William's Flash GI lights not lighting anymore...

Bullwinkle

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OK, I was working on my Flash machine, playfield up and trying to fix the last GI lamp that was dim. I moved it slightly and all of the GI lights went out. I checked the lamp I was working on and I haven't caused a short (at least not a permanent one). If it did short and it doesn't seem to be the lamp I was working on , is there a fuse it may have blown or have I opened up pandora's box? Any suggestions on what I should check?

Thanks,

-Tom
 
The socket itself could be defective and shorting. Check it with a DMM.

There should be a fuse for the GI circuit as well. You probably blew it.
 
There's a single 20 amp fuse for the general illumination in the backbox.

Williams issued a service bulletin to convert the single 20 amp fuse to 4 seperate 5 amp slo-blo fuses for improved operation/reliability. This gives 4 seperate general illumination circuits:

2 for the backbox lights

2 for the playfield and the coin door lamps

This helps narrow down bad lamps/shorted sockets without killing the entire general illumination circuit. Most of the machine could still remain lit.
 
There's a single 20 amp fuse for the general illumination in the backbox.

Williams issued a service bulletin to convert the single 20 amp fuse to 4 seperate 5 amp slo-blo fuses for improved operation/reliability. This gives 4 seperate general illumination circuits:

2 for the backbox lights

2 for the playfield and the coin door lamps

This helps narrow down bad lamps/shorted sockets without killing the entire general illumination circuit. Most of the machine could still remain lit.

That's a great idea! I'm glad I didn't see this last night, I would have stayed up until 3am converting it over! :) (not to mention I did not have a 20am fuse, but had plenty 5amp slo-blo fuses and a 4-fuse fuse holder available.

I did see there were multiple yellow wires going into and coming out of the fuse, I will assume (although I'll verify when I get home) that there must be 4, hence the 4 fuse conversion.

Ken, as always..thanks for the tip!

-Tom
 
The service bulletin was issued around 1980 or 1981 IIRC and was in a Williams pinball binder. I wish I still had it because I would scan it. I don't think it ever got posted anywhere.
 
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