View Full Version : Pinball Machine Maintenence
Blues
08-23-2005, 05:16 PM
My Uncle Has a Maverick Pinball machine that says "1 BALL MISSING" at startup. We have looked all over the blasted machine, but to no avail. Note that we did'nt take any thing apart and it's set on FREE PLAY. Can anybody help me out here?
s1lence
08-23-2005, 05:31 PM
Sounds like the ball return switch. Make sure the machine is set to 3 balls in the dip switches. Does it kick the balls into the launch? I've had problems with the return switch in both my machines. Now I have to replace the launch piston in my Dr. Who machine and it doesnt look like any fun.
This should probably be moved to Arcade or Technical, but I'll try to help out... the switch that checks for the last ball doesn't detect that the ball is there... there could be a lot of reasons. One, the ball COULD be missing (could be stuck behind some plastic somewhere, in one of the troughs, in the bottom of the cab, etc.). The switch could also be bad, have come loose, have a broken contact wire, have the wire to the switch fall off, etc. Have you counted the number of balls in the machine? I think there's supposed to be 4 balls.
Did it have this problem when he got it, or did it just start happening one day?
DogP
Blues
08-27-2005, 01:38 PM
Brogan Here. We haven't taken anything apart yet, but we also have a problem when a ball gets stuck... it wont budge!
Arcade Antics
08-27-2005, 11:56 PM
I'll boot this one on over to the Arcade Alley forum where it might get a few more expert responses like the one from our pal DogP. He has been a HUGE help to me on more than one occasion whilst repairing various things. :)
>>>boot<<<
Brogan Here. We haven't taken anything apart yet, but we also have a problem when a ball gets stuck... it wont budge!
o_O Could you explain what you mean? Where does it get stuck?
DogP
chadtower
09-12-2005, 08:40 PM
Best guess, there is a now dead coil (broken diode on the coil or transistor on the driver board) that is not kicking the ball out of an underside trough, causing the game to think it is lost because it is not being returned to the drain trough. If the balls aren't appearing in the return trough, that's likely what happened.