Help request: Williams Little Chief

75ohm

New member
Joined
Aug 25, 2008
Messages
344
Reaction score
1
Location
Tampa, Florida
Had this in the EM forum... copied here and deleted there...

First time pinball owner, going for it with an EM.

Long story short, something doesn't seem quite right for me and I've troubleshot to the point that I'm asking for help. I've found the information at pinrepair.com for EM to be outstanding but my lack of familiarity has me stumped at this point!

When I first got the machine home last week the plug was in bad shape so I replaced that and turned it on. Nice lights... and that was about it. Cutting to the chase, let me drop a quarter in and see what happens, nothing. Open the coin door, switches are all bent and the wires are mangled on the coin drop...

First question, if I can manage to straighten these out, what are the correct positions? Referencing section 2C from pinrepair.com, I could assume that no contacts on the switches should allow for a reset, correct?

DSC08240.jpg


Upon further reading, I find section 4B reference to free play - feasible and is a good idea. Let's dig in! No credits on the display, clip the top switches... power on. Press the button, cool... the reels zero out... but no ball pop (forgive the reference - is that what it's called?)

I check the switch for the ball and all looks in order. Back to the credit wheel... double checking the pin positions for zero credit and all looks in order... or does it?

If the wheel rotates clockwise as oriented in the picture, the max credit switch will make contact when the lower pin makes contact with the lower switch... so I think. I also deduce that I can move the pin to enable more credits... but that's a guess.

Second question, what am I doing wrong/what should I be focusing on if I can't get the ball into play?

DSC08247.jpg


Thanks for your help!

75ohm
 
You've got some problems with the leaf blades on the coin switches for sure. Plus the copper actuating wire is bent out of position.


First:

The center blade and rear blade must be closed (touching) when the coin switch is at rest (coin trip wire at top of slot). As a coin comes down the slot and starts pushing the copper trip wire down (about halfway in the slot), the trip wire moves the blade switches. As this happens the center blade and rear blade make contact with the front blade thus starting the coin accepted & start motor sequence to put credits up on the wheel.

You're going to have to carefully straighten out those coin switch blades and clean the contacts with an eraser. Be careful bending that copper trip wire. It will break easily and i don't think it has been reproduced.
 
Ken, thanks much... perhaps that is systemic of the inability to cycle a free play... I will address this and follow up! Much appreciated...
 
Anyone have a pic that they can share for my reference for correct orientation of the wire with regard to all other components?
 
As Ken said...the 2 contacts on the right(in the pics) MUST be touching each other at rest.The one on the left touches nothing at rest.Try adjusting them that way first then your freeplay should work fine.Make sure you adjust the contacts for BOTH coin chutes.
 
As Ken said...the 2 contacts on the right(in the pics) MUST be touching each other at rest.The one on the left touches nothing at rest.Try adjusting them that way first then your freeplay should work fine.Make sure you adjust the contacts for BOTH coin chutes.

Thanks so much! I can definitely state that both of mine need some serious attention!
 
So here's where I am on the small amount of time I had to spend on troubleshooting:

1. Got the coin switches aligned and for the first time it would provide a credit, but continues to do this inconsistently.

2. Zeroed out the credit wheel, jumpered for free play, mashed the button, reels zero out, no ball pop.

Same story... no ball. Grr.
 
The bladed coin switch contacts must be _clean_ and properly adjusted so that other needed functions can occur.
 
Roger that... without being rushed for time (aka sneaking out in the garage), I will do this with proper lighting and report back in the next day or two.
 
I just scanned the pictures of the coin trips from the parts catalog. It shows the correct trip wire position and what the switches should look like.

Will send these to Michael Roma for conversion to pdf.
 
Check the connections at the ball kickout coil.Also check the switch that closes when a ball is on it.If that switch does not close then the coil will not kick.
 
Check the connections at the ball kickout coil.Also check the switch that closes when a ball is on it.If that switch does not close then the coil will not kick.

Already on it! That's awesome...

The switch is good, meaning closed when a ball is on it. I need to figure out how to get to the kickout coil... likely that the cover comes off... no? I will get on this tomorrow... been a long day already. Thanks, Burt!
 
Forget about the coin mech problem. If you have it reseting the score reels then your problem is probably in the score motor or the bonus unit/relay as this is what controls the outhole relay on Little Chief. Here's a link to a schematic and the start up sequence if you follow this you should be able to solve your problem.
http://ipdb.org/search.pl?any=little+chief&searchtype=quick

Williams Start-Up Sequence.

When the start button is pressed, the credit unit is decremented. This is done through the credit unit zero position switch and the 2nd coin relay (and the ball count zero position switch).
The end of stroke (EOS) switch on the credit unit decrement coil will energized the coin relay.
The coin relay will trip the game over relay.
The coin relay will energized the reset relay. The score motor will run.
The reset relay will energized the ball count unit reset, through the score motor.
The reset relay energizes the 2nd coin relay latch and game over relay latch coils.
The reset relay will energize the score reset relays, through the score motor.
The score reel reset relays will zero the score reels, through the score motor. The score motor will continue to active the score reset relays until all the score reels reach the zero position.
The reset relay activates the bonus unit coil until the bonus unit zero position switch is activated.
When the bonus relay drops out, the outhole relay is energized through a different bonus unit zero switch and score motor switch.
The outhole relay will run the score motor. The bonus unit will step up once. The ball will be kicked to the shooter lane.


Hope this helps.
Glennon
 
Thanks you two! To me, I do need to mention that nothing on the playfield works under this condition so I've got to dig deeper...
 
Back
Top Bottom