Data East Solved Torpedo Alley (Data East, 1988) Lamp Matrix Row Not Working

[mojo423]

I am a newbie still at fixing pinballs. I almost have the Torpedo Alley I bought a few years ago up and working. I am now just fixing the lamps and found I had a bunch not working. Actually seven were not working. The manual I have has a matrix 8x8 that shows all the playfield lamps. I realized that all lamps in the first row in the matrix are not lighting up. I will attach a matrix picture I found online that looks mine. Every light in the first row except the row one column two is not working. I checked all the lamp transistors on the board and cant find a bad one. I am not sure if these are all daisy chained. If one fails, it breaks all of them down the line? Anyone have an idea to fix this?

 

[spalmer]

I would start by inspecting the Red-Brn wire under the playfield starting at the top lane (b)at light. The wiring for your rows and columns are daisy chained unfer the playfield. An educated guess would tell me that it has come loose at that light or the next in the chain. Even though it is not the first lamp in the row, it could still be the first in the wire chain. Hope that made sense.

 

[mojo423]

whoops

Well, it does look like the red-brown wire is the culprit. Looks like the wire was not secure and a coil chopped it up. Not sure how to fix it. I am thinking twist it back together and put some electrical tape arround it? Thanks for the help.

 

[spalmer]

That will work in a pinch. I would make sure to use a prastic zip tie to secure the wire away from the coil. In the long run, I would find someone with soldering skills to solder it back together and use heat shrink tubing to insulate it. Let me know if the lights wok after you twist it back together.

 

[mojo423]

All the lights work now. Thanks again.