This is a common problem that happens with old electro-mechanical pinball machines. One minute it’s playing fine, then the next there’s a loud buzz and/or the scoring runs continuously or doesn’t score properly. What’s the deal with that? I’m going to show you one of the most common causes.
Category Archives: Electro-Mechanical
How to work on electro-mechanical switch stacks on pinball machines
Switch stacks are the primary parts of electro-mechanical pinball machines, triggering game activity. I go over in this video, how they work, the different types of switch configurations, and how to clean and maintain them so they work reliably.
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Let’s play our fixed Gottlieb Target Pool!
Yay… we got the game working again…. let’s go over the basic gameplay and see how it plays shall we?
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How to replace or repair EM pinball latch relay parts/articulating arm/rollers
Ok, that’s a mouthful huh? This is a continuation of a previous series of videos I’ve done on fixing deep ruleset issues in EM games, and now that we’ve found what’s wrong, let’s fix it!
First, here’s a video on how to replace the latch relay – there’s another post where I demonstrate how to remove the backplane from the game so it’s easier to work on.
And in this next video, if you don’t have a replacement part, I show how with a little ingenuity and a #4 tap, you can fabricate your own roller for the articulating arm.
Now that it’s fixed… let’s see how the game plays!
How to remove the inside/backplane from an EM pinball machine?
Sometimes when you have to do more extensive work to relays in an old electro-mechanical game, you can’t bend over the cabinet. You need to get all those assemblies on a bench to service. I go over how you can remove the insides of a game so you can more easily access the components.
The next video in this series goes into repairing a broken latch relay.
![](http://pinballhelp.com/wp-content/uploads/backplane.jpg)
![](http://pinballhelp.com/wp-content/uploads/backplane2-1024x768.jpg)
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Making your own pinball head door.
This is a short video demonstrating a pinball head back cover I made with a piece of 3/8″ plywood. Very easy to make, and what I like about it, is the wood actually makes the sounds of bells in the head sound a little warmer and less loud, which I think works well in home environments.
Repairing a 1969 Gottlieb “Target Pool” Pinball Machine
Here’s an overview of a few basic repairs I made to a game that has been working for awhile, then started to malfunction and then sat for awhile. After some time going over all the game problems I do a summary of what I noticed and fixed.