Location: Fort Collins, Colorado.
Symptoms: Score reels sticking, not resetting, 50 and 500 points items not scoring, not always advancing to next player or ball, bonus countdown issues, score accumulating when switching players.
The machine has been missing the rear door for the backbox for a long time and a lot of dust had settled in there. The switch contacts on the player unit needed cleaning and adjusting. This accomplished a lot in eliminating problems. The score advancing when changing players was due to the reset contacts (switch stacks P3 and P4) vibrating or set too close.
The player unit keeps track of ball numbers, player turns, and controls the reset of the scores. What makes working on the player units difficult is that the switch stacks are very close together. I’ve made a home-made switch adjusting tool that is able to fit in between switch stacks. I’ve also made some cleaning strips with a jogged shape them to help with switch cleaning.
Some of the decagon units needed to be rebuilt and contacts cleaned. A majority of the time was spent in the backbox. The owner will craft a new back door to help keep the dust out.
There were a few other mis-adjusted contacts on the bonus unit and the 50 and 500 point relays.
Another EM pinball machine saved.
