I suck at pinball repair

jehuie

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Got this F-14 and the pop number and both left and right slingshots switches aren't working. They work when I jumper across the pins on the board but I can't get them to work. I'm new at pins and I read the faq and I just left the room muttering under my breath.

Hunching over trying to squint with my color blind eyes and figure out what's going on in there just isn't working for me tonight. Plus I'm hungry and tired.

Did you guys all just figure this stuff out on your own or did someone show you how to work on these things?
 
I started out the same way, but between clay's site and the members here, I have learned enough to figure out most problems on my own. It really helps if you can understand the schematics though.
 
Same here. I was completely clueless when I started out. Definitely helps to understand schematics, but I also found searching old posts to be very helpful in understanding how these things work. Read a lot! Chances are, someone else has had your problem. I usually find enough information to help me diagnose and have learned to figure a lot out on my own, just by trial and error...and the occasional "oh crap, I think I fried this thing" when I realize I'm in over my head. Worst case, I toss up a HELP ME post. Just did one this morning actually.
 
Buddy pinball repair is definitely an ART, and takes time to become proficient with IMO.

When I had to do the repairs on my Time Warp, and I was being told to jumper this and check these resistors and blah blah blah, I was like WTF did I get myself into. I pulled it off but it definitely takes some Jedi patience until you get the hang of it.

Don't bail. Anyone can do that.
 
rec.games.pinball is great, but you really need a copy of Clay's guide. PM me if you can't find them.
 
Thanks guys. I have Clay's guide. It's most excellent. It gives something like 15 possible problems for non-working switches. I've checked the obvious ones and couldn't find anything. So now I've got to delve into the less common ones I guess. All 3 switches (5 actually since there's 2 on each slingshot) are completely not registering.

I wish I had a junk machine that I could just disassemble a bunch of stuff to see how it all works without fear of screwing it up before taking off parts here that I don't really need to remove.

Pictures are good but there's nothing like seeing all the components face to face to understand them.
 
Did you guys all just figure this stuff out on your own or did someone show you how to work on these things?

Figured it out myself mostly using info from the internet. Not necessarily just pinball repair info. Keep in mind that it's not going to happen overnight.

I wish I had a junk machine that I could just disassemble a bunch of stuff to see how it all works without fear of screwing it up before taking off parts here that I don't really need to remove.

Sometimes there will be diagrams in the manual showing exploded views of parts but sometimes you just have to dive in there. Just remember how it comes apart. That happened to me recently replacing the toiler on a South Park. What a nightmare. In the end it all went back together. Just took a while.
 
If you're going to take anything apart...take pictures, lots of them.
Helps even more if you're like me and you tear everything apart, only to not have any time for weeks or even months to go put it back together...doing that without pictures can be an "OMFG..." moment, or two...or three.
 
Something else that helped me, besides the connectors being keyed, the manual will list what color wires go into which connectors. Unfortunately there are sometimes errors, but if you are really stuck, it's an option.
 
Ok I went out with my meter and started tracking down why the slingshots don't work. The switches do not register when I'm running the edge test.

I verified that the mpu board is working by jumping the pins and the edge test registered them that way. And I verified that the switches themselves are working by connecting the meter directly to them and my meter beeps when I activate them so they are good.

So I looked at my switch-matrix table and see that both of them are in the right hand column along with Left Flipper Return, Right Flipper Return, Left Drain, Right Drain and Left Flipper E.O.S.....so I went to each of these and checked to be sure the wires were connected and not shorting out. They appear fine.

It seemed most likely to me that the problem would be in this column since both switches failed together right?

So before I go and check all 14 switches in row 1 and 2, am I even on the right track? Is there something more I should be looking for besides just a loose wire r connectors shorting together?
 
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