I just joined this club today. This will be my first Gottlieb and my first EM. I have wanted one for over 5 years now, and last year I decided to get out of ownership but the pinball gods pulled me back in. Can anyone ever truly leave pinball forever?

It's still in the back of my RAV4 so, no pics of yet. The game lights up but that's pretty much it. All the bones are there and it's pretty clean. I made sure of that. Looks to be in good shape. I think it has over 100,000 plays on it! Is that normal?

I have no idea where to start with EMs so, I'll be asking lots of questions. Lots, and stupid ones. Like... How do I add a credit without using a quarter? THis should be a fun learning curve.

Looks like I'm in good company here as I recognize a few avatars.

Yep. Nice guy. Fixes jukeboxes too.

It's not working, but lights up and all the parts are there and it look to be in good shape. I figured for $400 I couldn't go wrong. I was surprised it was even available. Things get scooped up here within hours (minutes) and I was pretty ho hum about meeting up with the seller.

Alright, I finally got some photos. I'll be the first one to admit this game looks a mess. It is setup in my basement.

When you plug in the game it lights up (partially) and that's it. I decided to pull the playfield right out. I am guessing I am going to have to work in the belly of this beast for a while. I have started reading up on EM repair using http://www.pinrepair.com/em/index1.htm#top but without a manual/schematics yet there is only so much I'm able to do.

Here are some pictures. It appears I'm missing two relays (replaced with modern ones) and I'm not sure if I'm missing a relay by the transformer/coin relay. Maybe one of you guys can let me know.

Here are the ugly truth photos. Not much of this scares me. It's a mess, but most of it is pretty clean.

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Backbox

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So where do I start?

Alright, so here's my obvious first problem;

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This is the main primary fuse for the game. Surprisingly, it still passes a connectivity test. Yet another reason why you should always remove fuses when testing them. It came out of this;

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Lots of corrosion. I'm surprised that the game was lighting up at all. I will be ordering fuses and fuse holders tomorrow. Is there anyone that can confirm the fuse values for me? I can't tell if the primary is suppose to be a 5A slo-blo or if it's a 15A slo-blo as my signage is torn/ripped.

As far as I can tell there are only 6 fuses in the entire game;

Primary Fuse: 5A slo-blo (need confirmation)

25V Fuse: 15A
Playboard Light: 10A
Lightbox: 10A

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Under the playfield...

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2A slo-blo
1A slo-blo

I take it these fuses are all supposed to be 120-125V? Are they all supposed to be slo-blo? Does anyone have the proper list of fuses for this game?

Thanks!

Alright, fuses and fuse holders ordered. For future reference;

Surfer Fuses

Primary Fuse is a 5A slo-blo
25V Fuse is a 15A fast
Playboard Light Fuse is a 10A fast
Lightbox Light Fuse is a 10A fast
Sequence Bank Reset is a 1A slo-blo
Target Bank Reset is a 2A slo-blo

ZNET looks really nice!

I replaced the primary 5V slo-blo fuse and holder today. I knew this wasn't going to be a 'magical' fix but I had to start somewhere.

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I powered on the machine and started poking around the transformer. Right now I'm only seeing 55V off the transformer which sucks. It seemed like I'm not getting a proper ground for my DMM so I decided to test connectivity on the power cord. Connectivity was good on the black and white wiring, but the ground (which is cut off on the plug end) was obviously not good. There was still a bit of a numb on the plug that I thought would work for tone but it didn't which I found strange. I have a new power cord on order with PBR so I'll replace it once it arrives.

Back to the transformer. I know it is ugly looking right now, but if you can ignore it's looks and just take a look at the wiring for me I would really appreciate it. The red wire is on the HIGH tap. I get 120V+ in my house so I'll be moving it over to the NORMAL tap one I confirm the voltages with the new power cord. Are the rest of the wires in the appropriate spots? I have a manual, so I'll start digging, but I thought I would ask here too because it keeps the discussion in this thread alive and it's often better to hear from someone with experience.

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Thank you!

Slow thread...

I wasn't getting a solid ground at my transformer. The old cord was in pretty bad shape. See for yourself;

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Luckily, I received my Digikey and PBR goodies today. I wanted a hard copy of the schematics and manual so I order a bunch of other items at the same time. One of them just happened to be a new line cord.

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The manual was $4 and the schematic was $16.50. The schematic is worth it's weight in gold, and the manual is uh... Well, it's worth $4.

Solved.

Quick question about Surfer/Surf Champ. I have my pin working now (woohoo) but I am not use to the scoring. When the ball rolls over any one of the 4 switch lanes on the upper playfield should it award 400 or 500 points? I'm only getting 400. Thanks!

FYI... I am going to have more scoring questions I'm sure.

swinks (et all) I am having some difficulties with my Surfer. I need some clarification of how the bonus works and I have a question about the bonus stepper.

1) How does the x2 and x3 bonus work? When are these suppose to light?

2) For the bonus. With the glass off, if I press the rollover on the far left I score 500 points on the score reels and 1000 in bonus. I press it again I get another 500 on the score reels and another 1000 bonus. If I keep pressing down this rollover I eventually get to 14,000 in bonus. If I press it again my bonus does not count up to 15,000. On the bonus stepper under the PF, I noticed it has a notch in it. It looks like it is missing a tooth on the gear, but I am thinking it is factory like this. This missing tooth is the reason why my bonus doesn't increment to 15,000.

Here is a picture. Right now I have 14,000 in bonus lit but I can't get 15,000 because of this missing tooth. Is there a tooth missing on your game? Am I missing a tooth or is this normal? It is very clean looking so it makes me think it is supposed to be this way.

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No this is a different gear.

Not this one either. It's the bonus stepper under the playfield.

I think the tooth is supposed to be missing. See this pic (highlighted with a yellow circle);

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I need to focus on one thing at a time, so I'll focus on the bonus stepper first. Mine counts up to 14,000 and then stops because it gets to the gap in the gear (where I thought a tooth was missing). Is this normal?

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Alright, it seems 15,000 is the max for the bonus. I found this nugget of info in Bob's Guide To Playing EM's;

"Top lanes and upper left lane advance bonus, maxes at 15,000."

So it seems my bonus is working. Looks like it might be misfiring or skipping, but that is probably just a clean up job or alignment issue. Good. So my bonus stepper is in one piece and functioning correctly. It just needs to be fine tuned.

2X bonus = get all the red star rollover switches. Then get one of the middle rollover switches (green lights). 3X is the same but only works on last ball.

This is awesome! Thanks for posting!

I love that backglass.