How to Troubleshoot a 1976 Gottlieb Target Alpha EM Pinball Machine

[@kaybax4623]

I really enjoy watching these machines work and listening to you diagnose and explain them.

[@LyonsArcade]

Thank you Kay for watching!!!

[@franktedeschi5331]

So I’m an electrician of 31 years I guess one of the biggest reasons why I enjoy watching your videos is the problem solving factor so I go into a house and I have a service call and I have to take everything apart and see what happens figure out how I’m going to get power turned back on whether it’s outlet or lights and so on. I feel like you’re doing the exact same thing only on smaller scale and basically your cabinet is the house that I’m working in. And I hear the excitement in your voice when you find that issue and repair it so I totally get that feeling you get on every repair and it’s so nice to see someone take the time and repair it correctly and have the knowledge to make sure it never happens again

[@LyonsArcade]

Thank you Frank we appreciate you watching out there!

[@theoldbigmoose]

You have incredible diagnostic skills! It is a pleasure to follow your thought process.

[@LyonsArcade]

Thank you Big Moose that’s nice of you to say!

[@darrenxw3495]

Geez mate your diagnosing skills are awesome. Can tell you have worked on a lot of these,really good to watch.

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Darren, it all makes sense if you slow down and think about what's going on with them.

[@robj7481]

When I was 19, I converted a Gotlieb Haunted House pin to a 3 ball multiball. I designed a circuit board and wrote software to “take over” game functions as needed. After completing tasks, the cellar lockout saucer and the main play field saucer would light up to “lock” balls and completing the spot targets would trigger it. I used borrowed Black Knight visual effect of having “3” scroll back and fourth on the VFDs. I miss that game, but that’s my Gotlieb story.

[@LyonsArcade]

That's pretty cool Rick you could probably offer that as an add on option and sell little kits, a lot of people would love custom upgrade stuff for their machines like that!

[@rcradiorichr1257]

Check your AS relay. Also called the alternating relay. It is in the backbox and alternates the upper right rollover lights and alternates the left and right outer drain lane lights as a ball is in play. It also randomly changes the game over match lights. Yours doesn't seem to be alternating. Had one for a few years and loved the game. I like the way you go thru each problem and give a good explanation of what you did to fix it. Thanks a lot for another interesting video.

[@LyonsArcade]

Good catch! I didn't notice that when I was playing it, I think I forgot that relay on another video I shot awhile back too, I never remember to test it out. This game is a little different than most of the Gottliebs, they call that relay the "FS" relay on this one but it's that same little stepper, I had it already up and doing it's thing, but the switch on that one turns on and off the "A" relay under the playfield, along with the switches on the 5 bank drop target.... I just checked it all out and the "A" relay was burnt up! Swapped a new one in and it's alternating nicely now :) Thanks to your good eye :)

[@BokBarber]

I was playing one of these in an arcade recently, and once in awhile the score would randomly keep going up in 2000 point increments until the ball drained. Now I know why! One of the drop target switches was getting stuck. Thanks for the informative video!

[@LyonsArcade]

No problem, glad you liked it!

[@jodini5]

Very helpful! My bonus unit was having that same issue! Thanks Joe!

[@LyonsArcade]

Very cool, glad it helped!

[@jensoertel7615]

Seems u located exactly my problem with my "new" Target Alpha. Great!

[@tommyborgia3590]

Great video. 1 of my all time favorite machines.Exellent trouble shooting.

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Tommy, we appreciate it!

[@oforkya]

I just bought 1 lol I'm extatic

[@LyonsArcade]

It's a great game, really fun, and one of the best EM's in my opinion!

[@WimHamhuis]

this was very educating to see ! Thanks for sharing this with us !

[@LyonsArcade]

Glad you enjoyed it Wim, see you on the next video!

[@danijelcar5184]

Nice repair, i work now on my Williams Fire on cabinet repair ,and fix sound problem on my Bally 8 ball deluxe👍

[@LyonsArcade]

Very cool Danijel! Keep @ it, we got to save these things!

