First time venturing in here - please bear with me if I don't include some relevant information.
Picked up a 1977 Williams Big Deal the other day. Second machine, first EM. Don't really know much at all about EM repair, but I'm not afraid to try - for better or worse.
I've spent a few hours reading through this site : http://www.pinrepair.com/em/ over the weekend trying to pick up some more basics. Will continue to do so unless someone says I shouldn't. It sure seems helpful so far.
For what it's worth I've DL'd the schematic PDF and manual from ipdb, but don't really have any experience in reading the schematic. Will likely order a hard copy with my eventual pinballresource order.
Anyway - I got it home and set it up. Checked all the fuses I could find - five total - four on bottom of cabinet one on underside of playfield. (removed them all first) and all tested fine.
Turned it on but got playfield lights only - nothing in the backbox.
Unconnected the back box and lightly went over all the prongs for the connectors with a wire brush. Re-connected and turned it on - backbox lights on. Replaced a few bad bulbs, tightened a few others, and cleaned the connector prongs a bit more - backbox lights that were previously dim now a bit better.
Hit start and got nothing. Hit start again and got nothing. Laughed at credit wheel that read "0" and grabbed a couple coins.
Coin mechs and adding credits seems to be working fine - currently 2 credits per quarter, credit wheel advances etc.
Pressed the start button again and I could hear the score motor turning, but nothing happening on the backbox. At the same time, all but one score reel was already at zero. I manually reset the all the score wheels to various non-zero numbers and tried again.
All score wheels reset to zero other than two. 100K for player 3, and the 10s reel for player 4. Score motor then continues to run, and three relays in the backbox continue to chatter away.
Example video - wheels resetting.
Relays continuing on - they're the left most three out of seven. (I think it's seven - writing this from work.)
If I manually set the two non-resetting reels to zero and set others to various numbers, it appears to my untrained eye that things go right. All non zero reels reset to zero, and the score motor (and relays in the backbox) stop.
Example video:
At that point, the two banks of drops reset up as they should.
And that's really as far as I've gotten. I noticed that it didn't kick a ball to the shooter lane, and if you listen to the end of that last video - knocking down a drop target causes a buzzing sound that sounds like a coil staying energized which scares me enough that I shut it off quickly thereafter. No burning smell or anything like that though.
Going backwards though - I assume it would be best to get the wheels to reset before proceeding? I mean, I assume I could just play single player games, but I'd rather fix things first anyway.
Regarding the two score reels.
The 10s reel for player four seems pretty easy to diagnose.
Here's the 10s, 100s, and 1000s reels.
P4-REELS (resized).jpg
Assuming they're all supposed to look the same - this becomes a rather easy game of "spot the difference."
Side view of the coil for the 10s reel.
p4-tens-reel-coil (resized).jpg
There doesn't appear to be a plunger there at all, nor the little white plastic piece that it would be moving the wheel with. Seems obvious that I'll need to track these down.
Side note - I noticed that for every wheel - the top most leaf switch blade rested against the white piece of plastic except for this wheel. It's cut off on the last picture - but you can see that the top blade is bent upwards. OK to bend that back down with a leaf switch adjuster tool?
The 100K wheel for player 2 isn't as obvious to me. I've looked for but didn't see any obvious loose wires, nor any missing leaf switch contacts. This is where my unfamiliarity with the schematics is getting me stuck I'm afraid.
It's a tight fit with an iphone, but here's as good a picture of the switches for the reel that I could get without pulling the backbox assembly.
P2-100k-wheel (resized).jpg
So - where to look to try to trouble shoot that 100K wheel for player 2?
Also - a modern Stern manual is pretty thorough as far as helping me ID parts, giving me part numbers, and making it easy to order what I need online. I'm already stuck with the parts for that other wheel.
I have the PDF of the manual, but don't see anything in there that helps me identify a parts number for what I'll need. Not having luck searching pinball life, Marco, Bay area amusements, pinball resource etc.
How exactly does a novice go about sourcing these things?
Sure to have a load more questions, but I'll leave this off here since it's already plenty long. I'm at work now, but will always respond as fast as I'm able. Huge thanks to anyone willing to try to help me with this.