My 1970 GTB Baseball needs help. Man of first is frequently awarded without being earned. This thread should be titled "Why is a man on first?"

Anyhoo, First, Second, Third and Home Run relays work just fine. The problem is when a double, triple or home run is earned, a man appears on first. For a home run the man on first may disappear (and is scored), but quickly appears again. This is happening maybe 75% of the time.

Any assistance appreciated.

Brian

Done...

To answer your question ... It's likely been doing it since I picked it up a couple of years ago ... but it was at my father-in-law's place since the beginning and I don't think he noticed. It's now at my place and I want to fix it up.

So about some ideas on a fix ... ?

I had checked this and operation appears "normal". I can manually operate the switch and observe the light going on and off. If I trip a "single" switch the "man on 1st" relay fires and the light lights. However, frequently but not always when I trip the double, triple or home run (which should trip (or leave) the man on first to open) it closes the switch and a man appears back on first. Hope that makes sense.

Any additional advice appreciated.

Brian

Yes to questions 1 and 3.

Will have to try #2 tests. Makes sense ... If I block all single-scoring targets/rollovers I might be able to find the culprit. Maybe I have a switch set too sensitive. At least I think that's what you mean. Will check it out and report back.

Thanks!

Brian

Yep ... seems like phantom behavior 101. Sometimes I overthink things. Heading out to the garage shortly with my morning coffee to dig in.

No luck this morning. I checked all rollovers and stand ups for clearance - all good. The top-center rollover is close as there's two leads, so I blocked both but it didn't change things. Must be somewhere else in the circuit.

Ok, so I blocked all of the "1st" targets, actuated each repeatedly to make sure there was no response. Did some under playfield jiggling to make sure there was no short by the switches. All good. Then I rang up a couple of homers and poof, man on first appears.

And for a visual ... here's a pic of all the switches blocked (both inlanes, the "1" standup, both vari-targets, and the "1" rollover up top).
IMG_9454.jpg

Then a quick test. No man on first. Note the score of 1,915.
IMG_9457.jpg

Hit two home runs by actuating the outlane switch (500 points each). And there's my man on first. Incidentally the same thing happens if I hit a triple or double, it's just easier to observe with the homer as it should clear all the bases.
IMG_9458.jpg

Correct, the A relay is indeed tripped. I watch it as I'm triggering the home run switch. Sometimes it fires, other times it doesn't.

Already done. I looked real close at each. I thought I found one (a short that is) ... but it ended up not changing the behavior.

How does the reset mechanism work? I mean when you hit a home run, what relays/circuits are responsible for clearing all of the bases? Or what sequence of events would fire to make it all happen? Sorry if that's asking a lot, just need to understand what I should see.

Thanks,

Brian

Actually yes ... it does look like it pulses very lightly, but stays latched. I'll try adjusting and see if that makes a difference. Good point here...

Brian

I cleaned it pretty good. Doesn't appear to be hanging up at all.

I just shot a video and posted it to YouTube. This shows the frustrating behavior perfectly. Let me know what you think.

Thanks,

Brian

Hey Russ, good to hear from you.

It was originally set tighter so the "tang" was right near the end. I set it further up to permit more travel before tripping.

I just can't figure out why it energizes some times, and other times just lightly pulses.

Checking back in. The good news is that it's happening less ... the bad news is that I'm not sure why.

I cleaned and adjusted the A relay 'tangs' on Saturday, and yesterday just went through a series of tests activating the T,D & E relays. No other adjustments.

Nonetheless the behavior does appear tied to the A & E relays, and I was able to get some good games in yesterday with minimal phantom first-base awards.

Maybe it's time to clean all of the contacts in both relays. I would think it may be related to a dirty normally closed contact (versus a gapping issue).

Thanks again for all your help guys.

Brian

Yeah, more or less the problem is gone. Every so often you get a free guy on first, but it's far less frequent. I played a dozen games last night and had one of those "what were you thinking!?" Moments. Not sure I want to sell ... and at this point with little or no bites I'd say it's a keeper. I'm out of space though so might have to look at trades. No EM love in the world....