Brought machine home, won't start

[Joolz]

Hi all, new member here and long time pinball afficcionado (grew up with them). After years of wishing for one, finally found a machine in great condition locally. Tested it at the seller's house and everything worked like a charm, playfield is in superb condition, all lights working, all bumpers, 5 flippers kicking strongly, in factory condition. Brought it home at night but didn't have the chance to unload it and bring it inside till next afternoon, so it spent some 18 hours unplugged. Once I set it up and plugged it in, it lights up but I can't get it to start (no credit). Checked all the wiring, checked the tilt pendulum, ensured there was one ball in the bottom hole and 4 in the channel behind the goal (as stated by the manual) and it still won't start. At a loss as to why, as is the previous owner that said it's never done this before. He's owned it for 2 years without a hitch. Looking for ideas of why it won't give me credits. Have anxious little boys eager to play it so I'm under the gun to show them what this cool new machine is able to do and hopefully will take them away from the Xbox.

Including pics of the table (minus the backglass that's cracked and something I plan to address later) and also the coin mechanism, where I suspect the problem could be. Seller said that pressing down on the thin wire should give me a few credits, as this moves when a coin is inserted, but it won't give me credits. Does this machine need programming to get it start up? If so, how do I go about addressing this? Would rather ask here first than to have a tech person come over, fear the cost could be high for a visit.

Btw at the seller's house all I had to do was to press the red button in front of the unit for credits, it was rigged that way. Was told that there's a way to change it so that it will accept quarters. Would be willing to give that a try if someone knows how to change that. Table made by Zaccaria in 1982 from Italy.
Appreciate any feedback and ideas.

 

[CJBob]

Welcome to the sight, sorry it isn't under better circumstances.

Someone should be along shortly with some suggestions, do you have the manual have you looked for a manual on-line? Most machines have a test button that will run through checking things but I'm not familiar with that type of machine so I'm not sure if it has one or not.

Good luck.

 

[Slam_Tilt]

There are a couple people that may be familiar with Zaccaria's and they'll probably chime in. But if not go to this site http://www.zaccaria-pinball.com that has a lot of info and even contact David Gersic (owner of the site) and he would be able to help.

 

[Menace]

When you power the game on, do the displays come up with scores and credits etc? In your pic the lights are on but the displays are out... if the displays are not lighting up then the game is not booting. If the game is not booting, pop the head open and check to see if any of the LED's are coming up (or flashing) on the MPU. If not, turn the game off and reseat (disconnect and reconnect) all of the connctors on the power supply PCB located in the lower right corner of the head, and power the game up after and see what happens.

If the game hasn't been re-pinned this is a faily common problem with these Zacc's. All 3 of mine have needed work in this department.

D

 

[Joolz]

Thanks all, for the quick responses and for extending the welcome mat.
Menace, including a pic of the 2 LEDs I can see. One is off, the other is on. I won't have the chance to disconnect/reconnect the connectors to the power supply till a bit later but will definitely try it.
Here's another thought: could it be that I have a weak battery and it didn't retain the programming? Including a pic of the manual that suggests this. As for the self test, how do I go about performing it? Remember, this is my first table and I have no idea how to perform such tests, so if someone can make sense of the instructions and can guide me on how to go about doing them, I'll be happy to follow suit. Time to take the pre-schooler to school, poor guy keeps asking me constantly if the machine is fixed. So yeah, I have a gun to my head

Edit: that is correct, when I turn the unit on none of the score boards come on, only the lights you see on the pic.

 

[Menace]

Ok, if the battery died or became disconnected from the MPU for whatever reason then you might have to enter the diagnostic / adjustment mode and select one of the 8 program lists shown in table one. I have never had to do that on mine, so I'm purely speculating but I would guess there is a button located inside the coin door. By pushing this it will likely enter some sort of diagnostic / adjustment mode, and you will have to scroll through the choices shown on the displays. How to do this again I'm not sure but the manual should give you a very basic explanation.

Just looked at th pic of your MPU and it's got a super cap installed instead of batteries. The only way to charge this up is by leaving the game powered on for a while. It should retain enough power to keep the setting in RAM for at least a month without turning the game on once fully charged.

Thought I would add this in for you. David does a pretty good job of walking you though how to "setup" a game for the first time (as would be if the battery dies). Start from about 1/4 of the way down the page at the "Board Installation and Game Setup" section.

http://www.zaccaria-pinball.com/gen2/repairs.html

D

 

[Joolz]

Update: it works! Well, kinda.
As it turns out the reason why the game wouldn't start was due to the connector to the board with the unlit LED (as per the pic above) was loose. It still doesn't make great contact but will be keeping an eye on it. Sure enough it fired up but then I run into issues immediately where the game wouldn't fire up the ball.
So I followed the setup instructions listed above (many thanks for that link) and did a complete reset for this table. However I still have two problems: can't seem to be able to leave the setup mode, even after turning off the no. 4 switch. And while testing an actual game (back when the flippers were working) the ball went into the hole that brings it into the upper playfield - and it won't come out. It's stuck in there. I since tried to re-enter and exit setup mode (by means of activating switch no.4) and I still can't seem to be able to start a game.

Stoked that the table works as seen at the seller's house, just gotta now figure out some of these current issues. Really glad I signed up for this forum, so far the help gotten from here has been invaluable. Big thanks to everyone that responded.

Edit: while the game did work for a bit, the ball would't come out of the bottom hole, I had to physically take it out and place it in front of the plunger. While doing the testing, only 3 of the 24 listed solenoids were working, which is odd as even the flippers didn't register. Nor did the solenoid for the bottom hole. Currently when it looks like I have a game running, none of the flippers are working.

 

[Joolz]

Update 2: it now FULLY works!
As it turns out I must've blown up a couple of 3A fuses along the way and this is the reason for the confusing havoc I was having, after reprogramming the table. Slapped a couple of new fuses in it and it fired right up. As I type this my 6yo is eagerly trying to beat his own scores (while the 4yo decided to take a break and return to the xbox).

All is great now and I have you folks here to thank for getting me there. From being completely lost to now being able to program the table to suit our needs as proficiency with the table grows.
And for anyone wondering: this Soccer Kings is truly a great table. Way more table than I was expecting to get with my limited budget. And since I got it for a bargain, I couldn't be happier. Hmm, make that ALL of us couldn't be happier.
Thank you, all.

 

[REVOLUTION]

Congrats! And welcome!