When stupidity strikes

wrongdon

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Just thought i would share my easiest repair ever.I have been working on my Gold Wings pin for a few days,2 days invested in repairing bad traces and blown parts.I got the board fixed and am feeling super smart.Get it in the game,it lights up,coins up and when i press start it even acts like it is gonna let me play.The ball release solenoid doesn't kick,check fuses,check all connections,enter test mode and they fire just fine.I have over a half hour invested in this one problem.Go to grab cigarette lighter from my pocket and there they are,no not my balls,but the 2 for the machine lol.Put them in and game plays great.It was just the universe keeping me in check,smart but not so smart lol.
Anyways,i got a kick out of this and thought i would share.
 
LOL. I've been working on my Black Knight and often take out one of the three balls and forget and try to start a game. With a ball missing it will just sit and do nothing...
 
I got a good chuckle out of this. Makes me feel better about the stuff I do too often. Thanks for sharing
 
I always said that you were missing your balls! Good job on troubleshooting the game and getting it running again. Gold Wings, another unappreciated pin. How does your new baby like the air raid siren?
 
I always said that you were missing your balls! Good job on troubleshooting the game and getting it running again. Gold Wings, another unappreciated pin. How does your new baby like the air raid siren?

The baby sleeps right through it,the girlfriend is unimpressed.It is the loudest noise i ever heard a game make lol.
 
It's always the stupid stuff that keeps us humble.

I was working on an Asteroids recently. Replaced the main fuse holder (original had broken internally). After it was all bolted into place, I flipped the switch and nothing. Checked all the interlocks - nothing. Started cursing, wondering whether one of the wires on the bottom of the fuse holder had come off while I was securing it, so I pulled it all back out again and the wires looked fine. Checked it with a meter and continuity through the fuse. Checked all my connections and everything looked okay, but the cab was dead. So - I get up to get something to drink while I think about it, and I look down and noticed that I forgot to plug the game in....
 
In a similar vein, I confess to many times replacing the glass and lockdown, and THEN seeing the balls sitting on a tray or table by the machine... (The "many times" is not good...)
 
One time the magna-save stopped working on my Black Knight after I moved it. A couple hours and accidentally blowing the switch matrix PIA later I realized I hadn't re-attached the ground braid from the cabinet to the head. Ten seconds later it was fixed and I still had a busted switch matrix.
 
One time the magna-save stopped working on my Black Knight after I moved it. A couple hours and accidentally blowing the switch matrix PIA later I realized I hadn't re-attached the ground braid from the cabinet to the head. Ten seconds later it was fixed and I still had a busted switch matrix.

wow he is human! j/k
 
wow he is human! j/k

Haha! I actually take that as a compliment!

EDIT: I had actually just moved the game to and from a local TV station where I was interviewed about pinball and video game restoration making it even more embarrassing. Some authority on pinball repair. HA!
 
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Reminds me of last night... my screw-gun is out of power but I figure I need to finish off the shop-job I am doing on my Secret Service so I pull the apron to clean under it, etc. We all know how long those freakin screws are to get the damn thing off. Manually (without screw gun) they are even worse. :)

Anyway, after I finish cleaning up I put the apron back on and test out the machine.

Immediately the ball kicks from the collection part of the trough to eject hole area ... well... tries to. It seems I flipped the damn gate that prevent the ball from bouncing back to the collection area and now it won't allow balls to kick in to the eject area...

Uggg...

Two long ass screws had to come off... gate flipped... and then put back on.
 
Had an oops with the shop job on my Swords of Fury I just did. I removed 3 star posts from underneath the upper mini playfield, clean and rerubbered them. But to get at them you need to take apart the mini playfield brackets, and remove the mini flipper so you can lift up the mini playfield. So I put everything back together on the mini playfield and forget to install those star posts. So I had to remove everything from the mini playfield again, including the flipper and start all over...uggg..sucked..

**edit**
Also there is a flasher bulb under the mini playfield that has never worked, I installed a 89flasher (13V) and it would flash once and blow instantly. I figured there was just a short or something, or a bad resistor. So I was reading through the manual researching the schematics, and noticed that it actually takes a 1251 (28v) flasher. So I went and bought one at the light shop, and voila...super easy fix hahah...I only killed about 4 x 89's in the process lol
 
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