Bally EM “The showman” not stepping up.

[Phan000]

Picked this up yesterday. I regret not looking it over better as it appears there have been lots of modifications.

The coin switch makes coin accepted light come on,  but the machine does not step up.  Also,  the hand release does not engage.  A coin relay in the top does click, but that’s it.

If manually released,  handle pulls properly & wheels spin fine.

Not really sure where to begin.  Did Bally use relays like this?

[Pinballwizard55]

The machine was made for the european market and therefore there may be some minor differences from an american counterpart. Not impossible to fix just a little harder to understand. The wizard.

[mark the spark]

the relays in the top are for change .im sure this is from england there was a business that converted ballys to this it was called The Showman
it was converted with a built in change machine at a guess probaly running on 2p piece
these were conversions by a firm in leicstershire called greaves who used to do animated conversuions like the Haunted House
that top glass would have had a 50p and 10p coin acceptors .the 50p woiuld give you 5 x 10ps and the 10p would give you 5 x 2ps
 

[wolftalk]

it looks like a pretty thorough rewiring, so it's not likely that a bally schematic will match the wiring very well.

however, the companies that did this kind of stuff usually followed the bally circuit design - at least partially.  It's a good bet that the orange wire is the 50V (probably) power and yellow wire is the common.

in this case, the dashpot switch is typically in the handle release circuit, so I'd:
1] deposit a coin so the coin relay powers
2] grab a meter and stick one probe on the orange wire (70) on the stepper unit in the top, poke both sides of the dashpot switch.  Got 50V?

if you have 50V at the dashpt switch, then the game is to see what is in between the dashpot switch and the handle release relay.  You might be able to trace the wires, and if not checking for zero ohms on ends of wires of the same color is a not guaranteed but a good bet you have probes on ends of the same wire.

if you don't see 50V on the dashpot switch and the game doesn't pay, then switches on the reel mech A and C and handle release relay switches are often in the circuit.

their use of microswitches for the reel mech A-D switches is interesting.  You should see zero ohms with a probe on the blue/something wire on the A switch (bottom left microswitch) and other probe on the red wire on the C switch.

with a probe on orange wire 70, you should see 50V on all the wires on the reel mech A and C switches when the reels aren't spinning.

it's possible that someone was guessing where the wires attached on the microswitches and screwed it up.  They all have a common lug and a NC and NO lug which should be marked on the case.   However, ya gotta see how the switch operates.  For example, reel mech A and C switches are both logically NC, but at rest the lever is in different positions for the two switches, so they are wired differently.

I'd guess the common lug is on top, NO is the middle and NC is the end.

[Phan000]

The wiring work and switches look fairly tidy,  but figuring out this machine is way above my skill level.

If anyone in the South Fl area would like a project,  it’s all yours