gottlieb em startup problem

cleverlyj

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I just picked up a Captain Kidd pin, which doesn't work.

It was advertised as having a loud buzzing noise coming from it. When I got it home, I played one game, and the buzzing got louder. After that it doesn't play any more. Moving the playfield up, I noticed the buzzing noise is coming from the reset 'wheel' that's mounted on the underside of the playfield, and from the harness that connects to it, the two pins on each end are unplugged. I can turn the wheel by hand, so it's not seized up, however i'm not sure what the issue is. If I move the switch on the left side of the wheel apart, the buzzing noise goes away, however it comes back the second the switch makes contact.

I was able to play one game after moving the leaf switch apart, however after hitting start to play another game, when everything reset (score wheels, etc) the buzzing noise came back, and it lights up but won't do anything else, almost like a tilt mode.

Anyone have any ideas?


also, i have been looking at marvin3m's Em page, but didn't see anything that exactly tells me what i should be looking at.

if you look at the main pic on this page, that's the reset part on the bottom left that makes the buzzing noise when the switch is connected.

http://ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=437&picno=11361&zoom=1

edit - also, the score motor does seem to run all the time, i don't know if this is related or will help anyone with this...
 
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I just picked up a Captain Kidd pin, which doesn't work.

It was advertised as having a loud buzzing noise coming from it. When I got it home, I played one game, and the buzzing got louder. After that it doesn't play any more. Moving the playfield up, I noticed the buzzing noise is coming from the reset 'wheel' that's mounted on the underside of the playfield, and from the harness that connects to it, the two pins on each end are unplugged. I can turn the wheel by hand, so it's not seized up, however i'm not sure what the issue is. If I move the switch on the left side of the wheel apart, the buzzing noise goes away, however it comes back the second the switch makes contact.

I was able to play one game after moving the leaf switch apart, however after hitting start to play another game, when everything reset (score wheels, etc) the buzzing noise came back, and it lights up but won't do anything else, almost like a tilt mode.

Anyone have any ideas?


also, i have been looking at marvin3m's Em page, but didn't see anything that exactly tells me what i should be looking at.

if you look at the main pic on this page, that's the reset part on the bottom left that makes the buzzing noise when the switch is connected.

http://ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=437&picno=11361&zoom=1

edit - also, the score motor does seem to run all the time, i don't know if this is related or will help anyone with this...
I can't tell what unit that is in the picture, but it's a stepper unit. It should have a tag on it that tells what it is. If it's buzzing at the unit sounds like you have a stuck coil which means you have a contact/ leaf switch out of adjustment thats causing it to stay on and that switch is probably located on a relay.To find out which one need to get the schematic and trace it down. you can probably trace it down but I garuntee something else will pop up. As much as you won't want to hear this you need to take a day and go through everything. If I pick up an EM pinball machine I allways go through and adjust and clean everything, then if i have an issue at a latter time then I just look for the specifec problem. Let me know what that stepper unit is for and I'll try and help you more if I can.

Glennon
 
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that's the stepper/reset stepper, and it's gummed up to all hell, which is why it's sticking and not moving. can you tell me what the 0-9 stepper does? not familiar with that.
 
that's the stepper/reset stepper, and it's gummed up to all hell, which is why it's sticking and not moving. can you tell me what the 0-9 stepper does? not familiar with that.
If it's gummed up you'll need to take it apart and clean it up Be sure to make some allignment marks for the wipers /fingers so you get it back together right. I've never owned that game but have had a couple around the same time frame from Gottlieb. I'll look through some of my stuff and notes and see what I can come up with. Do you have a schematic for it? 0-9 sounds like the match unit but a match unit would be continuous stepper not a reset. If it's safe turn the game on start a game and manually advance the stepper and see what it controls.
Glennon
 
0-9 stepper sounds like the match number unit.
I was thinking the same thing as that game has three score reels and has a ones unit but he stated it's a reset stepper and wouldn't a match unit be a continuous stepper?

Glennon
 
the 0-9 stepper is a match stepper and is continuous. i just was curious what it did, and what bearing it has on starting the game. i'm trying to clean out the advance/reset stepper however the screw holding the pin in is in so tight it's starting to strip so i'm trying to figure that out.
 
and the buzzing was coming from the reset coil on the advance/reset stepper due to it being stuck. the coil would just freeze cause it couldn't turn the stepper.
 
allright. got the main reset/advance stepper cleaned and working properly. after that i managed to play a game, and then it failed to start a game again.

where i'm at right now is that when pressing the start button to turn the game on the score motor at the bottom turns continuously. is that good or bad?

and also, the backbox doesn't light up, except when the tilt relay leaf switch is separated. should it be normally separated or should the leafs be connected?

now, the times that the game has played, it has automatically started a game when the start button is first pressed to turn on the machine. is this correct? or should i be coining it up?

also, the game has a non polarized plug/line cord on it. however, i do see a green ground wire? connected to the left flipper button. it isn't connected to anything else. i do get randomly shocked when pressing the flipper or start buttons, would this indicate it should be grounded?
 
