Am I in over my head? Repair EM pinball?

[drunkatuw]

My father-in-law recently gave me his old 1977 Gottlieb Super Spin Pinball machine.  He told me it was in need of repair and that it didn't work.  It wasn't until I had it loaded in my car that he told me he hasn't powered it on in over 15 years!

So I get it home and plug it in.  When I hit the power switch, the main motor in the middle just spins and nothing seems to happen.

I'm a computer engineer, so I've used a multimeter before, but I'm really clueless where to start.  I noticed that the lights to the scoreboard do not turn on when the game is set to 3-ball mode.  When I switch to 5-ball mode, player 2 lights up, but not player 1.

I think the motor is spinning because it's trying to reset the score to all zeros, but with no power it never gets there.   Do I just need to trace every wire to make sure that there are no broken wires?

Is there a site which has common problems with EM pins and how to fix them?  I've got the schematic, but it doesn't seem to help much.

Any advice would be appreciated.  I've wanted a pinball machine since I was like 5 and 20 years later, this is the closest I've been.

[Buddabing]

My father-in-law recently gave me his old 1977 Gottlieb Super Spin Pinball machine.  He told me it was in need of repair and that it didn't work.  It wasn't until I had it loaded in my car that he told me he hasn't powered it on in over 15 years!

So I get it home and plug it in.  When I hit the power switch, the main motor in the middle just spins and nothing seems to happen.

I'm a computer engineer, so I've used a multimeter before, but I'm really clueless where to start.  I noticed that the lights to the scoreboard do not turn on when the game is set to 3-ball mode.  When I switch to 5-ball mode, player 2 lights up, but not player 1.

I think the motor is spinning because it's trying to reset the score to all zeros, but with no power it never gets there.   Do I just need to trace every wire to make sure that there are no broken wires?

Is there a site which has common problems with EM pins and how to fix them?  I've got the schematic, but it doesn't seem to help much.

Any advice would be appreciated.  I've wanted a pinball machine since I was like 5 and 20 years later, this is the closest I've been.

Try this site

[drunkatuw]

Try this site

I've been reading that site all night, it's got a ton of information.  After about an hour of reading, I'm to the point where I realized that this thing is really going to test my patience!  But I'm not giving up.

Thanks for the link.

[ChadTower]

Buy the This Old Pinball vid on restoring EM pins.

[APFelon]

Super Spin is an EM?

Ah, yes. The site I just looked at says it was one of the last electromechanicals ever made. You should be in for a treat.

I would like to suggest looking for the obvious and work your way down. Look for burned connectors, etc. Look for toasted relays and such...

But first of all, try to get the machine to "reset" when you switch it on. Some EMs will seem to be "dead" if it can't complete the reset sequence. If you have a bad gear on the motor and the scores can't reset to zero, drop targets can't reset, or that spinning wheel in the upper left can't spin (or some such) the machine may have a failsafe that refuses to let the game go into its "attract mode" (for what they were on EMs). You can even attempt to "reset" the mechanics by hand to see if the sequence progresses further... IE turning the gears on the scoring by hand, ETC.

The good news is that if the machine was stored in a reasonably decent place and was home owned for so long, the problem shold be pretty simple. Relays are still pretty cheap, and unless you have a "custom" part that has failed, repairs should be pretty inexpensive.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

APf

[Ken Layton]

Mainly you should check for sluggish "stepping" units like the player unit and ball count unit as well as bonus units. Make sure they step up and reset quickly without hesitation. From your description it sounds like the player unit has not snapped back to 'home' or zero position thus a game cannot start and the motor keeps running. Sometimes a wire or wires can break loose from coils or switches. Check all the score reels for any broken wires.

[drunkatuw]

Last night I tried removing all the score reels and I manually reset them all to 0.  The scoring motor (I think that's what it's called) still continued to spin.  I am worried that nothing on the back box (scoreboard) lights up, but that could just be lights.  I checked the player unit and it's getting between 20V and 22V, but it doesn't seem to do anything.  I'm going to check the '0' and '9' switched on all of the scoring reels, maybe that is why the scoring motor never stops and the game never gets reset.

[Ken Layton]

If the reel switches are not adjusted properly the motor will continue to run as the game thinks the reels have not all been brought to zero position in order to finish resetting other units.

[drunkatuw]

If the reel switches are not adjusted properly the motor will continue to run as the game thinks the reels have not all been brought to zero position in order to finish resetting other units.

