Any Pinball Machine mechanics out there?

[harbormaster]

I have a 70's vintage Williams pinball machine with a problem. the first time you hit one of the bumpers the bell rings once and does not ring again. There is a loud continuous buzz afterwards. I look at the source and found that there is a solenoid that stays open and does not release until I power it off. Anyone have any experience with this??

[DON N.]

NO I DON'T , BUT CAN IT BE A WEAK SPRING OR MAGNET IN SOLENOID ?

[Crazy Horse]

Scot, if you give me a call I'll give you my next-door neighbor’s phone number. He owns a pinball & vending machine company.

[McGary911]

I used to run an arcade on the jersey shore when i was in high school, and taught myself how to fix these things. On a machine that old, it sounds like the solenoid is still doing its thing, but is getting stuck on the sleeve inside the coil. If you remove the solenoid, there should be a nylon sleeve inside, that the plunger rides on. This sleeve will wear, melt, or otherwise fail. You can remove the sleeve temporarily, to see if that fixes your problem. Another thing that can wear is the link that holds the plunger to whatever linkage the solenoid is acting on. Machines of this vintage probably had fiber (newer machines had nylon ones) links secured by a small roll pin. The holes tend to oval out, and the plunger will try to dig into the solenoid at a wrong angle. Thats where i would start. All these parts are easily available and easy to install. A quick search turned up sites like This One (http://www.mayfairamusement.com/) that should get you started. Its also part of a pinball webring, so you can probably find whatever you need. While youre at it, id replace the solenoids for the flippers. Youd be surprised how much more fun the game will be once your flippers have all their old pop back....Good luck. If you have any other questions, ill help however i can.......

[Brad Lyon]

Scot,

You could email Freeplay (Chris) at FREEPLAY3@AOL.COM. I have not seen him on the board lately but the last I heard he owned a store that buy's and sells amusement items. By the way, I have to go to Houston on business November 17-19, are you going to be around?

Brad

[harbormaster]

Thanks to all of you for the leads. John, I will try the suggestions I got. If it does not work I might be calling you guys for phone numbers of your neighbor.

Brad,
I should be around. Would you like to get together? We could take the boat out and/or have dinner.

[penbroke]

If the buzzing is comming fron the bell then what ever energizes the bell (relay or contacts) is sticking and not releasing. As I recall the bell rings quite a lot from the bumpers, score counter and various targets. Does the score digit roll completely into position on the first ring? Does it continue to keep score?
I think the bumper triggers the score count which triggers the bell because the bell rings as accumulated score is tallyed at the end of a ball. If this is true there may be sticking contacts in the score counter or whatever drives it.
'Just a theory as I have no experience with pinball machine repair but I have been seperated from a quarter or two.

Frank