Pinball Update: Learning Curve (part 1)

I haven't posted in a while because I've been staring into the abyss that is a pinball schematic. Here's a corner of it:

The schematic tells you how the electricity flows through the circuits, but it isn't a map of the wiring. Items placed next to each other on the schematic are probably nowhere near each other in the machine.

Let's say I want to drive from Des Moines, Iowa to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The route on a map would look like this.

On the pinball schematic it would look a bit like this:

 •dm--i80-----I\I----i29--sf•

I am starting to understand how to read the schematic. But what I'm actually discovering is how complicated pinball machines are, and how much I don't know about them.

Here's one small schematic success:

Do you see a circle with a squiggle in it? That's the symbol for a light bulb. Do you see the lamp symbols that descend from left to right? Those are the lamps that wouldn't light up on the Royal Flush.

This is where they are located on the playfield.

I noticed on the schematic that the wires for the lamps can be traced to a common switch.

The black dots represent wires that are connected. Two vertical lines next to each other represent a switch. If the lines do not have a slash through them, then the switch is called normally open (NO). If there is a slash through the lines it is normally closed (NC).

The word "motor" means the switch is next to the motor, and "3D" tells you the place and position to find the switch.

The number directs you to the switch stack. 3 is in the ten o'clock position:

The letter tells you where the switch is horizontally on the switch stack. E is the at the top of the stack.

Now to find the switch. The switch stacks are numbered on my motor, but there's a chance the stickers could have fallen off. I could use switch 3 1/2 as a lighthouse to point me in the right direction. In this picture the 3D switch is located at 1 o'clock, and its long wiper blade closes the switch when that small pole pushes against it.

I used the above picture that I found online to help me correct the bend in my switch. I didn't have that "s" looking bend at the tip. Somebody had bent it back and straight. The switch blades couldn't make a connection, so instead of being NC, they were NO. A few twists with a needle nose pliers put the blade back into a proper shape, and the lights popped on.

At this point I thought, "Yea! I can do this! I can fix a pinball machine!"

I was wrong.