I installed a shaker motor and a few leds in the game this morning. Now the joker reveal no longer spins. There is still power to the motor and the mechanism twitches. I am stumped on what may be wrong. This is one of those "It worked just last night" things.

Again, it has power. It just doesn't rotate.

Pictures... The relay clicks so it seems to be working too. All the wire connections look fine.

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I am thinking I may just need to redo the solder joints on the motor. Thoughts?

I unhooked the shaker = no change.

Thanks stern

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I think this opto is broken. The motor works fine when nothing is connected to it.

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No joker = motor works great.

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Confirmed switch 52 is broken. That is the opto at the front of the joker.

Five hours later. Still stumped. Still working. I think that opto isn't used in the game. Can anyone with BDk confirm?

This is going to take a real deal tech to fix. I cannot for the life of me figure out the mechanics here. And the game takes a ton of muscle to take apart and put back. I am killing my pliers.

I just figured out switch 52 is used in the game and is definately broken. I can tell because half of the opto is missing. I figure that must be the issue. The secondary issue is I have no clue how to put the thing back together. The Manual offers zero help in regards to how the bottom part goes in, which way it should face and how the top part attaches and which way it faces.

I am attaching a picture on how I am setting in the bottom. I am using the spring in the hole that it seems to fit best in. The joker face part (aka bottom, aka part that does NOT have the joker toy) Starts by facing front towards player and only rotates a half turn backwards.

The relay works but I am guessing switch 52 tells the relay to go the other direction. Without it I figure it knows no better.

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This hopefully is the problem. It is definately broken.

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I received the new opto board and it works but I still can't get the Joker assembly to function correctly. For the life of me I cannot figure out how to put it together! The manual isn't helping at all.

What is the resting position of the bottom peice? And does that little spring wrapped up in there do anything?

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And is there a better way to remove this part?

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I have it mostly working now. I just can't figure out where the spring connects to the bottom half. The obvious point of contact creates too much tension and the mech can't turn. I currently have the spring disconnected and the points cycle okay but what you see up top isn't quite right. This is very confusing.

If anyone knows how the joker thing fits together please PM me. After two weeks of working on this I am completely stumped. I have left a message at stern but they seem to be closed when I am home.

Stumped. And yes all of the electronics are working. I just don't know how to put it together.

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So much for that.

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Thanks. I set it up without the spring connected a few of the maybe 30 times I have disassembled and reassembled. It's obvious that the spring connects to the bottom piece. I currently have it where it causes the least amount of torque. But it simply won't hold the joker picture to the rear when the joker figure is facing forward (aka the resting position when you power the game up). The turning to where you see the city doesn't move correctly either (the normal position during game play).

My current question = how important is the roof piece? Does it do something to help it all stay together? I broke mine and need to order a new one ($31.99 with shipping... doh).

This sucks. I think I want my stern IJ back. Ha

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I am having a very difficult time explaining this. There seems to be only one way to get the bottom peice to fit. The spring goes in the round hole and the peice rotates 180 degrees between the posts with the forward position triggering switch 52 (above the PF opto that I replaced). Then the upper part (with the toy) screws in on top of that.

It seems very simple but it simply doesn't work correctly when put together that way. Ideas?

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Nailed it!! You were right. You have to half reverse turn the thing before putting the spring in. Thank you for the help!

It's down again. I think the parts are just worn out from all of the twisting and turning. It worked flawlessly for about ten games. I am just going to disable the motor. I have spent probably 20 hours on this over two weeks. It isn't worth the time.

If anyone is ever in Macon and knows how to fix this... Let me know.

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That's how you turn it off and forget it exists. Something seems to have changed and the spring is too tight now. The motor works and all three optos work. It is a PAIN to take apart... a slew of PULLING and sooner or later I'm going to break something important.

I had it working last night. Now it won't turn to 52... too much pull back from the bottom piece. The cosco version doesn't have the joker reveal... I just set mine to have the Joker foward the full time. It has zero effect on gameplay and seems to not matter for scoring either. It is just kind of cool when you are Joker hunting. It would be cool if it would work, but it seems that maybe my parts are just worn out? It's not worth $200-$300 for a total replacement and another X hours of work.

That's the conclusion I arrived at. The game is still fun.