I've been working to bring a TFTC back to life. I'm scratching my head a bit with an issue causing the F5 fuse to blow on PPB. I'll lay out the best I can what I have done thus far.

Checked all coils for ohm, lowest value I got was 2.5 the rest were over 3. 2.5 was on the crypt vuk
narrowed down to what connector is causing the issue and its J3. The connector with all the grounds
Tried checking the transistor but apparently my dmm doesn't want to give me anything. Or every tip36 is bad. It's an Ideal 61-765 and it does not have a diode mode
I wasn't able to determine what direction every diode should be banded. The groups of coils are banded on same side but between the pops and vuks they are different.
I know it is J3 because I only had power and J3 to the board and the fuse blew. I then have every connector hooked and only J3 off and nothing blows.

During my search I also determined that F9 was over fused and somehow missed that during the initial run through. So I suspect that if I hook it up now F9 on PPB may blow instead of F5. I only have so many 5A fuses so I'm using a life line.

List of issues:
right ramp switch does not activate during switch test
Launch switch does not activate during switch test
Upper flipper does not fire but the bottom 2 are strong
crypt vuk does not fire
up kicker does not fire
knocker does not fire

Obviously a lot of this would work if I had J3 plugged in.

I feel as though i am missing something very simple that just hasn't smaked me in the face yet.

Any tips on this one?

I should clarrify that i used the red lead on the tab and black to each outside leg of the transistor. I also tried the other way and only ever got OL on dmm.

I de soldered Knocker coil, crypt vuk coil, up kicker coil, and upper flipper coil. Still blows F5.

went and bought a DMM that does diodes. Looks like TIP36 Q1 is bad.

Took Q1 out and shaker board fuse blew plus main power in fuse.

remove shaker from circuit and took off J3, fuse does not blow. J3 back on and fuse blows.

Something with the J3 connector is the issue.

Ran out of time but will pull the board and check BR1 on Thursday.