A burning smell, then the pop bumpers and slingshots all stop working. A new special-solenoid fuse blows straight away.
Fuse blows, pops and slings dead: slingshot switch stuck shut cooked coil and Q11
Cause: The left slingshot leaf switch had stuck closed, holding the slingshot coil on. The coil overheated and melted its sleeve, and the driver transistor for that special solenoid (Q11 on the replacement driver board) failed shorted.
Checks
- With power off, look for a coil that is hot, discoloured or has a melted sleeve.
- Check the slingshot and pop bumper leaf switches for contacts welded or bent shut.
- Test the special solenoid driver transistors on the driver board for a short.
Fix
- Replace the shorted driver transistor with the same type the board uses (here a 13N10L logic-level MOSFET), then replace the fuse.
- Replace the damaged coil, coil sleeve and the stuck leaf switch before reconnecting that slingshot.
- Check the coil's diode is intact; a broken diode will kill the new transistor.
Systems
Games
Related tips
- Flashers dead on early games: resistors broken on under-playfield flasher boards
- Burning smell, then flippers, pops and eject all dead: broken flipper EOS switch
- Special solenoids dead after fitting an early System 11 CPU in a later game
- The six special solenoids (pops, slings, kickbacks)
- Pop bumper or slingshot machine-guns or locks on (Fire! and earlier)
- Sling or bumper locks on when a game starts
- Sling or bumper locks on at power-up (System 11)
- Coil dead or locked on: quick checklist
Source: Pinball Repair help group!! (Facebook group)