Gotty system 3 flipper hold issue

[Friz]

Had a few people round for drinks at mine yesterday and as usual, the lads flock to the arcades and pinball, after working flawlessly for months it managed about 20 games and developed a fault,typical! Shame really as everyone had only played it when I first got it all beat up and barely working and it was playing like new until then. Oh well...

One of the flippers has an issue with holding, it keeps rebounding rapidly. I checked the wiring and burnished the eos switches and the others last night which didn't cure it so I switched the old girl off to try address it today.

Has anyone had to sort this type of issue before? Am I right in saying the big yellow capacitor on the flipper unit could be at fault?

Any advise greatly accepted guys.

 

[Rus121]

The only time I have ever had that issue was on my No fear. In that case, the diode on the coil lug had snapped off at one end.

Unfortunately system 3 is not my strong point, but at least it gives you something to check.

 

[Friz]

Thanks Rus, Ill start there, I have a bunch of spare diodes so would be nice to have a simple fix after a string of complex ones.

 

[Moonraker]

From your description it sounds like it's fluttering - if so then you've a short in the hold section of the flipper coil and will need to replace it. Unlikely to be caused by diodes or capacitors. Normally listed in the fault finding section in the back of Gottlieb game manuals.

 

[Friz]

Thanks moonraker. My manual doesnt have any fault finding sections in it, that would be a useful thing to have so long as they arnt the typical 'Q. game does not power up. A. Is it plugged in?' type troubleshooting.

Ill order a new coil then and get it swapped out.

 

[pinballmania]

From your description it sounds like it's fluttering - if so then you've a short in the hold section of the flipper coil and will need to replace it. Unlikely to be caused by diodes or capacitors. Normally listed in the fault finding section in the back of Gottlieb game manuals.

Did you mean to say an open circuit in the flipper coil? Check where the fine copper winding meets the solder tab, this is where it breaks most often. You may be able to reattach it directly, or if too short unwind one winding and reattach.

 

[Moonraker]

Did you mean to say an open circuit in the flipper coil? Check where the fine copper winding meets the solder tab, this is where it breaks most often. You may be able to reattach it directly, or if too short unwind one winding and reattach.

Nope, I *think* it's normally an internal short in the coil where the hold circuit either shorts or breaks through with the power circuit (or vice-versa) causing it to "flutter". That said an open circuit may also cause flutter depending on how the End of Stroke (EOS) switches are used in the game. eg if the EOS detects the flipper (hold section not working) drop and fires the High power sections again to try and keep the flipper up.

That said, now I think about it, I've also seen it caused by corroded End of Stroke switches - so @Friz needs to check those out first. This particular bit is also mentioned on pinwiki http://www.pinwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Gottlieb_System_3#Flipper_Loss_of_Power

 

[replicas]

All good advice

 

[Rus121]

Andy (pinballmania) is usually on the money with everything. Ever.

 

[Friz]

cheers guys, the first thing i checkec when it happened was the contacts on all the associated switches and wire soldering points, all wires were intact and i burnished all the switches and checked the gaps, all seemed fine, so ill have another look to make sure ive not missed anything and then check out the coil.