I just started working on a Gottlieb Paradise that had been in storage since the late 1960s, or so the estate sale company said.
I'm hoping Pinsiders who own (or have owned) this beautiful machine can chime in with their experience restoring and maintaining it.

My questions for now:

1. Are these machines supposed to have #455 flashers as part of the 6-lamp string behind the backbox hula girl? I didn't see flashers for this string in the schematic, but my machine has two #455 lamps along with four #47 lamps. I plan to replace all the #47s in this pin with soft white LEDs.

2. Best way to clean the dancing hula girl plastics? I'm hoping to restore some luster without destroying anything.

3. Any helpful hints or suggestions, in general, for restoring and maintaining the hula girl and the under-PF projection roto unit?

While replacing backbox lamps, I noticed a couple of things associated with the dancing hula girl mechanism that seemed odd, but maybe there is a simple explanation for both.

1. The metal plate holding the relay coil that moves the hula girl is attached to the back of the backbox panel with the right screw at the highest point in its slot and left screw positioned in the lowest point in its slot. These two photos shows how this appears from the back and front of the panel. There were no other screw holes under the plate, so it appears this is original but I'd like confirmation from others.

Back of panel:

20211101_194709 (resized).jpg

Front of panel:

GTB Paradise Backbox lamp positions (resized).jpg

2. The hula girl is attached to each end of the coil actuator plate by springs. The spring on the left inserts directly through a hole in the plate whereas the spring on the right attaches to the loop of a short-legged "cotter pin" whose legs are inserted through the hole from below and then bent at right angles for retention. Was this original and by design? Or is the "cotter pin" missing from the left side?

Close up of spring attachments to coil actuator plate:

20211025_211511 (resized).jpg 20211101_202452 (resized).jpg

I checked IPDB pics for Paradise last night. I see the coil bracket controlling the hula girl is lopsided too, so it seems that's the intent. Maybe the tilt helps the action of the parts or maybe it counteracts any torque generated that might loosen the bracket?

If anyone could check the attachments of the springs to the coil plate on their machine, I'd be much obliged.

PM

MarkG

Thanks for the tip! I didn't know about these pages at PBR. It definitely shows a tilted coil bracket as is seen in IPDB pics and in my machine. I'd love to know why that is installed that way. My current assumption is the tilt is required for the best resting position of the animation.

Unfortunately no pics at PBR show the attachment of the dancing girl to the coil actuator plate. Hopefully an owner will see this thread and be able to tell me if mine is missing a part (i.e. the stubby cotter pin) or not.

PM

Mopar

Yes, thank you!

PM

Vintage-Pinball

Interesting. Same mechanism and slant of the bracket. But the two springs insert directly through the activator plate holes. Original or not, both sides or not, maybe the cotter pin doesn't really matter? Thank you for providing pics!

The Roto Holes on my GTB Paradise are not scoring consistently. Sometimes all the holes score accurately, but more frequently 1 or 2 of the holes will not register points. There is no consistent pattern with affected hole(s), hole value, or ball number. See schematic and SCM switch sequence grid below.

Roto Holes A, B, C, D switches activate Hole Relays F, G, J, Q respectively. Without bonus multiplier in effect, any Roto Hole can have a scoring value of 2 to 5 points. I thought it best to understand how the current flows through the Roto Unit stepper to score 2,3,4, or 5 points, but I'm finding that difficult. It looks like it might be associated with the timing of
closing or opening the score motor switches in the circuit (1A, 4C, 1B, 3B) but its still not clear to me what path to follow. Anyone have insight into this inconsistent scoring problem or understand how different point values are scored when the Hole Relay is activated?

DocScan (resized).jpg

GTB SCM switch sequence (resized).jpg

Issue described in Post #31 above is resolved. Steps taken were:

1. Inspected and cleaned SCM switches 2C, 3B, 1B, 4C, and 1A. No change in problem.
2. Inspected Relays F, G, J, and Q. Cleaned circuit switches on these relays. Ball in hole activates these relays as expected, but no change in problem.
3. Started a new game to record data for 10 hole value combinations (2,3,4,5, or Star for ABCD holes). For each combination that had at least one hole not scoring, the input wire and associated output wire of that Hole and Value pair were jumped at their connections to the Roto Unit board, then the hole switch was closed. All holes (40) scored accurately indicating a problem within the Roto Unit.
4. Partially disassembled Roto Unit to inspect and clean all rivet and finger ("shoe") contacts, and check continuity of all wires with rivet connections. Ensured alignment of disc fingers with stepper rivets. Aligned and secured frame of Roto Unit to ensure hole values were aligned with respective playfield windows.
5. Started new game to record data for 10 hole value combinations. Accurate hole values were awarded for all holes and combinations.

GTB Paradise Roto Unit Score Schematic- with labels (resized).jpg

Thanks Mark! This educational work of yours is quite impressive. I'll certainly look this one over.