New Addition - Bally Sir Prize

[urban_paranoia]

Errr...this kind of sneaked in today...

Seems to be DOA - any tips on these machines?

[jimmy55]

Make sure you leave enough room in the kitchen to chop the veg ....seems to be filling up quick

[badpenny]

Come with nice tea towels don't they?

[jimmy55]

Come with nice tea towels don't they?

Even colour co-ordinated!

[urban_paranoia]

Come with nice tea towels don't they?

Factory-fitted, so I've heard!

[urban_paranoia]

Just replaced the mains cable, which looked very dodgy.

Will have an official switching on ceremony later!

[raj]

This was always a favourite of mine, with the original hopper payout making it closer to the original US machines. The upside is that the wiring should be fairly straight. Most parts are connected to each other electrically, so removing anything will stop operation, so there could be a fault on any part that stops a boot up. You may be lucky and find a blown fuse. The prime suspects after the fuse would be the end of stroke switch on the back of the damper, which if not fully restored would cause your fault, or any one of the plug pins either dirty, bent, broken or pushed back into the plastic. The pins can be pulled back out and superglued in place. Contacts on the hopper unit could also be suspect. Rough handling may be the cause, judging by the damage to the case. Treat the plugs with great care as they are impossible to buy, unless off a scrap machine, oh, and watch for 240v appearing just about anywhere

[raj]

Here is a link to the manual you might (will) need....Bally Money Honey...http://rwatts.cdyn.com/Machines/download_area.html

[urban_paranoia]

Cheers!

[coppinpr]

Interesting machine in that the Mark 1 version, the true Money Honey, was the machine that changed the one arm bandit world and sounded the death bell for the Hi-Top and the Jennings Gov type machine. It's the first real electro-mechanical.

Watch out for signs that say '110v' - they often don't clearly say there is 220v waiting to bite. It's a real challenge to get at the lights inside the lower door on the old ones; I dont know about this model. Some models had a delicate revolving wheel inside the door that caused a color change as it rotated. If there is, it will almost certainly be dead now and will look great if you can get it going again.

[badpenny]

Twelve hours have now passed since we last heard from urban_paranoia.

Here's hoping the official switching on ceremony didn't involve the Emergency Services

[urban_paranoia]

Don't panic - yet!

All is well...ish... there's good news and bad news...

I've got it working!

Primarily, this seemed to be an issue with gunky old grease gumming things up. Following a bit of fettling, it now seems to coin-up OK (other than the fact that the coin mech doesn't seem to be fully functioning) and it works... after a fashion.

Say 6 or 7 times out of ten, all seems well and everything starts and stops as it should.

The other 3 or 4 times, you get results like these:



and these:



(sorry for the cr*ppy video/audio quality!)

That's about it (so far!)

By the way... the centre line on the front glass doesn't pass through the reel symbols... they sit above/below the line.

I take it that something is out of alignment?!

[badpenny]

Perhaps the mech is from a different case?

Like most electro-mech gubbins the more you play it will probably improve things as the contacts will clean off.

I also suggest you move the scales away from it, they might be unbalancing it. Especially if they're pre-decimal and your bandit isn't.

[raj]

Well done so far - you have identified the problem in a nutshell... crap, or solidified grease to be more specific. The 3 arms that stop the reels will be gummed up and sticking, by the look of it. Take out the reels and thoroughly degrease every single moving part that you can see. WD spray to get things running smooth and then relube with 3 in 1 or light grease as appropriate. Don't file the contacts, they will have bedded into each other and should work correctly unless contaminated or have lost some spring tension! The Coin Control coin mech is fairly easy to tweak to take different coins; the magnet can be cut off if it is causing trouble on new steel coins (a common issue on Bally's).

[urban_paranoia]

Cheers!

I'll do some more degreasing then...

[urban_paranoia]

Incidentally... having now looked at pics of other Bally machines of the same era, I see that the centre/payout line SHOULD pass through the fruits on the reels...

[urban_paranoia]

UPDATE - as Sod's law would have it...since giving the mech another (careful) degreasing/lubricating, Reel 1 doesn't stop.

It fires/spins OK, but the brake stays off (closes if you nudge one of the levers underneath).

[coppinpr]

Does the clock fully finish its cycle? A stuck fan or clock would result in this free running reel problem.

[urban_paranoia]

Do you know, I think it does... I'll double check when I get home.

It's reel 1, and the 2nd and 3rd reels lock in the right order. That one should stop first (well, it was earlier!)

[urban_paranoia]

Right... I'll do my best to describe the "new" fault and see if anyone has any ideas...

The clock/fan appears to be running fine, BTW...

Once I had undertaken further degreasing/re-lubricating (carefully), the following happens:

Reel 1 fails to brake.
When in this condition, Reels 2 and 3 often brake differently (both together or in reverse, i.e., 3-2). Reel 1's associated levers stay in the cocked position.

If I take the mech out and tilt it backwards (I noticed this first when looking underneath), Reel 1's associated levers/brake will suddenly activate. Also, while manually operating the Trip lever, everything fires and brakes normally (in the correct sequence, i.e., 1-2-3). Put the whole mech flat on the table and lo and behold, Reel 1 won't brake again.

Obviously, something is getting a wee bit of help from gravity when tilted, so it works fine... When horizontal, that assistance isn't there, so it sticks.

Other than carrying on degreasing in the vain hope that whatever clag is causing this disappears, does anyone have any suggestions?