Troll refuses to drop

[philw]

I have a couple of issues with this machine, which is a few months old.

• It's refusing to save time and date - I guess that's the backup battery which is dead.
• As below, one of the trolls is refusing to drop back into the playfield.

I guess I can sort (1) by either getting my distributor to come and fix it, or getting them to send me a battery and replacing it myself.


(2) looks more problematic.

• I tried manipulating it manually and it won't have it.
• I tried the test menu but that doesn't seem to do anything to either troll.
• If I take the ball out of the playfield and then let the 10-second timer run, the left troll pops up and down as you'd expect. The right one didn't move.
  I *think* the right one made some noise but I can't be sure.
  The troll face looks like it's not pointing quite in the right direction - he's looking leftwards.

Any suggestions please? It is under guarantee but it's going to be expensive and I suppose slow if they have to come and fix it.

[philw]

The microswitches look fine on both, but the one on the broken troll is no where near the assembly. The issue is that the right hand (player's right) troll won't descend because he does not appear to fit down his hole. Something physical is stopping him descending.


See attached shot of the two solenoids, neither of which has power in this shot. Note that the right-hand one is under spring and gravity tension but it's not coming down. You can see also in the shot that the right hand troll face is displaced.


I would guess that the top part of the assembly, where the troll face appears displaced, is somehow obstructing the descent of the troll. So I think the electrics are likely all fine, but there's a physical obstruction there.


Anyone any ideas on this please? If I can work out how to disassemble the troll head maybe I can get the thing to drop.

[Lloyd Olson]

Looking at your picture, one of the two screws that hold the troll face/switch stack is missing.

See the hex head thing holding the black collar of the troll carriage to the shiny metal plunger ? Unplug the troll switch wire, remove that nut/bolt. Then wiggle the whole troll carriage assembly up and out, lean a little left so the metal tab sticking out clears the whole in the playfield.

Then you can work on the troll carriage assembly and get that switch stack screwed back down tight. If that and the troll face are moving around is the likely problem here.

LTG : )

[Lloyd Olson]

I circled in red the bolt to remove to slide the assembly off the plunger.

LTG : )

[philw]

Excellent - thanks for the support.... before i read it, I took the whole assembly out - I didn't see the black bolt there, but I see it now. We could see one of the screws was loose - not in the hole properly, but then...


As per this image, the second screw had sheared off!


I can get replacement screws I suppose - they don't look too odd. If you know the measurements that may help, or the distributor may have some.


But I need to get that sheared off screw out of that hole somehow. There's nothing at the head end to grip, although it sticks out a fraction at the pointy end. Ideas? I suppose if I can find a shop someone may have an extractor for things like that? But then why did these break in the first place: is the whole assembly ok?


I guess I should check the other one. Both trolls were quite hard to shoot - you had to hit them pretty hard to score.

Any ideas?

thanks again. I'm getting there

[Lloyd Olson]

The screw is 8/32 by 3/8

If the sheared off one sticks out a bit, maybe cut a slot in it with a dremel or something and unscrew it.

Whole assembly should be okay. I suspect it sheared off because it was loose and the troll head out of place aggravated it by hitting the playfield.

LTG : )

[philw]

Thanks - I'll source those from somewhere or ask the distributor for some (our stuff is metric).

Getting the screw out looks problematic, it's tiny. The machine under warranty here (EU law, yay!) so I may need to return it to the supplier if I can't work it out.

Any advice on how to get to where the screws need to go in? I guess I have to undo that bolt and then I can get "around the back" where the screws go in. Otherwise access to them is blocked.

[Lloyd Olson]

Once you unhook the connector, remove the black bolt, slide the troll carriage up and out, lean left so metal tab clears the playfield. The screws are easy to get to on the back of the troll carriage.

LTG : )

[philw]

Got it - thanks. Plus as these are actually bolts (not screws), I managed to get the sheared one out from the front, if you see what I mean. So now all I need is to source some replacement bolts. And then check the other side, and perhaps use some blue thread-lock on them as I put them back.

I will try to source some locally, although we're all metric here. If that doesn't work I'll get them from the dealer.


thanks for your help... it should be plain sailing from here, I'll post an image of the machine when I get it working again!

[philw]

I can't get bolts in those units, so the dealer will need to send me a set.
Meanwhile I lashed it up with a smaller bolt plus washers and a nut, which gets me going.


I used (removable) threadlock on both bolts, so they should not come out again unless I take them out.
I looked at the other side, but both bolts there look ok so I didn't touch them.

Thanks!

-- --
Whilst I was in there I updated the firmware to the latest 2.0.1 from the original 1.something. That seems to have cured the "lost date and time" issue.