of the score steppers for the first player with the sand paper though. Thanks for the offer of the spare spring washers, good for now, but something to consider ordering next time at PBR

Going to take one more run at my problem solo before calling in the cavalry (AKA Blownfuse).

I cleaned the first and second player score steppers and still have the same issues, three and four getting done this afternoon.

The issues as they stand.

Game will let you start one player, but no others.

All score reels will now reset if I step them up to have a score on them.

Now however the game once it resets will not score, none of the switches, flippers or pops work. Previously this was reversed, game would score and not reset.

Any ideas or should I just get Blownfuse over here?

Score steppers all cleaned, after dropping a clip AGAIN nd looking for twenty minutes. I went down to the hardware store and bought ten of them and now I have a white sheet under my work area if I drop anything else.

Will look at the hold/tilt relays and the AX relay and player unit tonight after dinner. That is if my son doesnt take 2 hours to get to sleep again tonight!

Is this switch supposed to be bent like this? Also is this the coin stepper or player stepper? It's in the bottom of the cabinet right in front of the relay banks

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Thanks Steve. I'm going to give you a call tomorrow. I have the game now intermittently adding more players. Something between the start button and the coin unit is being flaky. Seems like about 60% of the time I hit start to add a player it does. Turning in tonight though.

Cavalry called in, Blownfuse coming by tonight to take a look. I will report back on all the mistakes I made that he finds and all of the things I missed.

Big huge thanks to Blownfuse for helping me with my Surf Champ! I learned a lot about reading schematics tonight, tomorrow I am going to the hardware store to buy two jumper wires! He would have had the thing fixed in about ten minutes if he wasn't being so nice as to explain things and show me what's up. There were switch problems in quite a few places that I don't know if I would have figured them out on my own ever. Plus it was really great to have someone over to talk pinball with for a couple of hours.

Sadly the victory is short lived though, as I went down to play a few victory games and a new issue arises. I think (hope) it's an easy one. The score started running up on its own. This would lead me to believe that there is just a stuck switch somewhere constantly scoring.

Going to turn in for the night. Still had a blast and my pin is a million miles closer to being 100% now.

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Thanks Steve, I will only have a few minutes this afternoon to give it a look, but those are all great places to start. One other thing, when it happened it sounded like there was a loud buzz in the backbox if that clues you it anything.

Hey, at least I know it can work now right? Again, thank you so much, for the advice and for the good company.

Good advice. I was so dead tired that as soon as it started last night I just flipped it off without looking for even a minute. Will have a few minutes this afternoon to look closer. Like Blownfuse said this got all new rubber so I have a feeling it's a playfield switch that needs a better gap.

didn't really fix anything per say, he showed me how with the jumper wires and the schematic you can systematically diagnose a problem. I will get the facts wrong but here's the jist of it. My apologies in advance to Blownfuse for butchering this explanation.

We weren't getting the coin unit to step up and add players. he found the coin unit on the schematic. The power was being fed from a red/white wire to everything. He placed a jumper on the red/white of the bounce tilt switch which was on the same path that had the power. we used the other end of the jumper on the coil and it fired, so that worked and wasn't the issue. the schematic told us that the red/white wire was the hot one that fed it power. then we looked at the first stop in the chain. I don't have the schematic in front of me so this is not accurate, but lets say its the U relay, and its a red/blue wire in and red/green wire out. So we looked for the switch on the U relay with those colors. We then touched the jumper still connected to the juice line on both sides and it did not want to fire, so the problem was the switch. Cleaned the switch and adjusted and that was the problem.

I almost don't want to write that in fear of having gotten it wrong. Please correct me if I am wrong.

I want to add that looking at the switch with the problem it looked perfectly adjusted. I never would have realized it needed cleaning and adjusting without using the schematic and the jumper.

Exactly, from what I gathered you don't want to go in and clean ALL the switches if you are new to it, that's why narrowing down the problem to that one was helpful.

Well I found the sneaky bastard, first one I checked, working great now!

Thanks everyone for all of the help and advice, I really learned a lot!

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