Yes, it looks like the credit unit.  By what you are saying, I take it that disconnecting that coil is the only part of that hack? (in case I want to put it back)

Back to my original problem, a more specific question to those that have bowlers I guess.  If the rear roll over relay trips, which mine does when you hit one of the switches at the end of the pf, I would then think that it would trip some shot counter.  Even if none of the pin switches are set, ie. I score 0 on the frame, after a couple of 'shots' it should advance to the next frame but nothing happens, the rear roll over switch just continues to fire.  

My other theory is that something still isn't set right and it's not yet even in 'game' mode.  Since the game select doesn't work and start button has been removed.

Just a thought did you check your frame count stepper unit? The frame count stepper unit is on the door and it has a label on it telling you what it is.

My bowler would not play at the beginning because the unit would not not reset to frame one. The spring on the unit did not have the strength to reset the counter because it was to stiff. There is a orange dot painted on the dial and on the body of the counter to let you know where frame one is.

Mike

Farm Boy, yes, the frame counter resets.  There are two things that differ from what Mr.Mikeman and I have.  First, my game select doesn't do anything.  This shouldn't be a big deal, however it may have the same root cause as the second problem and that is that the 1st ball relay doesn't trip when a shot is taken.  The rear roll over switch goes as mentioned, but not the ball count.  I suppose I could just manually jumper the 1st ball relay after I take a shot and see if the rest of the scoring works.

Farm Boy, can you check the bottom right of the door and tell me if there is a relay missing?  I'm hoping there is.

I was just testing some things, as I unplugged the machine, I noticed a relay released.  Upon closer inspection it's the bottom right relay and it's ominously labeled 'Lock'.    Which reminded me of a pm Mr.Mikeman sent me a month or so ago asking me if I had a relay in that location since his seemed to be missing.

*edit* Based on what I found, the lock relay is irrelevant for normal operation, correct?

Mike(s), here are some pics of the state of mine, can you compare to what you have please?

Admins, feel free to move this to the Project folder if you feel it better belongs there.

The first is the state after I add a coin, doesn't move from this (either by a shot or game select).
The second is the position of the game/coin jumpers.
The third/fourth are the front/back of the score reel.
The fifth is the shot relay bank, you can see that 3 of the relays have tripped (due to shots hitting those pins, but the 1st shot relay is still open).
The sixth and seventh are the game over and lock relays.
The last is the frame reel.

One more, the connector.  I'm a bit worried about this and the other connectors.  First, as you can see this one is cracked, although the connections still seem ok.  Second, the lights on the 1up, player and frame will cut out with a modest bump on the machine, a shot with the puck is even enough to cut the power, the question is where?

Broken baklite, don't worry about that.... Have you cleaned all the pins? I always use a sandpaper grade 1500.... These pin looks often ok but some time they have some corrosion on them.... a little white powder....

Next time try to post a little bit bigger pix please....

I'll give them a clean and see if that helps.  If I knew it would help for sure I would look at replacing the connectors with something newer.

Sure, I realized that they weren't able to show some of the detail after the fact.  Next time.

It's getting closer.  First I went back and cleaned the connectors as AMX suggested, probably should have done this right off the start.  While doing that I noticed that there was a wire disconnected from the 1-9 score relay, so I soldered that back on.  After those two things it will actually accumulate scores now, however the frames don't increment.  It keeps track of the shots, so it knows to reset the pins after the second shot, but the frame reel doesn't move, it's stuck in the 1st frame position (see pic above).

Can someone offer some insight as to what relay might trigger the frame reel?  

Thinking about it some more as I type this, it may not be the frame advance, but the player advance instead since if I put in two credits, it always stays on 1UP.  The logic should go: increment player, then frame.

Btw, the game select still doesn't work, not sure if that would affect the play at all.

Where are you located?

Do you have schematics yet?

I have so far got 4 of these bowlers working, in a very short time.

Pm me if you want to call me later and I can help you over the phone.

Thanks for the offer Dr. S, but I'm in Ottawa, a bit out of the way for you.

I haven't got the schematics yet, Mike was going to scan then, but he's probably too busy celebrating getting old

Just knowing what relays trip at what time would be a big help.