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Captain Fantastic - goes to 4 player automatically

in2pin

Member
Dec 11, 2014
55
7
8
Georgetown, ON
When I start the machine and press the credit button once it goes to 4 player.
Any suggestions, I am hoping it is an easy fix since I am not a repair guy!
Looking forward to your input.
 

sylvain

Active Member
Apr 27, 2013
209
75
28
Ottawa, ON
Check and confirm that the Player-up unit and Coin unit steppers properly reset to their 'zero' position at game start, e.g. that their ratchets are not mechanically gummed-up, and that all springs are present on those units, so they can return to zero at game start, once their reset coil is activated.
 

in2pin

Member
Dec 11, 2014
55
7
8
Georgetown, ON
To be honest don’t know what even of what you said means but I will start doing some google research to see if I can find the items you have suggested to check out.
 

John Price

Member
May 31, 2020
75
21
8
Tottenham ON
Down on the bottom board there are 2 large square units in the center. These units have 2 coils, one coil steps the unit, the other resets it. When you manually push the lever that connects to one coil, you should see the unit move one step each push through 4 positions. When you push the lever on the other coil the unit should freely slide back to the first position. Your machine is not doing that. The probable reason for that is that the unit is dirty. The fix is easy and usually takes half an hour to complete. I've done it a hundred times. Disassemble the wiper arm from the axle and clean those arm contacts and the rivets on the unit with metal polish. Put it back together and manually test it. If the unit resets freely you should be back in business. If it does not, check to see if one of the several springs on the mechanism is broken or missing. Also check the lever mechanism and ratchet disc for excess dirt or grease and clean. A clean unit is a happy unit. If it looks good but still doesn't reset freely, you will need to increase the tension on the large round spring on the axle by moving it a to the next available hole on the ratchet disc. Hope this helps.
 

in2pin

Member
Dec 11, 2014
55
7
8
Georgetown, ON
Hello All

I am bringing this question back as to be honest I never got in to tackling the problem as no one was playing the machine. Recently we starting playing again and there are several issues but the amount of players is the one I want to tackle first if I am able. It appears most times the machine is starting up at 2 players instead of one. What should I be looking at to resolve this issue? It will go to 3 and 4 player when the credit button is pushed but only seems to go back to 2 player not 1 player.
 

thewebexpert

Administrator
Staff member
Nov 14, 2012
348
86
28
Almonte, Ontario
I would check open up the game and clean the contacts where you press the start button ... perhaps it is sticking.... I would also open the back panel and clean all of the contact, if they are gummed up, often when it is trying to reset itself, it will will not detect some of those pads and advance ... My toledo used to skip stuff often, I cleaned all of the contacts, and it started to behave normal again.
 

amona

New Member
Nov 19, 2012
19
1
3
61
Barrie
Link John says above "Down on the bottom board there are 2 large square units in the center. These units have 2 coils, one coil steps the unit, the other resets it. When you manually push the lever that connects to one coil, you should see the unit move one step each push through 4 positions. When you push the lever on the other coil the unit should freely slide back to the first position. Your machine is not doing that."

So pop the ball out, lift the playfield and check those two units. Don't try and turn them. by hand work the solenoids in the same way the machine would when the coil fires. One of them will step up three times when you work one coil and then reset back when you work the other. you most likely will see that it steps up the three ok but when you work the other it barely moves in the other direction. Give it a little nudge and it goes back to the proper rest position. Cleaning the contacts/rivets on the rivets side of the disk is sometimes enough to get it to reset better. The better way is to strip it down, clean it up and put it back together. Most likely what was used to lubricate it years ago is now acting more like glue today.

The best thing to do with it is to pack it up in the back of the car and drop it off in Barrie so I can go through the whole machine, I'm not that expensive...

I normally don't make such blatant pitches for repair work - but I sold my Capt. just a week or so ago and didn't get to play it that one last time