The jacket on one side of the cord should be smooth and round, the other should have ribs running down the outer side and / or with a white stripe running the length of the jacket.

The smooth side is the Hot and the ribbed side is the neutral. This is one reason why I hate flat cords: Most of them don't have colour identification (some do inside the cord when you pull back the outer insulation. I tend to not use flat cord, especially on pins. If a game (pin or video) gets move over a round cord, it tends to roll over it. A flat cord usually gets damages if a foot (or in the case of a video game) or the edge of a cabinet gets on the flat cord, it can tear it up (Replaced a lot of them over the years).

[Picture of Ryan holding mech board and shaking the daylights and two metal parts out of it.]

Ha ha! The missing post finally shows itself! It's really good that you found those metal parts sooner rather than later. Both can short out switches and worse. I had weird problems with Expo when plugging it in after the playfield restoration. It turned out to be a screw that had fallen into one of the set of relay switches.

I am looking forward to seeing pictures of Swinger all fired up and playing like a new machine.

Can't remember where I saw this tip originally, but I always lay a towel down over the bottom board before I start to do anything with the playfield. Everything drops right onto the towel where you can easily retrieve it. It has saved me many times.

But don't forget to take the towel out before you fire up the machine and play it. Not that I have ever done that....

And don't forget to put out the fire when the towel catches on...

If you're using wire nuts you're not supposed to solder the wires. The nuts probably won't stay on in the long run. You should either remove the wire nuts and cover the connections in electrical tape, or cut and strip the wires together, twist them together, and replace the wire nuts (the springs inside them are probably damaged from being twisted onto hard solder).

Instant would be my guess.

My OXO fuse sticker says "INSERT."

Excellent, I wish I got all the way into redoing labels.

Did the score reels get all zeros?

Looking for other swingers, eh?

Sounds like maybe everything in the backbox is working, everything on the relay board is working, but everything on the playfield is dead? That would explain why the outhole kicker and none of the playfield targets are doing anything. Maybe it is an issue with one of the cable connections?

Have you tried turning it off, and back on again?...

Sorry, little IT humor there. So cool to see the machine all back together again. Good luck getting it playing.

-Andy

Once all the reels zeroed out did the score motor keep turning over? Also, at the end of the startup sequence you should hear the large under play field relay bank resetting itself. (Loud ka-thunk?) If either of these is happening over and over then something is not resetting all the way. The final part of the sequence is the ball going into the shooter lane. Won't happen until everything else does.

Hey Ryan! Are you missing a coin box?

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Found this in OXO. OXO swings.

Ha ha! I've finally made it big - my own meme! I didn't even know what a meme was a couple of years ago.

Well, it's yours if you want it. PM me.

Thanks for the tip o' the hat Ryan! Have a safe and restful trip. I will miss your posts but I would rather see you get a break and come back fresh and ready to take on the battle of the Swinger. Get lots of these:

The Swinger looks absolutely beautiful but now you realise you have to take everything off and scrub all art to then make the art and then to put the art on the playfield to then clear coat it to then repopulate it again
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I didn't realize you had 5 pinball machines. I just remembered where you're going this weekend. Are you getting a pin from Dayhuff?

So there I was just chillin at the HAAG show. Taking a trip down memory lane in the EM row. Suddenly, I said to myself, "self, this looks real familiar." Took second then DING DING DING!

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It played like a tired em in need of freshening. Kinda cool, different. My three are ok, minor issues and still playing.

If you can tear yourself long enough away from ogling your new toy, now is the perfect time to clean and gap ALL of the contacts on Swinger. Since it isn't working, you can't do too much damage if you are careful and, with any luck, you might even get it working!

I am loathe to discuss this topic but what the hay; I'll jump into the fray. I know this is a very controversial topic. Expo is one of my best playing pins and I credit that to the thorough cleaning I gave it, from playfield to solenoid and relay contacts.

Electricity is the life-blood of any pinball machine. Constrict the flow and the machine will not work to its full potential. When debugging and diagnosing EM problems you can look at a schematic and try to follow the circuit, hire someone else to fix it or check every single contact on every single switch.

I am no good at reading schematics because I never NEEDED to learn how. I started at one end of an EM, with the machine turned off and manually "engaged" each relay and solenoid. I just pushed the plastic piece holding the leaf switches, AKA armature, toward the relay solenoid as if the solenoid were activated. I soon learned what a "make" (normally open) and a "break" (normally closed) switch was. I cleaned each contact with a contact burnisher, pinching the contacts together with my fingers, when possible, to remove the black gunk built-up over the years. This black gunk is oxidized metal, I think, and it's just as bad for pinball machines as calcium build-up in your arteries is for you. Some switches are double stacked and hard to get to. For these, I manually closed the relay and moved the contact burnisher up and down many times to clean the contacts as best I could. I cleaned the burnishing tool often using a paper towel with Windex on it. When done with all contacts on the relay switches, I manually engaged the relay once again and checked that all make switches were closing properly and all break switches were opening properly. If they weren't, I used the contact adjusting tool to properly gap all switches. Then, and only then, I moved on to the next relay. Don't forget to do the switches on the flippers, slingshots and pop bumpers.

