Hello All. First of all, I'm fairly new to EM, but I've been reading
and reading, trying to soak in all I can. Let me bring everyone up to
speed on my machine. I have a 1975 Gottlieb Top Score (2 player
version of 300).
This was a machine that my friend bought at auction in non-working
condition. He gave to me as payment for some computer work. There
was no history with the game other than a counter (51K plays). There
was electrical tape on the credit unit that I estimate to be 10-15
years old which tells me it's been out of service about that long and
in private hands (set to free play).
Before I even took possession of the machine I started studying
http://marvin3m.com/fix.htm and found a wealth of information there.
When I did get the machine, I started right in with the “systematic
approach” described in the doc. This was a good choice on my
particular machine, since I found many switches out of adjustment and
quite dirty. Plus, there seemed to be some sort of reddish-
penetrating oil between many of the contacts. On the ones with a
short throw (AX, BX, etc.), this oil left a bead of fluid on open.
So, long story short, I cleaned and adjusted every single one. By
doing this, I was able to get the machine to the point where I could
stop the scoring motor by pulling AX, but when I initiated S, the
scoring motor ran and ran.
I pulled the scoring reels and found that 0-9 were intact but that
three switches which are hidden from view were broken off. I posted
the following to the group on Jan 24.
----EM Tech Team Advice Needed - Broken leaves on Gottlieb Decagon
Score Reel---
As a result of this advice I called Jeff Young's PBR. I talked to a
guy...this is where is gets weird. He actually talked me out of
buying parts. He told me that those switches have nothing to do with
the start-up sequence. If the 0-9 switches are okay then those broken
switches are not my issue.
Not often someone you call to buy stuff from will refuse to sell you
the stuff and tell you to go back to work, but it's kind of
refreshing. Turns out the guy was right and the broken switches were
indeed a false alarm. I pulled every relay once again, cleaned and
adjusted, etc. I pulled the scoring motor off its hinges and really
got my file down in there and cleaned and adjusted.
Viola! Scoring motor now stops!
So now I'm on to the next problem. Here is a summary of what I'm
seeing.
1. Manually put a few points on the decagon scoring reel for both
players
2. Put ball in out hole.
3. Manually set credit "half moon" to 12 o'clock, 0 credits.
4. Turn on machine. Relay Q (game over) and Relay U (first ball)
pull inward. Game Over light illuminates for about a second and then
begins flashing. Tilt is lit.
6. Drop a coin in the P1 slot. Game either adds credits or starts,
depending how 1st-2nd chute is set. Max credit seems to function okay
as well since 9 is the most you can add.
7. On start, all playfield lights flash and player unit in backbox
spins then player one score goes to zero. Player unit then clicks
once more and player two score goes to zero. Then player unit spins
one last time and scoring motor spins and stops. This would seem to
indicate successful reset....however...here is weird part. Playfield
lights go dead. Ball kicks from out hole and ball indicator is 1.
Tilt relay opens when this happens and tilt hold moves but re-actuates
itself. Then ball passes over ball trough and ball indicator moves to
two. First ball is ready to shoot, but the indicator says this is
ball two.
8. If you shoot the ball the entire playfield is dead. No lights and
nothing scores or works. Flippers are dead also.
9. In addition, some of the tilt switches are dead and have no
effect. The NC vibration tilt switch under the playfield has no
effect. There are two NC tilt switches in the backbox. One ends the
game when opened, one doesn't. The pendulum has no effect, nor does
the ball level. The coin box vibration ends the game and pulls the
coil that diverts coins to the return.
9. However, if you keep putting the ball in the out hole it will keep
moving it across the trough and doing so will decrement the proper
number of balls. If you're playing a two-player game the scoring reel
lights alternate between players until the game is over and the match
sequence is initiated and then the game flashes "Game Over." So in
this sense you can play -- you just can't score and can't flipper. If
you manually put the ball into the yellow or red bonus holes their
relays will actuate and the ball will get kicked back out. This is
the only feature on the playfield that works at all. Oddly, if you
manually actuate scoring relays during a player's turn you give them
points. I've simulated a matching sequence this way, and on match you
get credits.
10. One thing I find odd is that though all of this the Tilt light
never goes off. Also, 1st ball relay U is actuated and buzzing, even
though ball 1 got skipped entirely during this game.
11. Another odd thing is that each time you press the ball out hole
switch the tilt relay actuates, no matter how many times you do it.
It's like they are wired together.
Well, that's about it in a nutshell. I did find some things here and
there that aren't as they should be on my machine but I don't think
they are to blame for this problem. Obviously I still have the 3
broken switches inside the scoring reels. Also, I'm missing two
contacts on my pop bumper switches which should be NC, but shorting
them with alligator test clips has no effect. I also found that my KS
relay coil was dead, but I de-soldered and swapped with the ball gate
relay and now KS advances to 5 when I first move a ball over the
trough but the Tilt problem remains. It could be that KS is out of
synch between the cams and the disc, but I don't know how I'd know
this.
So I'm hoping that there's somebody out there that can at least point
me in the correct direction. Short of going through every switch a
third time I don't know what else to do.
Thanks in advance!
Dan
Linear Mode
