Sonic Mars Trek - repair...stuck

[Shift21]

Well, bare with me as its my first pinball repair.
I "rescued" this unit from a old shop near town along with 5 other arcade games (enduro bike, Bubble booble{in a astroid delux cab}, change lanes, Voltex?{cocktail} and a US billiards "Servivial" cocktail table-not working yet}

I plugged this in and got some interesting results.
First off the lock relay was Very loud lol seems to just be the plasic vibrating so not a huge deal.
fixed the "coin up" and the spinner on the "head unit?" (not sure the acutal name) and it coins up now, but does nothing when "start" is pushed.

slippers don't read and when the reset relay is tripped, the ball counter does not reset.  i have checked the "chine/score" relays on the back and they all read and work.  when the reset relay is hit the score does reset to 0.

the game clearly had mice in it, and not even sure where to begin.  the reset bank and and "motor" at the bottom turn and work and the contacts and slacing seem to work great. 
looks like the guy tried / did convert the bumpers to AC from DC, not sure why, and i have removed all his make shift wiring and trying to get it back to DC.

when i test the brige rectifier, i'm getting 27V on the yellow (connect direct to high tap) but when i test the high tap line on the brige rectifier, i get nothing....

not sure why, also not sure why the game won't reset/ start as the rectifier should only control the flippers/bumpers and should not stop the game from actually resetting or starting?

I have checked the "contacts" and spacing on the reset relay and they all work but its still not resetting the coin or allowing the game to start.

[Shift21]

some additional info;
when i jumper from the high tap to the rectifier, i get the bumpers, the flippers, some of the chimes and scoring, but the reset (when the ball drops) and the start button does not work.  somehting is keeping the game from a full reset and allowing the start button to start the game, looks like the chimes and scoring all work great though.

[jennifer]

    My first thought would be ,Why would someone change it from DC to AC?, that would go deeper than just changing a few wires (you got a manual right?) They may have just done a poor job of rewiring something.... And mice will create all kinds of mischief in there, biting and chewing wires, you may want to get a magnifying glass and do some careful inspections before you start moving stuff around in there.

[Shift21]

Ya the guy did some "creative" wiring to say the least.  the mice had walked on the contacts and ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, I have gone through each contact cleaned and reset to schematics spec.  I have a electronic copy of the manual with the spec (thanks to hours of searching).

I believe this is either the cause or the symptom of my issue(pic attached)
this game over relay seems to work, but when completed does not "rest" to normal position.  when I manually move the metal piece out, the start button works (kicker still not prepping the ball).

and if I jumper the high tap to the bottom of the bridge rectifier, I get dc flippers working again (removed all his wiring).  bumpers work and score almost everything works.  not sure if that solenoid has gone bad or the connection is bad.

either way this has been very very entertaining for me lol

I have yet to figure out the voltage on this piece or been able to test yet.

[jennifer]

   OMG, Jennifer can see the poops all over that pic, That's like some awesome barn find or something. Congrats on that score!!...You could try a contact cleaner, or take it apart and clean it with alcohol. But do NOT oil it. you will have problems forever.... In the back of the cab there should be a contact plate, that actually controls game operation and functions, you could have a bad/worn contact. (again do NOT use oil).

[Shift21]

you should have seen the nest I cleaned out.  apparently where the cons collected made a good "home".

yes I got 5 arcade machines and this pinball from a old machine shop that a hoarder was using until he passed away.  $450 Canadian got all except one game (US billiards Survival) and the pinball fully working lol.

what is in cleaner?  I don't want to use anything that's flammable in case of arc, come to far to have the whole thing light up now lol
 

[jennifer]

    Most likely you will find a flammable version, (Yes I saw the extinguisher...Giggle). Just don't spray it with power on, work it back and forth a few times and wait for it to evaporate, there is a non flammable version too just read the can....Personally I would take it apart and clean it with alcohol.

[lilshawn]

proper contact cleaner is very flammable, but dissipates very quickly. you are going to want something like "MG electrosolve contact cleaner". there is another that has a silicone protectant or lubricant, you don't want that one. you want the zero residue. it's safe on plastics and evaporates to nothing.

you also want to clean the contacts with a piece of cardstock or paper folded over a few times. you DO NOT want to use any kind of emery paper or sandpaper. you will kill the contacts. there is a fine finish on the contacts (usually silver or brass) that you will remove and expose the copper underneath. this copper will arc like nobody's business and will burn out in a matter of a few dozen make/break contacts.

insert the paper between the contacts, spray the contacts and paper with the electrosolve and slide it back and forth a few times to scrub any pee, poo, corrosion off the contact. that's it. adjust the contacts as needed.

[Shift21]

this worked really well, almost got it back to running as expected :-)
everything seems to be running but one bumper, slowly getting there :-)

[lilshawn]

awesome news. keep at it.

also note, these EM pinball machines must be used fairly regularly to keep things going. letting them sit unused will cause them to go right back to crummy sludgy unplayable state. "if you don't use it, you lose it" rings true here.

[Shift21]

good to know, I just picked up another EM "Molly-O" and have started working on that one as well.