[@danijelcar5184]

Joe's Classic Video Games Here 😁 m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/pJazkGqHhdBgo6s

[@CHKNz]

Great video! Learn something new every time I watch.

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Jeff, see you on the next one!

[@Boomer8003]

I was playing Sinistar arcade lastnight and then the first boss battle i heard "beware i live...i hunger" then when it roared it scared me 😆.

[@evilash570]

Quagmire that used to be freaky when i was a kid back in the day! Such a cool game!

[@LyonsArcade]

We always crank the volume up really loud when we get one so we can watch people jump :)

[@I_M_Nonno]

At 47:45 the ball hangs on that play field light. (don't know what it is called) I have an El Dorado which is the same play field and all of mine do that. Is the a way to adjust the disk to make it even with the play field?

[@LyonsArcade]

It can be fixed but it's a big pain to do it. I always just leave them, but if it bugs you to death you can clearcoat the entire playfield, sand it flat, then clearcoat it again, then sand it flat about 4 times and it'll fix it. The lens shrink a little bit when they get older, you can remove them but it removes the paint around them on the playfield and makes a huge mess. Big job that it takes a top level guy to pull off and not leave the playfield looking completely destroyed, so I don't ever even attempt it.

[@eduguerra8549]

Great video!! I can’t understand why you fix the bulb’s issues and start in ball one 🤔 I have the same pinball, I achieved in very bad conditions and I’m restoring it. I fix score reels (stacked in 9), FS relay too and much more things... Just 2 problems that I cannot fix: I play single player and this happens: - player 1 ball 1 in score 1 (no light in score and no ball in play light) - player 1 ball 2 in score 2 😟(still no ball in play but score 2 has light) -player 1 ball 3 in score 3😬 (still no ball in play but score 3 has light) After that, game over and no match feature show in backboard. Multi player working more less and show ball in play in player 3 ball 1 and player 4 ball 1... Any suggestion will be appreciated and thanks again for your video 😊

[@Ernie-Tech]

Wauw you put some effort in this repair and documenting it, thanks! My machine does not have the chimes, I guess someone before me got fed up with them :-) The only thing I miss, is the explanation on how multi-player works ("1 to 4" player-lights, should step up on repushing the red start button I thought) and the creditwheel on the right hand bottom of the top-half. When and why does it move. Like the score lights on the very top "20, 40 etc" I never see them come to live but that could also be a malfunction. Well maybe I should get my hands on some kind of user manual. What I find awfully annoying is that the ball gets stuck in the transparant round openings above the lights, need to 'tilt' it and loose the game :-( Did you remove that middle stud between the flippers? I guess it came from the lefthand bypass where it was missing. Should have been on your list hahahaha, just kidding! Which my machine looked as good as this. Cheers.

[@LuvADuc]

Was that the episode where Slater was taking caffeine pills?

[@luizmartin2007]

Amazing!!

[@LyonsArcade]

Thanks Luiz!

[@thomasmickle7289]

I have a Solar City which is basically the same game but 2 player. Did a pf restore and it is almost working but I must have some switches stuck as it continually adds points.

[@LyonsArcade]

Watch carefully and see how many points it's adding each time, then you can track it down in the schematics by looking at that particular point relay!

[@thomasmickle7289]

@@LyonsArcade I will do that. I really need to get back to this. I mess with my EM's when I get too frustrated with my other games.

[@LyonsArcade]

Man the EM's can be frustrating on a whole nother level, but the good thing is you usually don't have to spend much money on them.

[@keithnoneya]

Loved it Joe. You make it look Sooooooo Easy! Hey the person that gave this video a thumbs down is an idiot! How can someone give a video a thumbs down that teaches you how to fix your stuff for FREE! I appreciate your time Joe and all the FREE quality training you give us Nooobs. Keep em comin Joe & love the channel. Best Wishes n Blessings. Keith Noneya PS I'd give you a10 thumbs up if I could. Oh and if you work on electronics and you don't burn something up once in a blue moon or get a spark now and then, YOU AIN'T Working on electronics! Made me jump too and I wasn't even there, LOL! Keith

[@LyonsArcade]

If you ever get time, go search for Elton John playing "Candle in the Wind" at Princess Diana's funeral.... and then notice it has tons of thumbs down. They're thumbing down people PLAYING SONGS AT FUNERALS. lol

[@stevencampbell1502]

what are you using to record these video's....what type of camera?

