Re: Need help. New EM went from working great and is now broke! Issue when turning pin on, not playable now.

On Sep 5, 3:45 am, rob046 <rob...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
OK, so I am a new pin owner, and one of the pins I picked up a couple
weeks ago was Stampede.  In real nice shape for its age and more
importantly worked and played great.  However it did need a good
cleaning.  I could tell that nothing but plastics had even been
removed from that table, so I stripped the PF (except the underside of
course) and had my first go at a proper cleaning.

It all went well at that point.  I used ME and novus 2 for the first
time and gave it a nice coat of wax.  Got all the parts back on the PF
and fired the game up.
Then...a problem.

Normally when I flip the switch on this table, everything just lights
up, and that is it (which is normal until you hit the start button).
However, this time when I flipped the switch the lights came on, but
so did one of the motors/rotors (which I can best describe as the
black round box in the front right of the cab that I notice normally
just churns when I get 500 or 5k points).
Yeah, I flip the switch and this sucker just keeps on churning and
making noise like a bonus countdown that never stops!

At first when this happened I was able to get it to stop by pushing
the start button to get a new game started.  And a new game it start,
however after the score resets to zero, it immediately would add 5000
points before I even launched a ball.  Then after that things seemed
normal again.  All of the bumpers, kickers, standups and switches all
worked just fine and scored properly.
However, when I would hit any of the 3 rollover buttons (which I think
score 500) then the same problem I had when I turned the pin on would
start again, only this time 5,000 points kept racking up on every
"ding" (and obviously a rollover doesn't scores 5k, should only be
500).

I was able to stop that 500/5k motor ONLY by hitting the rollover
again, but then when hit yet again, the problem would start again (a
vicious circle!).  Not even holding down a rollover or any switch can
product this effect, you just get the one score and that buzzing noise
until you let go of it.   And that is the case here as well.

So now I'm really confused.  I checked every PF switch anyhow, checked
all the wires I worked around, and all the wires (basically everything
on the underside of the PF, which is obviously where I was working,
never messed with the stuff in the cab) and everything checked out
fine.

A bit later, just troubleshooting, I hit the start button twice and
the same stuff happened.  However, ever since I did that and turned
the pin off and start it up again, I have the same problem I initially
had, except I can't start a game at all now, and I noticed the 2nd
player light remains on at all times (along with game over).  Either
way the pin wasn't working right, but I felt a little better when I
was able to start a game and know everything but the rollovers
functioned properly, but now I can't even do that.

So now I have a beautifully cleaned pin that I stripped and gave it
some real TLC for the first time in over 30 years, and as my luck
would have it now this happens!  I thought this thing would be better
than ever.

Long story shorter, I spent more than a few hours looking and poking
around a bit, but don't know what I'm doing enough to really dig deep
into anything without advice.  Worse yet I probably don't have anybody
that can fix an EM within a 120 mile radius of me!  I'm sure I'll
spend some more hours using my pretty basic knowledge of real pins and
some educated guessing to see if I can come up with something.
However at this point some of you EM guys here at RPG might be my only
hope.  I can do whatever will help figure this out (take pictures, or
better yet even a video).

One thing I do know is that I know this is a good pin, my first pin
and EM, and the first ever pin made by Stern, a piece of history, so
I'll be damned if I let it sit unfixed or get rid of it without it
ever working again.  Maybe I just bumped a wire somewhere or whatever
(and god knows these suckers are filled with tons of wires and
switches), or maybe even something fell down into the switches in the
cab?  I did look though, nothing obvious without tearing it apart, and
already out of ideas.

Any help is much appreciated.  Wanted to keep this post shorter, but
at the same time wanted to give all the details I can.

You will get it, don't despair. We all went through this early in our
EM careers. It may take time.

First thing, as others suggested, recheck the playfield switches that
score 5000. Check that they are open with the playfield down (gravity
could pull a switch closed, if it's gapped too close). Do this with
the rubber in place, if the switch is behind a rubber. Check the back
of each switch where the solder lugs are- inspect them, move them,
spread them apart to check they are not shorted. If you want to, you
can put bits of paper between the contacts or even unsolder them to be
sure they are out of the circuit.

Next, to reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed, you need to use the
schematic, which for many is even more intimidating than a relay bank,
stepper or score motor. Just start studying- you will get the hang of
schematics bit by bit. Right now, we'll just use it to identify what
components are in the 5000 point circuit. Something is scoring 5000
points- on the schematic, start with switches that score 5000 and
trace them back- they will all end up going through the same relays
and score motor switches.

Now find those relays in the 5000 point circuit. Get a good light and
move the relay armature by hand. Learn how to release relays from
their mounting bracket so you can turn it and see it from every
angle. Every contact set will move from open to closed, or closed to
open, no exceptions. The gaps may be small. You need to get a feel
for the proper gap, and you need to be able to adjust the contact
leafs with a proper contact tool. Marvin's guides will help you with
some photos, I'm sure. If these are the enclosed "ice cube" relays,
the covers do come off.

Now you need to go through the score motor. If you thought that the
relay contacts were eye strain, this will truly drive you nuts.
Again, contacts have two positions only, open or closed.

If the circuit goes through a stepper, check that the arm has tenision
enought to give good contact. Judge it against other arms.

On EMs, a closed switch (relay, stepper, score motor, playfield) may
still not pass the current if it is not clean. So as you inspect and
adjust every relay, stepper, and the score motor, you need to burnish
the contacts themselves. Use the proper tool, I think most of the
suppliers can supply the burnishing tool and adjusting tools.

What you are trying to do is get everyting back to where the factory
intended it to be. Look for wires touching, blobs of solder, mangled
contact leaves and of course, ealier "repairs" from previous owners.

When you get sick of this approach, turn the game on and start moving
the relays in the 5000 point circuit by hand. If the problems changes
or clears up, that may be the offending part. That's the great thing
about most EM problems- you can experiment w/ the power on and see
theffects of your adjustments. Also, try to isolate the problem to
the backbox or cabinet or playfield by unpluging the connectors on the
wiring harness. You can do this with the game running. You can
isolate relay contacts with bits of paper.

The most likely areas are the playfield and the relays. But EMs can
be tricky, and the problem may be in an area you don't think is
involved in the 5000 point circuit, but it is.

Good luck, be persisitent and keep the group apprized of you progress.
You will get happy, and the group will always be here. You sound like
you have the right attitude and the desire, keep at it!

Don C.
.

Loading