Williams Fish Tales (Williams, 1992) new to forum, need help: dead flipper

[michaelb56270]

Hi guys,

New to the forum here, I have a Williams Fish Tales machine I bought a few years ago, flipped it on to crank out a game a couple nights ago and the right flipper started twitching as if I were repeatedly pushing the button, then went dead completely. I pulled and reseated all of the jacks on the opto switch and on the board in the back, but it didn't help solve the problem. So, two (three?) questions. Is there a way to test the opto switch (how?), or is it a deeper problem? Sometimes when I wiggle the wires on the jack on the opto board the flipper will twitch so the possibility is I have a bad wire contact in the jack, or am I just disconnecting it enough, I don't know. It's very difficult to get it to do that repeatedly.
Anyway, any help would be awesome. Thanks in advance.

Mike

 

[pinballdaveh]

the problem might be the flipper opto board. the opto devices on this board fail. with machine off unplug opto board, check solder connections on underside of board. if solder connections look good possibly the opto is bad. desolder , swap the 2 optos and resolder. 2 optos are on the board if the machine has 4 flippers , but your pin only has 2 flippers and only uses 1 opto. replacement opto devices i heard are hard to find. new updated opto boards , fish tales uses model# a-15894 are availible from pinball resource. also check flipper end of stroke switch, wiring and solder connections to flipper coil