Williams 1970 3 Jokers - Need Tech Help Bad

[Pauz21]

Hi all,

Bunch of us from work decided to pool our money to buy the boss a pinball for a Christmas gift. With me being the pin head I was the one in charge of the purchase. After having the one I wanted fall through I put a post out on kijiji wanting an EM in 100% working order. Long story short... I bought a pin that was in cold storage from a guy I'd dealt with before and thought I could trust.

Well... I've been spending every spare moment for for the last 3 and a half weeks working on this thing and it still doesn't work properly. Christmas party is in 10 days and I'm to the point where I'm not so concerned about the odd scoring bug... but it does need to play.

Right now here's where I'm at.

Game resets 90% of the time. Once in a while it starts the game it doesn't reset the score. And I don't mean it struggles to reset it, I mean it doesn't even try to reset the score... just energizes the coils and kicks the ball out. Again, while I want to get this fixed I'm not too concerned about this as you can just turned it off, on and start another game.

Here's what NEEDS to get fixed before the party:

Outhole coil doesn't seem to have enough jam... it just love taps the ball over and over as it falls back over the switch. Occassionally it will pound the ball but we're talking probably once out of 50. Not sure if that's a ground issue or what. Obviously, with the glass in... this can't happen. Gotta fix it.

Ball count stepper - It's not gummed up. I've cleaned it up, moves freely on both the advance and the decline. But when you reset the game it goes down to zero balls and doesn't move up. So you get the "zero" ball. If you lose it. It's game over. If you happened to score an extra ball it advances to BALL 1 so you're still done if you lose a ball. So as I mentioned... if I manually move it to 9 balls and start a game it has no trouble zero'ing the ball counter. And if you get awarded an extra ball, it has no trouble advancing it. Just clears everything on reset and doesn't come back up. I've tried it on 5 ball and 3 ball settings with the same result

Free Play - I followed the directions I found online but doesn't seem to be working. I know it's something stupid but this will be a pain in the butt if I can't fix that.

Here's what I'd LIKE to get fixed before the party:

1) The previously mentioned score not resetting all the time issue.

2) Top Rollovers - For some reason... when you hit the top roll overs only 1, sometimes 2 and sometime None work. It's seems random and it's never the same lane acting up. For example. Some games none of the rollovers work. If that happens... the pop bumpers will fire but none score.

Other games, if I hit say the ace on ball launch it will score and the pop bumper it lit for 100pts will score but none of the other pops will score and none of the other lanes will score.

Sometimes... it works for 2 lanes/pop bumpers.

3) And this is related to #2. Sometimes the pops which should score 10 if they're not lit don't score at all. Other times... they'll score 10 until a rollover is tripped them they no longer score other than the 1, 100pt bumper that the rollover lit.

Last night I managed to find 5 loose wires on the coin door that were very professionally hidden inside some shrink wrap. Don't know where they should be going but I'm hoping that's connected.

 

[Pauz21]

Tried to post a pic of the loose wires but it's too big. Will try again shortly.

Thanks for any help or suggestions you can offer.

 

[dr.nybble]

Check the switches on all score reels. Advance the reels through the numbers, make sure the switches are opening/closing properly at 9, 0 and 1. There is a nylon fork that moves up/down as you pass through 9, 0 and 1. Particularly make sure that both 0 switches are adjusted properly.

Have you disassembled and cleaned the outhole assembly? Checked the coil to make sure it is good? Replace the coil sleeve on the outhole coil, that vastly improved the kick on my 1970 Williams. Make sure the plunger is smooth.

 

[dr.nybble]

Try posting on maaca too there are some experienced EM folks there.

I am not familiar with how add a ball games are supposed to be reset. What should it reset to?
Can you find the manual/schematic for this or a similar game?

 

[Pauz21]

Try posting on maaca too there are some experienced EM folks there.

I am not familiar with how add a ball games are supposed to be reset. What should it reset to?
Can you find the manual/schematic for this or a similar game?

Schematic is very hard to find for this game and with the time frame I'm dealing with it would be nearly impossible. I have to give this away as a present in 10 days. Game should zero on reset then move up to either 3 or 5 balls depending on the jones plug setting at the back. It resets to zero fine. And if you are awarded an extra ball during the game it moves up fine. But on reset it moves down to zero and spits out a ball.

 

[sylvain]

Ouch, *many* things wrong with this machine... The cold storage and maybe dampness most probably contributed to this.
The good news is that this is a single-player machine, which makes it a simpler machine to work on.

This useful reference should help:
http://www.pinrepair.com/em/index.htm

First, make sure all contact stacks on relays and steppers are tight before adjusting any contacts.
Make sure no contact cleaner or oil is sprayed on contacts. Do you have a flexstone tool to clean contacts ?

- Game sometimes not resetting on a new game - probable issue (mechanical or electrical contacts adjustments/cleaning)
with the Game Over interlock relay, and/or the Reset relay.

- Ball eject not strong enough - often this is caused by either a dirty switch on a relay (including Outhole relay),
and a switch on the score motor (dirty or gap too large, so the score motor provides a too short impulse to the ball eject coil).

- Ball Count unit - need to first confirm the switches on it are properly adjusted and activate at their expected position (zero position, etc.).

- Freeplay - easy to do on the Credit unit - the proper switches on it must be 'misadjusted properly' to fool the machine
in thinking there are credits left. Basically, the contact blades must be gently bent so that at zero credit, the switch blades
are in the same position as with credit unit positions 1 and up.

- points not always added - have you checked the contacts on the 10, 100, 1000 points relays in the backbox ?

- top rollovers - probably those playfield switches themselves - gapping and need to be cleaned with a flexstone.

- no scoring for some thing when a feature is attained (pop bumper lit in your example) - usually caused by a dirty or misadjusted
switch on the relay or bank for that feature. Check for mechanical (proper movement if unlatched by hand) and electrical.

- loose wires inside cash door - probably not related to any of your issues - typically this is for an optional 3rd coin switch, when only 2 equipped.

Good luck !
- Sylvain.