Williams Little Chief (Williams, 1975) questions

[Terry]

We have acquired a gently used Little Chief but are having the following problems with it-
The playfield lights up but the game will not start.
It still has its coin mech intact.
The fuses have all been checked and/or changed.
If you jusmp the contacts in the coin mech, the motor continues to run.
If a relay is stuck or not working, how do I find out which one it is and how do I correct it?
The person we got it from stated he had been told that it was an easy fix but he didn't know how to do it.
We have access to instruction manual and schematic. We are excited to play and have the rubber repair kit ready to install but want to make sure it is operational before we do that.
Thanks so much,
Terry and Michelle

 

[faralos]

if a relay gets stuck you'll know it by the loud buzzing coming from it
also the contacts may actually spark a bit due to being stuck together
now you say when you jump the coin mech contacts the motor runs
what motor?
And you should always clean ALL the contacts with an emery file
or even a business card
since you said you have the schematics I am guessing that you have visited the IPDB?
there is also a list of owners on that site who may be better able to help you
http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?any=little+chief&search=Search+Database&searchtype=quick

 

[Coil_Smoke]

There are many contacts that start and stop a score motor. They are on relays, the score motor itself and contacts on the score reels that signal when they have been reset to zero(Part of the reset circuit). They all need to open and close at the proper time. Some contacts are normally open, some contacts are normally closed. Your schematic shows the game powered on and ready to play ball one. Some of those contacts that are shown as normally closed will actually open when the game is de-energized ! The link below will help you get started with your EM repair. It will also help you prevent common mistakes that can cause problems right away or in the future.(Like the one about lube)
http://www.pinrepair.com/em/index1.htm#top

http://www.pinrepair.com/em/index1.htm#lube

 

[Terry]

Thank for for taking the time to reply

It is the score motor that continues to run. We will try cleaning the relays. There has been no buzzing or arcing that we have noticed. When the motor is running the game over light comes on. The scoring reels turn while the motor is running.
Again, we appreciate the time it takes to reply to us and we will keep a muddlin' along...singing a song....
T and M

 

[Terry]

Updates

Well, we had a pretty productive day under the hood of Little Chief. We were able to get the flippers to work by manually operating the reset relay. Does this mean the relay switch is bad? When we turn off the machine to work on it, we have to hit the reset relay switch again to get the flippers to work. All the scoring devices worked and scored when the ball rolled over them. The chimes are in working order .
The kickout hole seems to work intermittently. Is there a delay on those or should the ball pop right back out?
We are going to take a photo tomorrow of two wires that hang down from the coin mech that we are not sure of. Will post when we have those.
Thanks for looking..any help would be appreciated.,
Terry

 

[Itchigo]

I'm guessing those 2 wires are either to a small coil on the coin door, or the light that lights up 25 cents. Please don't forget to post some hq playfield and backglass pics as this game has never been done for the pc before. If I ever get time I'd love to make it.

 

[Terry]

photos of Little Chief

Here are photos of the Little Chief. It has not been cleaned as of yet because we are still trying to get it to work correctly.
The coin mech is seeming to be the root of the kickout hole and ball return problem, There was black electrical tape inline and when we took that off , there were cut wires.
Also, here is a pic of the small copper wires that just kind of hang out.
Is there a way to bypass the coin mech all together? Oh the left we are thinking of splicing red to yellow but on the left we are not sure which ones to use.
Thanks for looking.

 

[pinballdaveh]

coin door problem. a lot of williams and bally em machines had extra wires were added to change the coin door switches from 1 credit per coin to multi credits per coin. so not all wires will be ever be hooked up. what is important is that the coin door switches usually a 3 blade switch. the longer moveable center blade contacts with the right blade in a normally closed position which usually has yellow wires connected to it. if the switches are not adjusted properly the score motor wont run. to set the machine up for free play is done on the credit unit. on the horiz. stack of 3 or 4 sets of switches the bottom switch controls max. credits, the top 2 or 3 sets of switches are the zero position switches. one switch will control the credit unit subtract coil, easy to trace wire to coil. another switch will light up the credit indicator light on playfield apron, some machines dont have this light. the last switch in the stack is the one that is line with the start game button. by jumpering out this switch with a alligator jumper lead on the switch wires will set it up for free play.

 

[pinballdaveh]

i noticed from your backglass pictures that 2nd and 4th players have score reels not on zero. all player score reels must be reset to zero to release reset relay to start machine to 1st ball. this condition must be met or the score motor will keep running trying to reset reels. common reel reset problems are burned up or open reel coil, wire came off switch or coil, or stack switch contacts need cleaning. the bottom stack switch is the 9th position carryover during game play. the top 2 switches are for the reset mode and open when at zero position. the switch that controls the reel coil will be the one with the wire going from the switch to the coil, the other switch when open at zero position , along with all the other reel switchs to relese reset relay and start machine on 1st ball. because all the reel coils cannot be pulsed at the same time during reset there are 2 player reset relays in head that pulse to do the reset of all the player reels. but these usually are not the problem. by manually operating these relays in game over mode you can check the resetting of all player reels.

 

[Terry]

Hi all,
We cleaned the score reels and did find a broken leaf switch on the player one 10-90 reel. Luckily we have found a guy with over thirty years of experience right here in our small county and took the Little Chief to him to complete on Friday. We just didn't want to hurt anything but were getting real close to having it work. Thanks for all the good suggestions and the time you all took to respond. Terry

 

[Itchigo]

I forgot to mention, thanks for the pics.