If you are careful, and you need to be both careful and thorough, when done you will have an EM that is 98% - 99% working. I've never managed to do it 100% yet, but the problems I end up with are usually different than the ones I started with. Then I debug the problems - with any luck easier to fix than the original problems. A good cleaning of all contacts can be done in two or three evenings and well worth the time if you want that Swinger to Swing!

If you are uncomfortable cleaning the contacts, then, of course, you shouldn't attempt it. But like soldering, it can be daunting at first but an easily learned skill. People who recommend that you don't clean all contacts are aware of the people that do so and make a mess of it - leaving a lot more problems than when they started. A thorough and detailed person like you won't end up in this predicament. Take your time like you are doing with the restoration and you will do just fine.

I wouldn't recommend this for everyone but I have seen enough of your work to know that you could do the contact cleaning without creating more work for you later.

Before I get blasted for not using schematics, I don't recommend NOT using them. It's just how it worked for me and they can be like hieroglyphics to most of us. You CAN get by not using them but they are very helpful if you know how to read them.

Speaking of luck, how in the world did you find your dream machine, one of only 250, in the condition you did and only $150??? I guess you are allowed a little ogling.

Pecos, I will also weigh in - note that I am also loathe to post as I suspect that for both of us, this will ignite discussion for good or ill. Note that this is only my opinion and is only worth the electrons used to display it. Everyone you talk to will have a method to getting a machine going.

Electricity is the lifeblood of any electrical or electronic device and ensuring that there is a clean and unencumbered path will allow the machine to function at peak capacity.

However, this is a “teach a man to fish” moment. 

I could say, “Jump in and clean it from one end to the other. Talk to you in a month.”
Or I could teach you HOW that electricity moves. WHY it moves, and WHAT needs to be done to keep it moving. This is much more valuable.

Unfortunately, I am depriving you of the joy of finding odd timing bugs (slightly misadjusted motor and relay switches), or worse, odd bugs caused by shavings or dirt that has moved during the cleaning process. But in the end, if he does not clean every switch, Ryan will understand the electrical theory behind his machine, and thus any (EM) pinball machine.

Also of note: these machines were not designed to collect dirt and die. They are amazing marvels of engineering. One may view it as a clunking set of switches and cams, but in actuality the machine is self-cleaning with every relay movement. Overtravel, or deflection, is the built-in mechanical method that the switches have to clean themselves. It is rare that the overtravel will not keep the machine in good running order.

Ordinarily, my experience is that some handfuls of issues will be present on a terribly filthy game. Understanding how the feature is supposed to work by reading the schematic helps you to understand which switches are involved and focus your attention on the bad. This gets the machine up and running quicker, while helping you in the future if the feature stops working.

It is overkill to clean all contacts. If cleaning all contacts was the solution, why do problems remain at all? The answer is that you can easily create other problems. The reality is that it is far too much work for far too little payoff.

On one of my first machines, I was told to clean every contact. I could read schematics, but regardless, I dutifully cleaned every contact. This was the worst mistake that I believe I've ever made in my EM life. Almost 100% of the problems I have today with that machine are due to overzealous cleaning during the initial run. My own fault, but why go there? It wasn't necessary to get the game running (and keep it running).

Understanding what the machine is supposed to do is critical to fixing it properly.

I've talked to techs that just read the manual. Well, if that was all it took, why did the manufacturers  bother with the schematic? The schematic is crucial for understanding the current path. If you do not understand the current path, you will never get a machine to be 100% reliable. It doesn't mean that you can't fix it without reading the schematic.

Again, just my opinion. Do with it what you will. Not intending to argue or anything.

Also: I've mentioned it on my show before a couple of times, but I'm working on an Expo (slowly, can't breathe when near it) that was filled to the brim with rodent and cat hair. I removed all the hair, inspected a few spots for rodent issues, and had to wire in a full set of score reels, along with several under-playfield components that were cut. This Expo actually plays very well. And this did not require cleaning of every switch despite the terrible initial condition.

OK last thing: for high power or very visible items, I will clean preemptively depending on era: for example, cabinet flipper switches, pop activation switches, slings and kickout activation switches. For games with DC in those high travel/visible areas I do not bother unless I notice a problem (spark), outside of cabinet flipper switches. DC is a slightly different beast. You've rebuilt the mechanisms, so there should be no binding.

Regardless of the method you choose, you'll have a working game at the end. Troubleshooting by schematic will give you the skill to fix any other machine from the 30s to the late 70s. Solid state machines require a slightly different thought process, but the basics are the same.

In the end, Ryan has done much more by cleaning all the steppers in his game than he would achieve by cleaning all switches. The game will be snappy and play very well.

Again, regardless of method chosen, I'm excited that you'll have brought this dead machine back to life! One of the best thrills in pinball.

Well written bingopodcast. Thank you for sharing your point of view. I think this emoticon is appropriate for this discussion. I am only sharing my experiences here and nothing I say is intended to be the end all to fixing a pinball machine. If someone is helped by my experiences, then great. Otherwise I fear that I am wasting my time and sounding contentious when I by no means intend that at all.

