#heat-wave
The Match Unit plunger pulls back well enough to advance the unit, but often not strong enough or far enough to ring the bell.
Weak coil?
(Topic ID: 271287)
Hopkins, MN
clean the plunger and put in a new coil sleeve. Make sure the mech moves freely and isn't dirty.
Replacing coil would be a waste of money, just replace the coil sleeve it's a 40 cent part.
I just cleaned the sleeve & plunger last weekend. Had the whole unit apart and degunked.
Have some new sleeves i was going to use to refurb the pops. Could try one of those.
That was all done last weekend. Had the whole advance unit apart & cleaned. The unit advances fine. The coil just doesn’t seem to pull back far enough or perhaps strongly enough to ring the bell all the time.
So,
LTG how do I check for low power? I have a multimeter.
Sleeves may be readily available & forty cents in New York, but here they are $5.40 and a week away (shipping costs & time). Fortunately, I’d just ordered five, along with other pop bumper parts.
I also doubt its electrical - almost certainly mechanical. Maybe one or both springs are too tight, or "clapper" needs to be adjusted (if possible).
Does it ding the bell if you use your finger to pull the plunger all the way in - that is usually a good way to "feel" whats happening (unplug machine first!)
Quoted from undrdog:how do I check for low power? I have a multimeter.
Voltage can be right, you need amps to drive things. Not sure how you'd measure that at a coil.
I had a game drive me nuts. Weak flipper. Everything was perfect, continuity, everything. Digging deeper. I found the wires daisy chained from one coil to another to the driver board. One coil lug with two wires to it. Had one wire hanging by a single strand of wire. Enough for continuity, not enough to drive the coil.
LTG : )
This advance unit has no clapper. I’ve put on washers, quarters, dollar coins, 
4C8E87FB-7FBE-4CFC-8F87-F57507FE81BB (resized).jpeg and other substitutes. Toyed with different methods of securing them- loose, tight. Adjusted how close and far away the bell is a zillion times.
A previous owner must have had problems, too, because there is a second mounting hole in the bell.
It rings when manually pulled. A soft ring, but better than nothing. But, closing a one point switch only gets an occasional ring.
The unit itself advances fine. It’s hitting the bell that's the problem.
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Also, the bell can’t get too close, because the clapper is on the arm that advances the ratchet. If it doesn’t go down far enough, the unit can’t advance.
Linton
If, after you've cleaned everything, it works fine when operating by hand and the Clapper will ring the bell without issue, then what about the plunger and coil stop, what are they like? Might be really hammered or even magnetised so not 100% effective? As the others have said, it's unlikely a bad coil unless its wiring has frayed on its connections.
1 week later
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