So have you ran a switch test, and dropped the ball in there to see if it registers the switch? Remember to run the test in as much of a game situation as possible.

I would clean them all for sure to start with as long as you're down there.

Had this Exact problem. Opto switch. Game does not know ball is there

Yup. We know the up kicker is working, sounds like the switch is just not registering. These optos are 22 years old and the transmitters B/W used don't tend to hold up well after this amount of time.

I wouldn't replace something that works. Just me. Confused. So it works in test but not in game ? Take glass off simulate gameplay. Been a while but I thought there are two sets of Optos in subway. Simulate what happens with ball. It's either opto or coil .

Im going by memory here. Getting my IJ back in a week or so. In switch test with the coin door switch pulled out so coils fire. can you make the ball roll and fire ball up? If so then we need to see why the gameplay is diff. Can you open coin door and see ball actually go through optos and is sitting correctly in the vuk? Not sure why a coil can fire n test mode but not during game play. I usually try and visually watch the ball and see why its not working.

I have the exact problem and I am keeping my eyes open on this thread. For some reason with me the first three balls go just fine to the idol, but after that the problems start similarly to what has been described by swenny.

Go into the idol test and empty it, then see if any of the idol lock optos are showing as closed. Maybe one is out and tricking the machine into thinking there is a ball in there?

The third ball should start multiball, if it isn't, there is something wrong with your idol optos.

I had to fix a basket case IJ a while back and there was one more opto then I expected that was the one that had failed. The idle is a hornets nest of wires and optos. If any of those optos fail it will cause a problem for whichever ball is in that cavity that spins.

I had this problem, the 2 optos were reversed, installed wrong. took me a along time to figure out. Check the wire colours.

Hey that's a good idea...could be confusing the machine. Easy if the connectors are the same .

I would suspect that if I changed something....Did the problem just start? Game new to you?

dumb question. You have the correct number of balls in? crazy things happen with extra or missing ball.

also check in manual and make sure all switches checked and work from entrance to vuk.

really check all of the idol position switches, not just the subway optos. Any failure in the idol position switch could be fooling the software into not popping that ball up into it.

look at pages 1-18 and 1-19 in the manual. There are 5 switches for idol positioning.

yep...you need access to idle and trip all those switches....somehow all related.

to be clear, there are 3 position switches inside the idol, all optos.

There is an idol entrance opto.

And there is a microswitch with a rollover wire arm at the exit.

A bad switch in any of these positions could cause general havoc with the software.

My bet, though is on one of the 4 optos.

Where did he go? Mine's away, too. Very depressing...

That's a good tip! Yes, the third ball starts multiball just fine. It is just that balls after that seem to go to idol only after the ball-search.

Glad your figured it out and got it going again .. NT

Did you replace both sides. Or just the offending one. Always wondered if they should be swapped in pairs

I did the switch test and all the switches seem to work just fine. Well, the slam tilt switch did not work, but I guess it is not related to the problems with subway/idol. I also did check the idol optos only via the idol test as I did not know how to access those optos.

While under the playfield, I resoldered some wires to the coils at the subway. Let's see if the resoldering helps.

I have been discussing this with a friend and would like to check with you. When multiball starts, do you have a pause after the second ball has been released to the playfield? So, the third ball comes to the playfield only after ca. 20 seconds or so? That is the case with my pin.

Thanks for any info!

There should be a pause after each release but not that long. The whole multiball start thing is written in such a way that any kind of variance will screw up the ball count completely. I just had this problem on mine and it turned out the up/down post that is the idol exit (it has that yellow plastic square on it) was binding just enough to throw off the timing on everything and messing it all up. That post along with making sure the idol exit switch works 100 percent of the time are the keys to multiball start working correctly. It should release ball one, idol exit post should be back up immediately after the ball passes through, then it rotates to ball 2, opens gate, closes gate immediately and rotates to ball three to release that.

You know something is screwed up if you are not getting ball 3 to come out right away and the game keeps making the elephant sound.

I hope all of that made sense.

Thanks! There are quite many elephant sounds between the 2nd and 3rd ball always with my pin... It is ca. 20 seconds from the 2nd ball to the 3rd ball. On the other hand 2nd ball launches to the playfield promptly after the 1st ball. This happens every time. What in earth might be the matter here? As said, I made the switch test today and they seem fine. Idol optos were tested only with the pin's own test.

Sounds like the same issue I had. That up/down post that released the balls back to the playfiled from the idol is binding up just enough to throw off the timing of everything which makes ball 2 release too fast and the game doesn't realize it was already released. You may have to bend that mech a little bit to make it raise and lower smoother and also my need to replace the coil sleeve in that mech and check the link when you have it open and file off any metal burrs or sharp parts that may have happened from wear on that link from years of use.

Actually I have had problems with the idol door. I have brushed the post, there was wear. I will investigate that further.

I was thinking that could the problem however be that the optos in my idol are in wrong order? I tested the numbering of the optos and took a picture. The optos as such work ok. Could somebody confirm the correct order for the optos? I have numbered them in my picture on how they are setup with my IJ.

Idoli.jpg

Had a look at the wiring in the manual and I think I got it right. Now the 3-ball multiball starts very rapidly. My gate goes down and lets ball one and two out, gate goes up and down and releases also ball number three. Apparently the gate should go up also between balls one and two, but my pin does not do that. I tested switch 44 (the vuk opto) and it seemed to work ok. However, the fourth ball is not kicked into the idol, so perhaps its worth a try to replace the opto 44 with my pin as well.