Gottlieb Ship Ahoy (Gottlieb, 1976) ball count problem

[fanuminski]

Hello - I am glad I found this site!
I have an 1976 EM Gottlieb Ship Ahoy (same as Buccaneer)
that "skips" balls on me.
when in 5 ball mode, the ball will drain, go to the kick/eject hole
and count to 4 - and then go down the slide/trough and count to 3.
Does the same thing when the 3rd ball drains - kicks the ball and then
goes to 2 and then to 1 after the slide/trough switch.

when in 3 ball, it will drain on the first ball and then
count down to 2 and then to 1 for my last ball.

I can't figure out why (when the ball drains) it
counts down a ball before kicking it - I only thought the "slide/trough" switch would
count down the ball down.

any help is appreciated!
thanks!

Mike

 

[DaveBonds]

It almost seems like the relay for the ball count is sticking or the gaps in the leaf switch contacts that the relay operate are too tight and it's sending multiple voltage signals to the ball in play counter, each time the relay is triggered. A corroded contact in that leaf switch could be closing the gap too tightly as well. The leaf switch stack on the ball rollover wire switch that triggers the relay could also have a close gap that is causing the issue.

Locate the labeled relay for the ball in play counter and check it, check it's leaf switch stack gaps and check the leaf switch gap on the rollover wire switch itself. It wouldn't hurt to clean the contacts on all of them, either.