I'm trying to figure out which switches are the '9' switches and which are the '0' switches, but I'm not even sure if that will make a difference, because the reels aren't getting any power (atleast I don't think so, because there are no lights on the back box and I don't measure any voltage across the relays).

The wires are all bundled together sometimes as many as 20 together which makes it really hard to follow individual wires.  Is there a good place to start on the schematic to troubleshoot?  I tried starting at the power plug and I was going to trace out the lights to see why none of the lights on the backbox lit up, but unfortunately, the first light bulb I checked with the DMM, I managed to blow the fuse, so off to the hardware store I go.

[drunkatuw]

In case anyone cares, I took a few pictures so you can see why I feel a little intimidated by this machine

Pinball machine
Inside machine

Fiance has my regular camera at his wedding shower this weekend, hope to take better pictures monday or tuesday once she gets back.

[APFelon]

WOW is that clean. Too bad you don't live closer, I'd offer my services. It's been a long, long while since I have been inside an EM machine... and NEVER inside of one that looked that nice. Good luck!

Apf

[Buddabing]

In case anyone cares, I took a few pictures so you can see why I feel a little intimidated by this machine

Pinball machine
Inside machine

Fiance has my regular camera at his wedding shower this weekend, hope to take better pictures monday or tuesday once she gets back.

Nice, post some pictures of the playfield.

[drunkatuw]

WOW is that clean. Too bad you don't live closer, I'd offer my services. It's been a long, long while since I have been inside an EM machine... and NEVER inside of one that looked that nice. Good luck!

Apf

I don't live too far away, just down highway 52 in Rochester

Here are some pictures of the playing field with the glass off (it's stored away so I don't break it).

Playing field 1
Playing field 2

[drunkatuw]

Here's a picture of the counter on the inside...over $11,000 has been pumped into this machine!  Granted the last 34 quarters were just me manually pushing buttons, it was at 44,106 when I first opened it.

[Ken Layton]

Those fuses next to the counting meter need to be tested. There could be a bad one. Double check to be sure all bottom panel to headbox cables are properly connected.

By the way, that counting meter counts total plays: coin paid plays, score free plays, match number free plays, and "special" free plays. So deduct say 10% off that figure for all the freebies and you'll probably have the actual money this machine has taken in over the years.

[ChadTower]

Didn't he say it was in a home?  That means most of them probably weren't paid.

[drunkatuw]

Didn't he say it was in a home?  That means most of them probably weren't paid.

I believe my father-in-law bought it from an old arcade which was going out of business or else more likely just selling all EM pins to replace with SS pins.  But I mentioned the counter more because it shows that this pin has gotten a lot of use (atleast in it's early years).

It's been stored in my father-in-law's basement for the past 15 years without being plugged in.  I'm not sure when the last time it was in a working state.

[ChadTower]

Cool.  I wish the pics worked for me so I could check it out.  This will be a great learning tool for you.  I have two '80s pins I have that need refurbing for that reason.

[drunkatuw]

I figured out how to attach pictures after I posted the original pictures.  To make it easier, I'll attach the pictures here.

[drunkatuw]

inside

[drunkatuw]

playing field

[ChadTower]

Dude, that thing is 90% done.  Your playfield is awesome... make sure you give it a strong cleaning with the proper solutions and then a strong waxing.  That will keep it awesome.  Also make sure you clean the balls.  Dirty balls ruin your playfield (friction).  If your balls (ha) are too dirty, get new balls.  You should be able to get your balls (ha) clean, though, looking at how clean the rest of it is.

I find that a $30 rock tumbler is invaluable for cleaning my balls (ha) and other pin parts that are dirty or rusty.

[delta88]

bahahahaaa! thats awsome. Thats the 2 player version of what I have.. Jetspin.... I think im in the same boat i t werked when I got it but now I moved locations for living and when you start a game it resets back to game over .. *looks for a picture.....

http://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?letter=J&game_id=3155

[APFelon]

Oh yeah! What's the status of this project? Any progress?

APf

[drunkatuw]

Oh yeah! What's the status of this project? Any progress?

APf

My fiance moved in with me last week, so the project has been temporarily put on hold .  Furniture and bedding shopping has taken all my "free" time lately.  Hopefully in the next couple weeks once she's unpacked I'll get back to the pinball machine.

[delta88]

hmm, Crazy. those two words.. my downfall of arcade gameing repairness..   fiance' and temp on hold

best things though..looked at a house we want to by and the guy had a newer pin and a ton of race car stuff in the area id game in...hmmm ok so thats where my games would go.. too cool.