Stargate Lower Left Ball Gate

GrimJack0

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I just picked up a nice Stargate. Everything is working except the lower left ball gate. The previous owner said it never worked and he removed the arm.

I installed a new coil and arm. I wired it exactly how the old coil was wired. The coil is immediatley energized when you turn it on. I went through the solenoid tests. The gate still does not close. It is always energized. I believe that the coil and switch are not wired correctly. The previous coil had oozed material into the shaft hole.

Can anyone guide me on how this should be wired so I can check mine? Thanks.
 
That gate is a piece of shit. Bad design, tears up the playfield. Everyone says these Premiere games are built like tanks but yet somehow every single one I have seen people ask tech stuff about has transistors locked on. My Strgate did that crap too. I fixed it, sold it, new owner ha a different one lock on a week later.

*{^#%]* thing.
 
You have a blown transistor. You can check it with a multimeter. When I had mine apart to restore it I went and checked each one and replaced all the ones that tested bad. If you go through the game and check everything and do the ground mods then system 3 games are just about bullet proof. Mine had not had any problems at all once all the bugs were worked out. It's just like any other Pinball. Once its working properly then it usually stays that way unless you missed something to start with.
 
Sounds like a blown transistor.

It's nice to see another John Ostrander fan on here (Grimjack - aka John Gaunt, aka Jim Twilly).

I have some covers and some pages from the old series.

Not that those will help you with a blown transistor. It's an easy fix though.
 
Thanks to everyone for the replies.

I have the first 20 issues and loved them. Ostrander is great! I followed his work which led me to collect the comics.

I am not very experienced with pinball repairs as I am with arcades. What transistors?
 
on the driver board, the locked on coil likely took out the transistor with it. You will need to pull the board out, desolder the old, solder in the new transistor, dont leave the game powered up with a locked on coil , shut it off fix it first. The manual will tell you which coil on the gate corresponds with the correct transistor location...
 
Thanks. I found the transistor on the schematic. I am placing an order for replacements.
 
If I remember right stargate has two spares on the board that you can use in a pinch. If you already ordered them then just wait for them to come in.
 
Replaced the bad transistor and replaced the burned coil for the lower left ball gate and it works now. Thanks for all the help.

Does anyone know the rules for when this gate opens and closes? It opens and closes often and sometimes it seems that the game does not know it is in the gate. The ball sits in there for a few seconds and then the pin pops all the kickers to find the ball.
 
The ball should shoot right back out of the gate. If it has to do a ball search to shoot it out then adjust your switch thats in there or make sure its working. They used smart switches in that game but i had a few that still had to be adjusted to work right.
 
Thanks. I found another post which said too clean and adjust the switch. I did that and it works great now. Thanks for the reply and info.
 
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