I was given a 1959 Golden Bells by a friend a while ago. The art is down the the wood in some spots and knowing how much of a failure my attempt at touch ups were on a different game I decided to clean and the clear it instead.

I put new rings on it and it’s in the queue to get made functional. From memory, a relay locks on when it gets powered up and a few other things. Might need new springs on some steppers.

The saddest thing is the game came with the glass out of the head and between two pieces of cardboard. When we took it out and held it upright about 75% of the art slid right off. I took a few pictures of the glass of a nice example at TPF and plan on recreating the art for mine from that. Won’t be perfect, but will exist.

Lastly, the game came with the instruction card for “21” and after reading that I thought it was interesting. Saw some videos and a few months later one went up for sale about 150 miles away. They wanted a lot, like a lot a lot, and wouldn’t budge even though the cab art was gone and it wasn’t working. Maybe some day.

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Is there a startup sequence documented somewhere? I have a paper version of the schematic and had that scanned a while ago to have posted to ipdb, but can’t find it in my email. It should be there somewhere so I’ll keep digging.

I know there is a lot to clean in mine, but if I can start looking to see what might be keeping it from starting a game that might be a nice guide.

Is there a Golden Bells owner that would be able to scan their backglass? Mine had been stored poorly before I got it and the art all fell off.

I had a playfield scanned at a printing place for about $25, and I would cover a fee similar to that.

For now I’d like to just print a translite so I can at least see scores and pretend the art is real.

What is this called? Specifically the gate that has a coil attached. When activated it allows the balls to go to the lifter. I have a Golden Bells that I am trying to bring back to life and I can get it to start a game (sort of) but when it does this coil is locking on. I have the schematic, but not sure what name I’m looking for.

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Ah, ok. Good info. It didn’t come on at all until recently when cleaning some switches. Now it never releases, so I will try to figure out what stack the release switch is on and double check that.

I made some progress, but it seems I have a new issue that I can't quite figure out. When the game is trying to start, the score motor spins, then stops, and the 100k reset coil is locked on. I think it is because the score motor is not stopping where it should. The Index switch stack is in the groove/notch in the schematic, but is halfway between two groves when it actually stops. Looking at the Index stack it makes sense that the 100k coil is locked on. Any guidance here would be great since I'm pretty stumped at this point.

EDIT: Well, looking at the Index switch stack again (zone B23), maybe it is stopping at the right point. But then what else would lock that coil on? Back to hunting in the schematics.

Golden Bells Schematic.pdf

The 100k unit zero switch is closed but the reset relay does not activate. If I do that manually everything shuts off. All power, even the GI.

It does not. Also,
I get continuity when I probe those tabs.

Ok, that makes sense. When I have white-blue hooked up to yellow-blue (is that blue?) I get 0.8 ohms. I did move around to maybe green-X and yellow-X and got 40 ohms. Those don’t connect through this switch, but did show what you described about being able to be a complete circuit, but take a long path to get there.

I’ll rotate pics if it will let me, but not working before I post.

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I don’t know how that means a wiper, but the part of the wiper that is tied to the white-blue lug was getting 40 ohms, so open at the wiper and closed going the long way? I pushed down on it and it went to zero ohms. I’ll toy with it tomorrow when everyone is awake. Appreciate the look.

So, what are the rules for Golden Bells?

https://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=1045&picno=1019

I got this game with sunken inserts and worn to the wood art so I cleared it. I recently got it to live again and was playing it last night and realized I don’t think I have all of the information. There are 9 bells and those light when certain (unknown to me as of yet) switches are hit. There are also triangles that advance being lit when you hit a variety of targets labeled advance.

Wondering if my lack of art on the inserts was the issue I went to IMDB. No numbers (my thinking is that each bell has a certain switch that turns it on) on any of the inserts. Also, none that I can see in the non-faded art of the plastics that some of mine are showing to be very faded.

How do I light specific bells?
Is there something that happens when you light them all?
There is red art that has the words “spots when lit” next to several inserts. Is that spotting one of three letters in front of the gobble hole when you hit the lit target?
Does a lit triangle above a lit bell mean you should do something?
Maybe that lights one of those inserts?

Cool game, but I’m sort of flying blind.

Wow, thanks! You both provided lots of info that I hadn’t picked up on just by playing.

The only thing now is to try and figure out why the 6v fuse holder is showing 18V (AC) when I put the black lead on the transformer case. If there is a better place for this I’m all ears. I only care because it blows the 6v fuse in about 30 seconds.

Do these types of targets have a specific name and does anyone know where I can get some? I’d like to get the original logos, but will take unmarked generics if that’s my only option.

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Perfect, thanks!