Target Alpha pinball issues

Atlas100

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I recently bought a beautiful Gottlieb Target Alpha pinball machine. The wires between the top portion and the main playfield section had been cut by the people who found it. (ughhh...) I reconnected every wire and double checked it several times.

I fired it up and all seemed well. It played a little bit odd in that it seemed to give me points for hitting flipper buttons and what not. It also seemed to start a four person game and stay on ball 1/player 1 no matter what.

After playing it for a few minutes, the ball went through the flippers and never came out again. Something in the machine seems to be 'cycling' nonstop. I looked inside and saw a circular metal mechanism rotating which is causing the noise I hear.

This is all very new for me. I don't know much about pinball machines, but I am excited to dive in and start learning. This game was too amazing to pass up.

I hope that somebody can help me to start problem solving what the issue is. Thanks for your help!
 
Cool! Thanks for the links. I will check them out. I didn't realize that EM pinball machines were such a scary project to take on. I just love the look and feel of them. They are unique.

Hopefully more people will post more ideas etc. if they have them.
 
Random scoring when you hit the flipper is typically caused by the contacts on a switch on the playfield being too close. Some times it will also do this when the pop bumpers are hit by the ball. The vibration causes the switch to make contact.

Glennon
 
Thanks for the head's up on that. That would definitely make sense. Looks like I've got my work cut out for me...
 
EMs scare me because of all the switches, but solid states scare me because of all the board work. I have started doing my own board work, and kinda like it. I would love to tackle an EM, but I am still scared of working on most pins. I picked up a machine last week that I thought I would have to do a ton of work on to get some learn on. I had it up and running in a few hours and it felt really good. Still lots of work to go on it though.

Pins are fun for sure.
 
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