I thought I was down to one problem, but after watching a video on game play/rules It seems I have two. Initially, there was the bonus countdown giving occasional game credits(no where near replay score). Then the video showed the two top PF lights(pic) for saucer award to be alternating with every 10pt score. The machine I am working on does it somewhat whenever and not even close to every 10pt score. There is mention of an alternating relay in the video, but I cannot find it on schematic or on machine with so many relay labels missing.

The erroneous game credits during Bonus countdown, do not happen if I pull out all the high score plugs, but will still happen if I pullout the match on/off plug. The credits do not seem random, for instance, on a 5000 w double bonus countdown on 1 ball I will get a single credit, next ball same Double Bonus value it will give me 2. This was repeated several times during my vane attempts at sleuthing the issue.

The game is being repaired for a friend at the VFW as it was donated to them. I have no manual for this title nor schematic but did find schematic on line below.

I tried to upload the schematic I poached from the site but kept getting errors. Here is the Pinside link to the post with schematic.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/toledo-schematic#post-4534552

I am anxious to get the machine returned but I need some fresh eyes on the problems as I am now in a closed loop in my brain. Any/all help is immensely appreciated.

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I think that those to Change Relays have something to do with the alternating. I could not find an Alternating Relay or a Match relay on the schematic relay coil location list. I've got continuity from O-W on Change No1 Relay to the Match Unit. Then when I metered O-W thru arms back to Y, I got .09 ohm. It appears that as this stepper is advancing two teeth on gear thereby always keeping a long and short arm on the contacts on the left side(under my probes) as it moves with every 10 pt score. As I watched the stepper advance while touching a 10pt rollover I noticed that the unit occasionally mis-advanced and the long arm ended up between the contacts and neither PF lite was on. "Spot Numbers" was lit(both Change Relays activated)when it was advancing forward 2 teeth only.

I think there may be 2 issues with the non alternating lites and one may be this stepper needs a tweek to keep it moving regularly, Either 1 or 2 teeth. My vote says 1 tooth as the arms advance over the match numbers on the other side of the unit. Then, when that is reliably advancing correctly, the problem may or hopefully not exist. I'm not sure if it's a spring tension thing or a coil plunger stroke length adjustment, I never done either.

I'm not sure what plans the VFW has for the machine, but if it's to be set up and played for a measly 25c, a high score replay is a necessity. In fact who wouldn't want to win a game...or 2? So then we need the plugs in and the problem persists, meritlessly giving free games until the credit is maxed.

Change Relays.pdf

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after some more testing with game in play, the single tooth advancement does the trick. In trying to tweak the stepper I found hopefully the problem. There was somebody's hack for a coil stop. I'll rummage around and see if I can find one that will work.,, and crossing my fingers solve at least one issue!

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Amazing.., after installing the appropriate coil stop, the issue has disappeared! All alternating lites do as stepper instructed!

I'd like to think the other problem may be as easy as a mechanical issue but....who knows where to look. The Bonus Unit and Advance Unit were both completely cleaned and rebuilt and step nice and accurate( says me.)

I'm gonna guess a short somewheres involving those high score plugs or at least that circuit but the semi regular 1 then 2 credit unit step ups(previously mentioned) throw me.

Final problem solved! As I was testing for my double bonus scoring problem/fix, while counting down the bonus it would advance the credit wheel at what seemed like random times when a player was in 20K or 30K range(crazy low in my opinion and just another issue with this old EM I had to deal with.)

This machine was set to 5 ball play when I began to repair it. The game is also designed to go over 100K with a relay for each player when this occurs. It is not that difficult to achieve these scores when it is set to 5 ball, so much so that the factory had an instruction tag in back box to adjust for high score replays over a 100K(see pic).What I thought to be random game credits was actually a factory setting that was never changed, giving a replay for say 22K or 35K instead of 122K or 135K. A jumper on each player 100K relay needed to be moved to another switch leaf lug. When the jumper is moved(photo show old location w philips and B-O wire attached on new lug) and the 100k relay is activated a credit will now be given at the 100K+ value directed by plug locations chosen by operator(see pic).

For 44 years this factory replay adjustment had never been done and therefore replays over 100k were likely not occurring as they should. I had never seen this instruction tag in my limited EM experience and still didn't recognize it's function until I made the actual change. So let the learning curve continue!

Thanks for all those that offered me direction and made it possible for the VFW to get the game back more sooner than later!

CHEERS!

Factory Instruction for replays over 100K (resized).jpg

Player 1 110k pt relay (resized).jpg

replay score plugs (resized).jpg