Mills Novelty $.25 Machine Not Paying Correct. Rando BONUS Letters. No Jack Pot

[dballs]

Greetings,

I inherited my father's old Mills Novelty Horsehead Quarter Slot Machine after he past. I grew up with this machine and really want to get it working again as it's very dear to me. It did work well once upon a time. It has a few issues. Wheels spin fine. Takes quarters fine but:

• It will pay out when it shouldn't and doesn't pay when it should. The logic is completely off. Getting any of the combos listed does nothing but it will pay out random amounts when no combo is made.
• It tosses up a letter for the B O N U S randomly and often. It should only put up a letter of BONUS in order when the first wheel lands on the next letter in sequence. But it just tosses them up nearly every spin but sometimes not.
• No quarters ever go to the jackpot little window area. It's alway empty now.

Me and my engineer friend have taken it out and watched a few videos and just aren't sure where to start. Do I need to replace springs? Could the icon wheel become misaligned with its corresponding logic disc where the pins go through and know when to pay out? Something needs bending? It seems in pretty good shape other than the mentioned above issues.

[shortrackskater]

I had more comments but deleted them until I notify another member who knows a LOT more on this than I do.
First, that's an AWESOME machine!!!
Here's what I surmise...
The jackpot reservoir won't fill until the coin tube is full. Then it kicks to the jackpot and then to the cash box below.
The odd payouts might be a sticky coin slide. Or one just stuck open which might account for random payouts. The slides need to be absolutely oil free - no grease/oil should ever be added.
I'll contact member 63mini and he will have better information! 

[dballs]

Thanks for the quick reply!

For the jackpot I swear I have fed enough coins in it to kick over to the jackpot. But maybe not. Ill manually fill it and see if we can get some in the jackpot vault.
I will also check out the coin slides for any thing.

[dballs]

Is this the best section of the forum to post about this type of machine? Can anyone suggest another place to get some help please

[shortrackskater]

Unfortunately there's only a couple of us that have mechanical machine knowledge. So there may be delays in replying.
Try
coinopcollectorforum.com
When you join, they will ask you for a password. Send me a PM and I will send it to you. 

[shortrackskater]

Did you make any progress with what we discussed?