Ice Cold Beer: ball solenoid sometimes doesn't have enough kick
I've been working on my new ICB the last couple of nights and twice the game has gotten into a state where the solenoid won't fire the ball hard enough to get it over the hump. For some reason, perhaps coincidence, this has only happened the two times the ball has fallen from the bar. Once this happens, the game will go into it's hunt mode, moving the bars around and firing the solenoid. But the solenoid never shoots it hard enough at this point, and I have to turn the game off and use my finger to manually "fire" the solenoid. From that point on, the game plays fine and the solenoid has enough kick.
Has anyone run into something like this? Is it a sign that the solenoid isn't getting enough voltage? What might explain the fact that the solenoid will work fine over, and over, and over, and then once it fails to shoot it over the hump, will continue to fail over and over?
On the plus side, I got the rods cleaned and lubed last night. Had a scare momentarily when putting the rods back together and noticing that they didn't slide easily. I realized the outer rod was slightly bent. Immediately I wondered if I can't get it bent back adequately, what then??? But I was able to bend it back and now the rods are super smooth.
I've been working on my new ICB the last couple of nights and twice the game has gotten into a state where the solenoid won't fire the ball hard enough to get it over the hump. For some reason, perhaps coincidence, this has only happened the two times the ball has fallen from the bar. Once this happens, the game will go into it's hunt mode, moving the bars around and firing the solenoid. But the solenoid never shoots it hard enough at this point, and I have to turn the game off and use my finger to manually "fire" the solenoid. From that point on, the game plays fine and the solenoid has enough kick.
Has anyone run into something like this? Is it a sign that the solenoid isn't getting enough voltage? What might explain the fact that the solenoid will work fine over, and over, and over, and then once it fails to shoot it over the hump, will continue to fail over and over?
On the plus side, I got the rods cleaned and lubed last night. Had a scare momentarily when putting the rods back together and noticing that they didn't slide easily. I realized the outer rod was slightly bent. Immediately I wondered if I can't get it bent back adequately, what then??? But I was able to bend it back and now the rods are super smooth.
