Hello All:

I am another first time owner that bought a Williams Aztec. Game is in pretty good shape. One problem is that the game has a pretty loud buzzing - Must admit I am a bit of a noise freak and most people probably would not find it loud. When the ball gets put into play and starts scoring is when the buzzing starts. The buzzing stops when the ball is out of play and the scoring for that ball finishes. Hard to tell exactly where the noise is coming from but seems to be coming from under the top half of the playfield. Not really excited about taking the game apart and starting to play around inside - But I will if I have to. Any suggestions? Please do not hesitate to say: It is a 50 year old machine you idiot - It is going to make some noise. That might be the proper answer.

Thanks for your help. I am going to replace - attempt to replace - 3 relay coils that seem to be buzzing: The Ball Index relay, A Relay and Lock relay. Just bought a soldering station and I am ready to go. Can not wait to see what new problems I create. This fixing pinball game stuff is worse than woodworking for a person without a lot of patience.

So these are the 2 coils that I want to replace. They both buzz pretty good and when I push down on them the buzzing gets much quieter. I appreciate not having to replace the coils but I do not see much else in there that can be adjusted. When you reference "plate" is that the metal that attaches the coil assembly to the base and is screwed to the wood base?

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As I investigate a little further it appears as though the plastic piece on the Lock Relay coil - the piece that the wires are connected to - is broken. I also notice that this coil runs very hot. Does anyone know what this relay actually does and what would happen to the play of the game if I just cut the wires to the coil. The manual says that this relay "Energizes Game-Over Relay Trip Coil". Thanks.

Ok. So I did go ahead and change the coil. Partly because it was in terrible shape and partly because I need to learn how to do this. I think it went pretty well - see the picture. And the pin definitely got quieter, however, there was still a slight hum because that coil was constantly on. But schudel5's idea really intrigued me.....So I shut the machine off, went ahead and cut the green wire that I had just carefully attached and stuck a credit card in the switch to keep it open. And what do you know - The machine seems to play the same and it is quieter. This pinball machine repair stuff is kind of like witchcraft....Just does not mix with my engineering background.

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Played the game and it went great for 2 days. Then I was playing a game and on the 3rd ball all of the lights in the playfield went out. The game still played and kept score. I checked and the 2nd fuse down on the fuse block was blown. Any chance this was related to cutting the wire on the Lock Relay? The only other thing I did was replace a few bulbs on the playfield. Maybe I messed up the wiring. What would cause the fuse to blow like that?