Pushing start button and motor runs continuously means something has not been fully reset. Check score reel switches, bonus unit resets, bank resets, etc.


Check out the EM pinball repair guides at marvin3m.com

They cover the Gottlieb startup sequence for the various vintages of Gottlieb's electromechanical games.

Starting in the late 1960's pinball manufacturers went to a circuit design that after power switch was turned on, all the lights would be out, but game was actually on. Pushing either the _LEFT_ flipper button _or_ pushing the start button would turn on the lights.

Gottlieb was well known for shocking from the flipper buttons and start button. Replace the fishpaper insulator as directed in the marvin3m.com repair guide.
 
hey ken, posting under a new acct temporarily as my password somehow got reset on my old one, i got it working, mostly. there was another advance/reset reel on the head that wasn't labeled, but was out of adjustment in the reset position causing the contacts to not be touching the rivets. fixing that fixed it.

the only problem i have now is that none of the lights on the head work. if i manually close the tilt relay under the game, the 2nd player score reel lights come on, but aside from that, they're out. i've checked the fuse for the head lights and it's good, and there's continuity on both sided of the holder as well. any ideas what to looks for there?
 
hey ken, posting under a new acct temporarily as my password somehow got reset on my old one, i got it working, mostly. there was another advance/reset reel on the head that wasn't labeled, but was out of adjustment in the reset position causing the contacts to not be touching the rivets. fixing that fixed it.

the only problem i have now is that none of the lights on the head work. if i manually close the tilt relay under the game, the 2nd player score reel lights come on, but aside from that, they're out. i've checked the fuse for the head lights and it's good, and there's continuity on both sided of the holder as well. any ideas what to looks for there?
Check your connectors. On one of my older Gottlieb machines when you first turn the game on there are only a couple lights on in the back box ,when you start a game the lights come on. This is activated by the tilt relay and the hold relay. Check those and also check your start relay switches and make sure everything is adjusted properly and clean.

Glennon
 
Tilt relay is reset by the bank via the score motor if I recall correctly. Lights for additional players are controlled by each player's "player relay" like 2nd Player Relay, 3rd Player Relay, etc.
 
Tilt relay is reset by the bank via the score motor if I recall correctly. Lights for additional players are controlled by each player's "player relay" like 2nd Player Relay, 3rd Player Relay, etc.

what does the tilt relay do? just operate the tilt function?


and ken/glennon - what does the hold relay do exactly? and which relay would operate the basic backbox/ 1 player lights on there?
 
glennon - on my game, it is setup for free play, but the playfield lights right up when you start a game. those lights all work as they should, as far as i can tell.
 
glennon - on my game, it is setup for free play, but the playfield lights right up when you start a game. those lights all work as they should, as far as i can tell.
What you need to do since you just got the game is shop it out. Just start cleaning and adjusting the switches on all the relays. You can use some very fine sand paper or most pinball suppliers sell a small file for cleaning up the contacts on the switches. Then tackle the stepper units. That will take alot of guess work out of it. And you'll more than likely come acroos your problem as your doing these things. I wish I lived closer to you I love working on these EM machines.
Glennon
 
what does the tilt relay do? just operate the tilt function?


and ken/glennon - what does the hold relay do exactly? and which relay would operate the basic backbox/ 1 player lights on there?
The tilt relay kills the flippers, popbumpers, bonus feature and playfield lights on most games until the ball hits the out hole and then it's rest through a series of relays by the score motor for the next ball.
Glennon
 
i've actually got it working now, including the back lights. the fuse holders were loose making a lack of continuity. pinching them together fixed that issue. now i've just got a shitload of old-ass lightbulbs to replace.
 
i've actually got it working now, including the back lights. the fuse holders were loose making a lack of continuity. pinching them together fixed that issue. now i've just got a shitload of old-ass lightbulbs to replace.
Yeah I had that problem on A bally EM once. Fuse holder tested out fine but wasn't really making a good connection. I'd think about replacing the fuse block. here's a good place to get one. http://www.marcospecialties.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=FHSM4 If you don't allready know about this Pinball parts dealer you might want to check it out. They also have the lights for $15 per 100 .

Glennon
 
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