Possible solutions for a 1974 Williams EM pinball?

elekTRONarcade

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Hey all,

I recently bought a 1974 Williams Gulfstream that had been stored outside under a carport for some time. After I got it home and cleaned out the spiders (*shiver*) and fixed a few broken solder joints, the game powered up and all the solenoids kicked in just fine. I was able to get it to play one time, and after the counter hit 1000, I shut it down midgame via the switch since it seemed to work.

After I powered it back on to give it a second playthrough, the machine didn't work. I hit the left flipper button to activate the playfield, the lights all lit up yet the game did nothing else. The counter didn't reset, nothing responded to button presses, the credit switch in the coin door didn't work, nothing except for the lit playfield/back glass.

Given the symptoms above, are there any certain switches I should check/reset to get the game going again?
 
Try manually moving the score motor a quarter turn with the game off. Perhaps it is stuck between turns and is "confused".

You could also manually add a credit to the game by advancing the credit unit in the backbox and see if the game will fire up from there.
 
a lot of times, when you shut off a game in the middle of a game, and it wont work after that,its the game over relay. that relay trips at the end of a game, and the game over light come on in the backglass. if you end a game early, the game over relay trips when you push the credit button. it also will trip when you hit the flipper button. turn the game on and hit the left flipper. if it doesnt say game over, it wont start. if it does, then the relay did trip, and you have another problem . if its not tripped, trip it by hand. it has two coils, one pulls it in to the latched position. the other unlatches it. trip the unlatch coil( its 90 degrees to the relay). when tripped, the game over light should light. if it does, try to start a game. if it starts, that was it. then you have to trace it out and find out why it doesnt first trip.

report back :)

good luck
mike
 
Thanks for the heads up mike. Without risking sounding like a noob to EM pinballs (which I totally am), where would that particular relay most likely be found? I've yet to find a PDF manual for this particular game, Tropic Fun, or any other 73-74 Williams pinball with a similar configuration.
 
funny, last week i overhauled a tropic fun. small world . looking in the bottom, from the coin door end, its on the right side, near the back. its the last relay, or maybe second to last. its a 2 coil relay, most are single coil. there should be stickers to ID them. if they are missing, you will be lost if you dont know the game well. forget a pdf, i doubt one exists. if you care about the game, get the manual( to ID the relays), and a schematic. pinball resource has them. if it is the game over relay, and you had trouble id'ing it, you will most likely be in real deep trying to find why it doesnt work.
 
Unfortunately when I contacted Steve, he told me he hasn't had one in stock in quite some time for either Gulfstream or TF. I'm about to open her up and try your recommendation.


EDIT 1: Well, looks like ol' Murphy's laying the law down on this one. Seems the "Game Over" light is lit after all. I've reset the credit and score dials back to no avail. if it helps, the only two playfield elements that seem to still be active are the kickout solenoids. They trip and kick the ball out whenever its dropped into the recesses.


EDIT 2: Looks like blind luck pays off sometimes. Once I had the playfield lifted, I tried tapping a few of the relays with varying results, until at last something reset the unit, and now the playfield is active again. Flippers work, switches work and adjust the score, etc. The only things that don't seem to be working are the credit switches, and the thousands wheel on the score isn't changing.

Attached is a pic of the particular relay (third from the back) that *seems* to reset the game.
 

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So, now that it's partially working, I figured out one major detail with this cab: the ball end switch/relay isn't working when the ball passes between the flippers, which in turn isn't allowing the game to end. I'll take a closer look at it later. Big thanks to mike for the help!
 
bro, looking at the pic you attached, i can see the relay labels right under each relay. they relay you need to know the name of has the name right under it. what does it say?
 
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