[@LyonsArcade]

Back then it was some sort of Canon camcorder, on our newer videos it's a 1080p Sony camcorder...

[@skypuppy7724]

Great synopsis and troubleshooting experience on these very underrated, design wise, contraptions! Ok, one thing I'm not clear about is how you repaired the bonus wheel/switch? From what you determined, it was shaking and causing the G relay to stutter on/off? So , was it simply just securing the wheel more sturdier to the mounting hardware?

[@LyonsArcade]

I honestly don't remember what I did on this particular one, we fix a couple a month and they all run together which is one reason I film them :) You can't usually make them stop shaking but if they're clean and adjusted right they'll work as they should, I probably just readjusted it a little closer so the shaking wouldn't completely move the switch apart....

[@chillywilly7299]

I always thought they were called thumper bumpers ?

[@PsychoSainten]

hi just wanted to say thanks for this video i learned a lot i got a 76 gottlieb volly pinball machine for free that someone was getting rid of. im trying to get the machine to actually start the game. it powers on but when i hit start the motor spins but the score doesnt reset. i guess ill look through your videos thanks again.

[@LyonsArcade]

If the motor is spinning, it's being held on by the reset relay because not everything has reset, basically you've got some dirty or misadjusted switches in there somewhere, probably something to do with the score reels in the back. When they get back to 0 it should open a switch on each, which allows the reset relay to turn off and the game to start... what we typically do is work through and clean all the switches one by one, and take apart and clean the stepper units (the big disc looking things) so that they make good contact and move like they should. It's not a hard job, just takes a little time, if you watch any of our videos on Gottlieb games they will be very similar to your Volley! We recently did a whole series bringing a "Home Run" back to life, the insides are the same as your Volley, you can watch that and follow along what we did and get yours going again for sure. Thank you for watching PsychoGames HD!

[@PsychoSainten]

@@LyonsArcade thanks! ill definitely check out that series and clean my board out for replacement parts where is the best place to buy them from?

[@MegaHowtoMan]

Need help fixing a 76 Surf Champ. Pop Bumps lock on and will not release. One coil burned up and froze. Will new coils fix this.

[@LyonsArcade]

A bad shorted coil could cause that yes, but usually the problem is one of the pop bumper skirts is always making the switch connect which means the pop bumper is always on. If you're sure the skirt switch isn't connected then yes the coil could be bad. You can check it by turning the game off, and then testing the resistance with a multimeter between the two lugs on each coil . You should get more than 2 ohms or so of resistance... id you get less than that the coil is likely shorted and replacing it will fix your problem.

[@MrZ281980]

Some Billy Mitchell shit going on with the high scores . Ha ha

[@AiMR]

So that stepper unit is like a mechanical type of memory AKA a state machine?

[@LyonsArcade]

Yes, I suppose it is.

[@michaelyahn3125]

Hi Joe. Just got a Target Alpha machine. Is it possible to remove the entire back glass assembly from the main body of the machine? It will be a lot easier to get it in my basement in two pieces! Thanks!

[@LyonsArcade]

Michael Yahn yes, if you take the back door off, you’ll see 4 volts that hold the head on, plus three or four plugs that disconnect the wires.

[@michaelyahn3125]

Cool! Are the plugs on the top part, ie the backglass? I saw the connections but did not have my reading glasses! Thanks for your quick response! MY

[@LyonsArcade]

There are big plugs that plug into connectors on the back of the backbox behind the back door. You just pull them apart, they're called Jones Plugs and each one will have 20 posts on it or so.

[@michaelyahn3125]

You were right on, Joe! I got the backglass assembly off and brought it down in the basement. Thanks for the great advice and the repair video.

[@RadioactivFly]

That playfield looks an awful lot like Gottlieb's El Dorado from one year earlier. Is this the four-player reskin?

[@shotgun161]

Do u ever put led in your pins?

