Author Topic: Stern Trough Gremlins  (Read 140 times)

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Offline Freiherr

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Stern Trough Gremlins
« on: January 23, 2014, 05:28:14 PM »
On my AC/DC, I have been experiencing some random issues (for a while now) where:
- a ball would end while still in play.
- a second ball would load and shoot for no apparent reason.
- a game would unexpectedly end.

This would only happen about once every 10 or 15 games but it was a RPITA as it usually happened when the player was on a good ball. Well, this morning I found the thing which was screwing up the occasional game.........a SCREW.

Did the Trough test and found #19 stayed lit. Upon closer inspection, found a screw sitting on the switch. The screw was probably floating around the trough for a while and finally found its way and wedged itself on the switch (see photos).

Looked all around and could not find where that screw came from as they all appear to be accounted for on and below the playfield. Maybe it was dropped by a worker on the production line and stayed hidden during the factory tests....who knows.

So if anyone else experiences the occasional random ball through issue, it would be a good idea to inspect for any loose foreign objects.
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Offline mickeyboy52

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Re: Stern Trough Gremlins
« Reply #1 on: January 25, 2014, 02:27:43 PM »
I had a very similar problem. Did the trough test, had a poke around testing switches etc and must have inadvertently cleaned it up as I didn't have the problem again.
Then every now and then a ball would load and go back into the trough and next ball I would get two balls, as it would sit on top of the next ball.
Found that occasionally a ball would hit the corner of the spirit level and fall back down. Rounding off the corner of the level  did the trick and haven't had it happen since.