Hi everyone! I’ve been a long time lurker, total newb to pinball repair. About 5 years ago found an Atari Space rider cab but ultimately sold it because I couldn’t figure out how to fix it.

I’m back... and I picked up a Williams Tripple Strike that I knew was a basket case but damnit I want to learn how to work on these. I figure a Tripple Strike is as good a place to start as any. The coin mechs have been removed and god knows what someone’s done on them but new wires and soldering abound so I’m guessing it’s was modified to free play? Unsure.

Symptoms:

Plug game in and turn on toggle switch, playfield and head unit bulbs light up. Very faint humming coming from inside the bottom of the body near the transformer and relays. Other then that,no sound. “Game Over” lights lit up on the back glass.

Press start button. Game over light turns out and a loud buzz now comes from the lower back part of the body none of the reels reset and absolutely NOTHING resets on playfield or in the body. The buzz is coming from a relay on the bottom right in a row of relays leading away from the transformer. On of the relays seems to be energized and buzzing. Nothing else happens, no score reels turn nothing at all. If I manually trigger the score reels they all turn fairly easily but nothing else happens, playfield is unresponsive all except for the “strike” rollover which causes the rear score reels to buz loudly but not turn. Manually helping the score reels turn changes the buzz on the relays from loud to faint. Nothing else on the playfield turns, no reset at all, drop targets stay down. No other rollovers or triggers result in score reel buzz what so ever.

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I know SORT OF how to read the items on an electrical schematic but i have a hard time tracing lines once I’m looking inside the physical body or under the playfield.

Anyway, if anyone can help me with where to start or just give me an IDEA of what the game is thinking that would be helpful. I’m guessing lubing up the score reels may be job 1?

Thanks

All score reels set to 0

Turn game on nothing

Press start button, same loud relay buz, nothing else

Ok so some poking around reveals that buzz is coming from multiple locations

Bonus relay under the playfield

Ball index relay in the body
Reset relay in the body
Coin Relay in the body

And now when I cycle the power and press the start button I get nothing just playfield lights and backglass lights including “Game Over”

I think its out of credits. Will cycle the credit wheel to attempt to add credits and try again

I’m not sure how far. Literally nothing fires and no score reels turn or reset, just press the start button and Buzzzzzzz not even an attempt to kick a ball out

Ok so some poking around reveals that buzz is coming from multiple locations
Bonus relay under the playfield
Ball index relay in the body
Reset relay in the body
Coin Relay in the body
And now when I cycle the power and press the start button I get nothing just playfield lights and backglass lights including “Game Over”
I think its out of credits. Will cycle the credit wheel to attempt to add credits and try again

Update outside of questions already replied to.

The buzz is coming from::

Bonus relay under the playfield
Ball index relay in the body
Reset relay in the body
Coin Relay in the body

I reset the score reels to zero, turned the game on. Playfield and backglass lit up including “game over” and you can hear a slight buzzz. I pressed the start button and NOTHING moved. Just a much louder buzzzz from the aforementioned relays.

I cycled the power again, playfield lights and backglass lights are on including “game over” and the faint buzz is present.
I press the start button and now and nothing changes. I assume this is because the game believes I have no credits. I manually cycled the credit reel to no effect. (Although when I cycle it if I close one of the switches I can make the thumper fire in the front end of the cab) but no matter how many credits I try to put on the wheel the start button has no effect.

I reached in and fiddled with some of the relay banks to see if anything happens and if i CLOSE the coin relay the same loud buzz begins again just like before much of it coming from the bonus relay, reset relay and coin relay itself. The “game over” light DOES turn off when I do this

The transformer is causing the mild hum when the toggle switch is activated but the start button hasn’t been pressed

Of note the game over relay is also buzzing.

I tripped the tilt relay while poking around and tilt DID light up on the back glass and that DID fire the game over relay... I find this a bit odd as the tilt swinger itself actually doesn’t work when the game has been active.

Now that i manually unstuck the Game Over relay I can once again turn the game on via toggle switch. Lights come on, “game over” lit and i press the start button (game over turns off)and I once again achieve the loud buzz from the relays..... hurray...I guess haha

The credit reel does not turn if I trip the game over relay back on.

