Relay Actuator Repair
By Jeffrey Lawton, Cincinnati, Ohio
additional comments - mostly irrelevant - added by me in italics
Games affected: all
Jeffrey writes:
So, you've got a broken relay on your bingo game and you need to change it. This is an easy fix, simply pop the old bakelite actuator out and pop the new one in. OK, so I'm simplifying too much. Lets start with the relay's location in the game.
![]() golden gate |
relay bank |
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Here is a typical relay stack in a Bingo game. This happens to be the 5-relay stack on a Golden Gate. The relays are (from top down) Red Button, Start, Anti-Cheat, Replay Reset & Right Button.
Let's say the actuator is broken on the Red Button relay. First you need to remove the two screws holding the relay frame to the cabinet. This will afford you access to the entire relay.
Sometimes the relay coils or switches are wired together with short pieces of wire that makes it difficult to access what you need. When that happens, you may have to remove multiple relay frame brackets so you can shift the pieces around as needed. That's usually easier than unsoldering.
Also, on late model bingos, the actuator is plastic and is riveted to the relay
plate. For these, you would replace the plate and actuator as a unit.