Back at it again, reel motor issues

[mwade109]

Well, I pretty much got out of the slot business, emptying out my ebay store and someone comes along with two slots that need fixing.  I can't resist a challenge so I take them in thinking the M machine will be relativity easy but was I wrong.

The reel motor jitters and only spins about one third revolution before it errors out. So, first thing I try is unhook the belt so nothing is giving any resistance, same thing so I assume it is the motor itself.  I try another motor... same thing.  So I eliminate the possibility of the break not disengaging completely by forcing it to stay open.  Same thing with three different motors on three different complete reel assemblies.

So, losing more hair scratching my head.  I decide to hit the motors directly with 110v, brakes disengaged, no belt attached.  All three ran like champs.
In case it was a power thing I replaced the power transformer.

Any ideas... I can't afford to pull out any more hair, its getting kinda light up there.

[mwade109]

Update, it was the main board that was giving this problem.

That leads me to the next issue, the reel actuators are locking into place when the game turns on but they are not actually reaching the plastic reel scrockets to lock them in. 

Any ideas on this?

[Jim]

From your description, I think you are talking about the part on the front of the reel kicker. If so, that part has a plastic bearing that had cork surrounding that bearing, about 1/4 or 3/8 thick, over time that cork will dry out and break off, when that happens it cannot interact with the three plastic reset posts attached to the bar that rotates with the motor operation.
Those are no longer available, a fix was to use a metal bearing, I think the bearings used on Bally hoppers were used for that purpose, FOXSLOTS , had information as to the size of these bearings.

Hope this helps

Jim

[mwade109]

Thanks but no, the corks are all good on all of them. The cam hits the cork rollers and pushes the pawl  up but not forward so it could rest properly in the sprocket, none of the three go into position to lock the reels. Not sure if thats the job of the stop solenoid or not.  Any easy way to test the stop solenoid?

[Jim]

You can test out of the machine, use finger to disengage the solenoid, and again to engage . Two separate operations, one to kick off the reel and one to rest the reels.

Sounds maybe you need to lube all the moving parts??

Another problem related to the kickers were the ribbon cable connections, most issues resolved by hardwiring point to point.

There are also prompts in the test mode to test those functions in the machine.

Jim

[mwade109]

Thanks Jim, it ended up the solenoids were stuck and one of them was bad.  After taking care of the solenoids and changing over the game chip the machine is working great!

I'll let it run all night tonight then turn it off in the morning and let it cool off and if it starts back up, back to the customer it goes!

[mwade109]

Well, after replacing the main board the machine went back to the owners home and worked for about 4 days and now its back. No Spin Reel 1 when turned on and also when trying the reel tests.  It appears that that first solenoid on the reel actuator is constantly getting 7 volts,  so when the machine is turned on and the cam tries to reset the reels, the first one never resets because the voltage is instantly releasing it.  Any ideas where this voltage could be coming from. Attached is a pic for reference.