Only one playfield feature works and that’s at the very top of the field there is drop the ball can roll into that has a switch in it. If I activate that switch after I start the game the score reels in the back will start buzzing but not turn. I’ll be home in an hour and test it again but that is what I recall. No other flippers,rollovers or switches seem to work.

They never run on restart even if they have a score existing on them, they never do any on reset at all. The relays don’t even buzz.

That said if I reset the game and the game over light turns off and I press one of the switches (and only 1 particular switch) on the playfield the relays on the score reels will buzz loudly but not turn. But on startup and reset, dead silent.

Ok that score motor had never ever turned no matter what I had done. -Had- being the operative word. That service jack has no markings. So I simply switched it over and SHES SOMEWHAT ALIVE!!!!! Now every damn thing is flying around in circles when I press the game reset button. Everything is now resetting over and over and over again. I’m beginning to believe this is the same machine a fellow had listed on here before years ago because now it has the same exact symptoms as HE had which seems like reset cycle running constantly. I’ll try to dig a bit deeper here and maybe pull the link to that other guys video that I found.

Progress!

Here is the post I was referencing. I now believe I’m working on the same machine as I currently have the same problem and unique aspects of the inside of the field and box are the same!

Edit: Confirmed this is the exact same machine and here is the video of what it does now that we have turned the score motor on

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Here is the link to the entire other thread and the things he had experienced and corrections he made or tried to make.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/triple-strike-start-up-sequence-stuck-need-help

Ok so in that fellows post where he was working on this exact machine he stated that the reset relay seemed to be stuck and if he manually pushed it to the off position he could play and the playfield rollovers and what not would indeed work.

Bah I have lots to read now to try to get back to the point he was at.

Ok well.. new symptom run down

After my initial change putting to the score motor to the ON position I was able to manually turn off the reset relay and poke around the play field to test some of the items. As the game thought we were in play I can no longer do that and I’m not sure why.

Current symptoms

Toggle switch on. Press start button (reset button?) opposite the plunger, i now get nothing. Lights are lit but i get nothing. Manually add a credit on the credit reel and then press the start button, nothing. Turn off game and manually increase score board turn game back on- Nothing. No movement or hum from anything but the transformer.

Press the 25 cent relay on the far side of the body and the game goes into a reset but then the coin relay and reset relay both get stuck. Manually turning off the COIN relay turns the “game over “ lights out and stops some of the relays from firing but this only lasts for a few seconds as the RESET relay is also jammed into the on position. Within seconds the coin relay shuts again and the “GAME OVER” lights come back on. I guess they rely on eachother because if you skip the whole 25 cent relay and just hit the COIN relay the reset relay clicks and we go into that whole song and dance again.... the only thing that STOPS everything from trying to reset is by manually opening the RESET relay.

I can of course skip the 25 cent relay AND the COIN relay and just press the reset relay and much like before the “reset” never stops, just keeps hammering away. For some reason one of the score wheels just keeps turning perpetually... must be a closed switch on the field but even if it turns past 9 it doesn’t begin to index the next wheel, every other wheel stays at 0 and this one just keeps spinning.

Clearly I have something messed up on reset.

For what it’s worth tripping the game over lights off and on DOES reduce a credit from the credit reel but pressing the 25 cent relay does NOT add a credit. I can manually move the ball count (spider?) around and when the game resets I can see the numbers on the front glass count down from 5-1 via light bulbs fireing.

I’ll try. Kinda new this but if you read the above you’ll note the new symptoms.

Ah sorry I was working on the machine late into the night so my wording may have gotten confusing.

The machine is basically doing exactly as you see in the video but ONLY when I manually trip the reset or coin relay. The only time the score motor or ANYTHING resets at all is when I manually trip the reset relay in the body of the cab or the coin relay that sits directly beside the reset relay in the body.
If I turn the machine off completely and turn it back on nothing happens at all nothing makes a noise or moves. Complete silence. Just lights.

The reason this is noteworthy is because a few times the reset sequence would complete properly and i was able to poke about the playfield and poke drop targets (which would pop back up as intended) and poke rollovers, all of wich would be shown on the score reels. But as I said, now it never completes its reset it just runs and runs and runs.

I was reviewing this Williams start up guide (posted below) and I see potential problems. It talks about the End of Stroke switch being involved in the restart sequence... well one of the flippers on this unit is blown and the mechanics have been removed and nothing is sitting there at all except some wires attached to a clearly burnt up coil. All the hardware has been taken off the left flipper coil.