[@LyonsArcade]

Not usually Jake, my personal preference is I like the older look of the warm incandescents but if others want to put them in that's their prerogative, it's all easily changeable :)

[@davidg-m1768]

I have the 2 player version of this game - Solar City. This video was extremely useful in getting it running smoothly. The only issue I have now is one of the 10 drop targets sticks sometimes mid game, so it just keeps scoring points until eventually it falls. Have you repaired any machines with this issue that you have posted that might be helpful?

[@LyonsArcade]

I don't think I have, but that should be an easy one to figure out, check to make sure that the switch behind that target isn't adjusted too tight to where it won't allow it to fall easily... if the switch is at a different 'angle' than the other ones next to it, sometimes the tension is enough to keep the target from smoothly falling past it, that's been the main issue I've seen when one hangs like that. Everyonce in awhile too the arm that pulls it down needs to be oiled or cleaned, sometimes they're all gummy from somebody spraying WD40 on them or something. I'd pop up the playfield and work on it a little bit until it smoothly falls down when you flick it, just do it by hand with it turned off until it works right.

[@davidg-m1768]

Will give it a crack. Cheers

[@davidg-m1768]

@@LyonsArcade thanks for the advice and it worked a treat. Not sure how they changed but that saved me doing anything with springs etc,

[@1976aztec]

My target alpha is adding two or three thousand points on some targets and not giving double bonus on last ball. It.s in the shop even he can't figure it out. It will work for awhile than start doing it all over again do you have any ideas why it keeps doing it.

[@LyonsArcade]

Adding the points on certain targets is because that bonus stepper unit isn't resetting properly... when it walks through it, it's staying on certain points too long and that's why you get more points. You have to get it turning perfectly everytime the coil fires or it'll give you too many points. The double Bonus I haven't looked into but there's some sort of double bonus relay on the back of the bottom panel I believe.

[@1976aztec]

@@LyonsArcade thank you for getting back to me

[@garrymiller8031]

Solar City n El Dorado same design with different art work

[@LyonsArcade]

And Canada Dry!

[@garrymiller8031]

Im Canadian eh 😅🍻

[@LyonsArcade]

LOL No there was actually another game called "Canada Dry" that also used the same playfield.

[@natefellows5783]

I think that last digit is a zero, like with a line through it.

[@LyonsArcade]

I think you're right!

[@Otakunopodcast]

Actually I think that last number in that score really is a 0. To me it looks like a zero with a slash put through it, albeit sloppily handwritten. That's how programmers/geeks write 0, they put a slash through it so as to distinguish a 0 (number zero) from an O (letter O.)

[@LyonsArcade]

that makes sense :)

[@chriswest6090]

@@LyonsArcade except theres only 4 active wheels per player so how are they posting 6 digit scores

[@inquirer1016]

I have this game and a problem developed recently. It won't start up. It will initiate about 2 seconds and then stop completely. Can you suggest where the problem may be? Hard to find a repairman in my area. Any suggestion is greatly appreciated.

[@stevewyche5232]

That looks ALOT like El Dorado

[@LyonsArcade]

Pretty much exactly the same!

[@sydviscous7006]

Same playfield layout, but totally different ruleset between the two games since Target Alpha is a multiplayer game.

[@dmtcb]

is it ok?..if i share your videos on em facebook page...they are Great .and folks would enjoy..

[@LyonsArcade]

Sure it's o.k., share all you like Mr. Elvis!

[@dmtcb]

@@LyonsArcade i will...your videos are informative and fun!

[@briandavis3989]

I just bought this machine. I am new to restoring pinball machines. I have no lights and blows 15a fuse after a few minutes of play...random. not on anyone isntance.????

[@ld3640]

Not positive but that looks an awful lot like a machine that used to be in a KU frat house how it made it all the way to you I have no clue 🤔

[@LyonsArcade]

It very well could be! We bought it in Monroe, NC.

[@ld3640]

@@LyonsArcade when I say KU I mean Kansas University not Kentucky 😉

[@LyonsArcade]

Hey somebody could have moved it over this way :)