Crazy Flipper Fingers

I have a couple of issues with my Bram Stoker's Dracula...maybe someone can give me some ideas on what to check.

1. The Castle Ball Popper (the little bar that holds balls for castle multiball/left ramp). It only goes down for a split second, not long enough to release the ball so it just sits there and I have to take the glass off and get the ball out. I searched for similar issues on RGP and someone named Cayle suggested cleaning the optos or doing a factory reset. No luck. The optos were pretty dirty though.

2. While playing the game, it will randomly register shots up the left ramp (giving castle locks or starting bats) even when the ball is nowhere near the left ramp.

Well, any ideas on what to check would be appreciated because I am only starting to work on machines.

I was over there tonight the problem lies with switch 53 and 54. The center left stand-up was acting questionable as well. Too many drinks at the time to actually do anything about it though.

It seems like it is completely random. Like we took the ball out of play and it still recorded left ramp shots (such as bats). I also noticed that it will occasionally shoot the shooter rod even when there is no ball there. Somebody on RGP suggested replacing the 10 switch opto board. It does seem like all the problems relate to the optos.

As far as the rod holding the ball in the ball locks...it started working more normally once I raised the back legs. Someone on RGP had suggested that raising the angle of the playfield might fix this. That switch for that middle target is still a problem though.

I think it all might be related to the optos. I don't know exactly how to tell if the opto board is really the problem.

Yes, I am pretty sure it the was the center bank, left target.

The center bank of targets are leaf switches not optos. Check below the playfield to make sure a wire hasn't fallen off. Clean the contacts with by dragging a business card through and make sure the switch is properly adjusted (i.e. making contact when the target is hit).

haven't forgot about you Kev just been a little busy. I will do some more research sat morn and give a call to set up a time to get another go at that.