Williams Start-Up Sequence info
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When the start button is pressed, the credit unit is decremented. This is done through the credit unit zero position switch and the 2nd coin relay (and the ball count zero position switch).
The end of stroke (EOS) switch on the credit unit decrement coil will energize the coin relay.
The coin relay will trip the game over relay.
The coin relay will energize the reset relay. The score motor will run.
The reset relay will energize the ball count unit reset, through the score motor.
The reset relay energizes the 2nd coin relay latch and game over relay latch coils.
The reset relay will energize the score reset relays, through the score motor.
The score reel reset relays will zero the score reels, through the score motor. The score motor will continue to activate the score reset relays until all the score reels reach the zero position.
The reset relay activates the bonus unit coil until the bonus unit zero position switch is activated.
When the bonus relay drops out, the outhole relay is energized through a different bonus unit zero switch and score motor switch.
The outhole relay will run the score motor. The bonus unit will step up once. The ball will be kicked to the shooter lane.

Will try today and report findings. Thanks!

So I haven’t had a chance to do as you suggested really yet as I’ve been working all day but I’ll have a good crack at it tonight. I did manage to do something quickly though.

I flipped the toggle on and nothing happened which is (normal) for the machines current status I again went and manually tripped the reset relay and the game over light went out and the machine started doing its thing over and over again including constantly trying to fire the drop targets back up. (Still normal so far for current status).
Here’s where things change a bit I noticed that the backglass was showing ball 4 (the game is on easy mode set for 5 balls for 25 cents) which it hasn’t done so far. Previously none of those lights would come on to tell you what ball you were on, i was in a hurry so just decided to messed with ALL the other relays that were in line with with the transformer including the Game Over relay and the other ones in the row and then back to the coin relay and the game finished its reset! For the first time everything on the field worked including bumpers,drop targets rollovers and the one flipper that is still present the drop targets would even reset after all 4 went down and the score reels were turning. Oddly if I pressed the switch that gets triggered when you drain the ball it didn’t react at all. The field was still fully active no change what so ever. Another thing to report is that on the underside of the playfield there is a relay with a tag near it that says: 1 to 10 and it was closed hard and buzzing loudly. It was getting very warm and even manually pushing the switch open wouldn’t keep it open, it would shut and continue to buzz and get hot.

Anyway.. I know I can’t keep throwing random symptoms around and have you guys help me with it. I realize it’s time to start doing wire traces and reading schematics but I just thought I’d report my findings in case it narrowed the field some.

I’m bad at reading schematics and following wire traces, made worse by being mildly red green colorblind but now that I’ve familiarized myself with some of my relay names and locations of items I’ll be able to read schematics better.

Thanks everyone for the help so far!

I’ll have a look at this as it’s easy enough to do but I’m gonna hold off on physical adjustments as this thing is such a basket case that mild adjustments cause all sorts of new problems.

Ok I can’t help it I guess I’m a hands on sort of guy.

I cleaned some contacts and reset the score reels till the switches opened (they are all correct except for the hundreds reel)

I cleaned the contacts on the stepper units (read how on the link given in this thread) and I noticed one of the stepper legs on the ball index was slightly bent so I straightened it out while cleaning up a bit. I also cleaned all the other stepper units as best as I could.

So.... some progress. I can now consistently get the game into a state of play but its still crazy.

1.Turn on toggle switch
2.Lights turn on “Game Over” lit
3.Press start button
4.Game shows 5 balls “Game Over” lights off and game goes into reset freakshow
5.Game continues to “reset” perpetually
6.Game continues to “reset” perpetually
7.Manually disengage coin & reset relay
8.Reset completes “correctly”

•9.During reset the Game Over relay closes and begins to buzz and slowly gets hot.. Manualy turning this Game Over relay back to OFF turns on the “Game Over” Lights and playfield is unusable.
⬇️

Described below is what happens if i allow the Game Over Relay to stay closed and the relay continues to buzz and get warmer and warmer.

⬇️

10.Playfield is now active and from what I can tell entirely working but I haven’t tried to keep track of scores or bonus events. What I can say is that all pop bumpers, drop targets,rollovers and lane switches all seem to work and they DO reflect on the scoreboard. Scoring points seems to make the Game Over relay buzz louder?

