With the game off, manually press the plunger (you have to do it pretty snappily) on the advance solenoid, then back it back around with the other solenoid. Anything not smooth or sticky? If you keep pressing the count down solenoid plunger doe it make it back to home without help?

Take the ball out, and put the playfield on the prop rod. Power the game up. Manually advance the bonus unit and see if the bonus lights come on and off as it steps around.

Manually home the unit and press Start. Does it complete reset then?

OK, so it will step down through the numbers and stop on 1K.

It should (I am taking your word on this one) step backward one more time, fire outhole solenoid, then step back up to 1K.

Take a look at the switches that are activated by pegs screwed into the bonus unit ratchet wheel (I don't know official names of anything...). Make sure they are making or breaking when the wipers are on the right set of rivets. Also make sure the wipers have good contact with all rivets without causing drag on the unit.

A good trick for wipers is to tap on the backside of a wiper arm contact point. If you hear a little "TACK" that means it's not touching/resting on the rivet.

Please keep us posted as I am learning with you.

Ah, OK. Clearer now.

Since it won't start a game on its own (does not recognize ball in outhole, does not reset bonus unit)

Try this: with the bonus unit somewhere in the middle, activate the outhole solenoid by carefully pressing in on the plastic housing that the switch blades pass through. The machine should begin cycling and firing the outhole solenoid repeatedly. It probably should also be firing the bonus decrement solenoid.

I'm just poking around...not an EM expert by any means "just goin through the motions 'till the doctor came along".

You should order a schematic from Pinball Resource. IPDB does not have one sadly.

If it is not resetting at all, and it sounds like it is not, then I would suspect the reset coil. Are the wires securely soldered to the coil tabs? Is the really thin wire that makes up the coil also attached to those tabs? Also, check all your Jones plugs and make sure no wires have broken loose. If you haven't already, disconnect each plug and clean the pins with a wire brush.

You could also try attaching a jumper wire with a couple alligator clips from the power lead of another playfield coil, say a slingshot, to the power lead tab of the bonus unit step down coil. When you activate the slingshot, the bonus unit should step down, If it does not, I'd suspect a bad coil.

If you have a multimeter, you could disconnect one lead from the step down coil and measure its resistance. If it's open, the coil is bad. It's probably not shorted or you'd be blowing a fuse.

Finally, is the outhole switch closing when a ball is in the hole? Don't use a finger to check; use the ball.