I've had this game for 10+ years with no problems. Today when playing, the gopher wheel only spins about 1/4 turn. I went to diagnostics, and ran the gopher wheel relay, with same results. I disconnected/reconnected the connectors on the solenoid board and the one going to the motor, but it still only spins about 1/4 turn.

It needs to spin a little longer and faster to get the ball in the wheel to move to different letters. It seems like a connector issue, but pushing on the connectors while running the test did not show any improvement.

I can easily turn the wheel by hand, so it doesn't seem like it is binding at all.

Is there a way to make the relay stay on longer?

I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Teed Off is back in business!
The problem turned out to be purely mechanical -- there was no issue with the wheel getting signals from switches or boards to signal it to spin.

For anyone that might have this problem, here is what I did:

Remove motor assembly from playfield (four screws and disconnect 2 connectors). Remove wheel from assembly and clean the slider switch contacts (these were packed full of grime -- see picture). Clean all tarnish off underside wheel circuit traces (the concentric circle traces) so that they are shiny silver again.
slider (resized).jpg

Motor gear lubrication:
Remove motor gear assembly from the main assembly (this is optional -- you can grease it with it still attached to the main assy, but it is only 3 screws and makes it a little easier to work with). Put a small amount of synthetic grease on finger and apply to all the gears. Rotate gears to distribute grease. Put a drop of sewing machine oil where spinning shafts meet motor chassis. Wipe up all excess grease and oil and put everything back together and install back in game.

The wheel spins at least 10x better than it ever did. Here is a short video of it in test mode. It spins even longer in game play.

Thanks for looking. I hope this can help other Teed Off owners.