11. !New! is the ability to drain the ball. For some reason the drain now works correctly. The ball index drops 1 every time the ball is drained until you reach zero.

12.Reaching Zero on the ball index by draining the last ball causes the Game Over relay to OPEN which stops it from buzzing and the “Game Over” Lights turn ON. The playfield is now inactive.

13.Pressing the Start button starts this exact process over and over again I repeated this reliably with the same results about 15 times (return to 1) ⬆️

Notes:

•The credit reel is a mess... it’s not moving up or down nor does it currently attempt to. I’m not even sure what it’s “thinking” at the moment as the physical reel itself isn’t even showing numbers on the backglass, it’s spun right around an area with no numbers. It is energized however a I can manually make the body thumper hit and I HAVE seen the wheel turn previously but now I’m not sure what’s going on with it.

•Why is the game over relay stuck shut and getting hot?

•The start button seems to make the machine believe it’s getting a credit? So why doesn’t the credit wheel turn? Manually pressing ths 25 cent relay seems to have the same effect as the Start button and it also does not seem to activate the score reel at all nor does draining the ball.

•chimes never work even when field is active

One of the score reels keep turning during the stuck restart until I disengage the Coin Relay and then the Reset relay. After I trip both those relays the reset continues for a few more seconds fixing that wheel and then the reset is completed. Then the field is active.

Ok.

I recorded a video of exactly what’s currently happening and I mumble my thoughts as I sloppily record while holding a trouble light.

Horray!

Ok so I set all the reels to zero and compared them and found multiple issues with the switch on the wheel that kept turning, basically a permanent contact point (RESOLVED) the wheel no longer spins like a freak show on restart.

But the reset still isn’t working right. I have a relay tapping away in the head unit right on time with the divots on the score motor on one of the cams.

On restart I no longer have to trip the reset relay, only the coin relay. I suppose this has to do with the score wheel being fixed now.

I’ve attached a video of the current remaining symptoms.

Thanks for the help so far!!!

1.Yes the reset relay seems to drop out when the score reels are zeroed.

2.I have witnessed the bonus relay pulling in and if I recall correctly getting stuck in the on position and vibrating loudly but that was before. I’ll check it again now with the machines current new state of “normal” and see exactly what it’s doing. I’ll report back.

I tried to read the schematics last night to at least find the name of that relay that is pulsing in the head unit so that I could reference it effectively in conversation. I gave up after 8min of scratching my head..... I dislike schematics.

Yup the bonus relay pulls in and resets the steppers as they should be. I can watch it pull in on both New game reset and if I rack up a score on the playfield and then drain the ball.

Still though, on Reset even after the bonus relay resets the stepper and the bonus reels stop turning and the bonus relay disengages the game still keeps trying to finish its reset as shown in the last video. Only manually disengaging the coin relay will get the reset to complete

Ah yes... that’s a good tip and likely one I should have considered. I spent so much time looking at the schematic that I forgot about the manual all together

Ok so update... I was looking at the manual and schematics and then realized my credit reel still had not been adjusted nor was it working. I still cannot find any way to add a credit to it without doing it manually. If I give it one credit the game will start and when the game is over it will decrees the credit to 0. When the credit is 0 the game won’t start. So that’s good I guess.

After I got the credit reel spun back around (for some reason it was advanced over itself and around and all the springs were stretched) and gave it 1 credit the game bloody well reset NORMALLY!!!! Everything disengaged like it should, score reels all reset as did the bonus reels. I couldn’t believe it.

I poked around the field, drained the ball and hit almost every damn switch out there, drained the balls till it said “Game Over” and the credit reel spun down to zero!!! HORRAY!!

But my “horray” was short lived. I lowered the play field to play some one flipper Pinball to celebrate and immediately drained the ball into the top playfield kickout. The game went into a constant reset and I had to turn it off

Long story short the bonus relay is now acting up. It seems to get stuck shut on restart sometimes. This keeps the reset cycle going the bonus reels zero out and stop moving but the bonus relay stays shut. Once I manually open it the game finishes its reset. Sometimes the coin relay acts up along with it but now it’s mostly the Bonus Relay

This video will show the new symptoms that I’m dealing with including a demo and some talk on fixing the credit reel.