I have a Williams OXO sitting next to Expo with the DC powered slings, flippers and pop bumpers and it doesn't play as well as Expo does after what I call "the treatment." Here is a video of Expo playing if you or anyone else would like to see it in action.

No one ever set me down in 1979 and said "Son, this is how you read schematics and this is what you need to do to get OXO working top-notch." There was no Internet. I didn't even know that schematics existed and even if I had known, I had no way to get one. I had to figure it all out on my own. I learned by trial and error what playfield switch triggered what relay and in doing so gained a lot of experience about the general workings of a Williams EM. They are truly remarkable creations, part art, part science, part electronic and part computer!

Cleaning every contact is a fairly new tact for me - a process that I leave for a thorough restoration.

I would suggest this to anyone who wonders whether or not burnishing all contacts is worth their time. Thoroughly clean the burnishing tool with a paper towel and Windex after cleaning one or two contacts and see if any of that black crud shows up. If I recollect, and that is a dangerous thing at my age, my Expo must have had a lot of dirty switch contacts because I could always swipe the contact burnisher through the Windex on the paper towel and find some black substance left behind. If none or little shows up, the game doesn't need the detail cleaning.

I am now trying to learn how to read schematics. The Black Knight I just bought has two non-working left flippers and I am trying to find the possible points of failure. There is a thread about the subject here on Pinside. The OP found that the female connector to the power supply was the culprit. I can use a multi-meter to find the right pin on the right connector or I can try to figure it out from the schematics as that connector is the first place I want to start looking for a fix. If I knew what I was doing reading schematics I could find it in just a couple of minutes, but learning to fish takes some technique, time and patience.

This is a good time to mention all of the wonderful help here on Pinside when debugging a non-working pinball machine. Chances are someone has already had the problem "you" are experiencing and are more than pleased to share their experience and ultimate solution.

seattle.craigslist.org link

Pecos, thanks - I agree 100% that it does take time and patience. However, the end result is that you'll be much faster at repair than previously. I'm happy to help with schematic reading for anyone that needs a hand. I was lucky enough to take some basic electrical theory and engineering classes long before starting into the pinball repair hobby.

The Expo is for a customer and thankfully not in my work space... Otherwise I would not be posting (lack of breath)! It is a fun game, though. The nice mice/rats only nibbled the edges of the schematic. I'm only able to work on it about an hour at a time unless the playfield glass and back door are on.

Yep. But no one who knows me in the real world would call me a gentleman!

No problem here. The last time I checked I am not running for political office, Pinsider of the Month or trying to start a Pecos' Palatial Pinball Parlor fan club! You have to leave your egos at the Pinside door when discussing these issues.

I do want to clarify that I only clean ALL contacts when trying to make an EM work as closely as possible to the days gone by when it played like new - because it was new! That usually means a major restoration project. I never clean all contacts trying to fix EM problems.

When debugging EM problems, I trip relays with the power on to track down the problems, being careful of course not to get zapped. At a minimum, I would recommend cleaning and adjusting all score motor switches. Many problems lurk there in those switch stacks and the contacts get dirty. Also, clean and Super Lube all stepper units like you have already done. These two items will likely fix a few problems and narrow down your debugging to relay switches.

I commend you for your efforts to learn something new. When you figure out what all of those "line-laden maps" mean, you can let me in on the secret!

My $.02. My experience with EMs is definitely limited but I am in the habit of researching thoroughly and here's what I came up with. I visited every switch in every switch stack from the bottom of the play field to the bottom of the cabinet and all throughout the back box. The first order of business was to check that each has tight screws. I believe the proper order is to tighten the one closest to the switch contacts first, then the one farther away. Once this was done, I verified what type of switch it was by the schematic and saw to it that it was in the proper state. NO, NC or MB. Next I would do a simple continuity check with my multi-meter. If it was good, I left it alone. If it was sketchy, I would clean it with a piece of heavy cardstock and check again. If it was better, great. If not I would hit it with the flexstone until it was good. Lastly I would operate the switch using whatever would normally activate it be it a passing pin ball or a nylon score motor tooth and ensure that either a connection was made or broken.

This seemed to cure most if not all of my ails. Whatever problems I had left were not related to switches.

I've read this too but always forgot when checking the switches. Thanks for reminding me and everyone else here of "best practice." Clearly, I need to follow this advice. Thanks Mk1Mod0!

Regarding your professionally shot, edited and narrated hand model video, it appears the game is not in a "game over" state. Normally, if the game powers up in anything but, the score motor will rotate to get it there. But ball one is lit and game over is not which leads me to suspect it is caught somewhere in between. And it will not start a game, zero out the scores or activate the play field until it is in a game over state. Showing two players can play tells me the player unit is not completely reset. The ball unit may be, but should not have power to it. I would start with what switch activates the game over light by starting at the light and working your way backwards. Got to get it in game over before it will do anything.

Way to go Ryan and Nick. Swinger swings like a pendulum do!

Thanks Pecos! In the end, it was not a long battle. I'm sure Ryan will chime in this evening. Now he knows my troubleshooting technique, some basics about electricity and pinball electricity in particular, and how to clean a machine.

Now he needs a bingo.