Clock Jackpot and Skill stop

[treefrog]

The first I am sure of many questions from peoples' purchases from Coventry. I have been pretty pleased with my first Bryans - a Fruit faced version (seen the thread on here questioning whether these were revamps or factory original faces - personally I quite like the fruit face, although it is fading a little). Great fun, pays out correctly - have won the 12 o'clock win a few times. Also fascinated by the mechanism, but there are two features that I am unclear on:

Firstly I am assuming the button on the top near the coin entry is a skill stop as suggested on the front decal, but mine appears not to be attached to anything. I have noticed the rod that goes down to the main clock spindle, but it is not attached. I have tried to show in the picture, can anyone advise on how this should, if at all, be attached.

Secondly, I assume the little window to the left of the clock face is a jackpot. Not sure how this is won, although I assume it would be something like hitting 12 O'clock with both hands. Mine though again is non operational, as the flap below the jackpot just drops and is not attached to anything. There again is a rod above this where I assume maybe a spring is connect to hold the flap up, but how does the jackpot fill with coins and trip. Of course this may not be possible with what I have as parts may be missing.
Your help is much appreciated...... Will probably be saving the pennies for a wall machine next, maybe a Wonders..

[pennymachines]

I have been pretty pleased with my first Bryans - a Fruit faced version (seen the thread on here questioning whether these were revamps or factory original faces

The consensus seems to be that they are factory original.

Firstly I am assuming the button on the top near the coin entry is a skill stop as suggested on the front decal, but mine appears not to be attached to anything. I have noticed the rod that goes down to the main clock spindle, but it is not attached. I have tried to show in the picture, can anyone advise on how this should, if at all, be attached.

You assume correctly. The skill stop button presses against a spring plate and this, when depressed, pushes down on the top of the brake wire - so they only make contact when you press the button. The other end of the brake wire applies some friction to the centre spindle. In this way, it rather ineffectually slows the spinning hands. As a "skill feature" it really offers nothing to the player - more of a sop to the gaming board.

Secondly, I assume the little window to the left of the clock face is a jackpot. Not sure how this is won, although I assume it would be something like hitting 12 O'clock with both hands. Mine though again is non operational, as the flap below the jackpot just drops and is not attached to anything. There again is a rod above this where I assume maybe a spring is connect to hold the flap up, but how does the jackpot fill with coins and trip. Of course this may not be possible with what I have as parts may be missing.

Correct again - both hands on twelve triggers the jackpot (if it's activated). The jackpot flap is not retained by a spring - it just has two stable positions: open or closed. You have to manually load and set it by pushing the flap back into the closed position (push the lower edge towards the glass). The wire that you called "rod above jackpot trap" is what holds it in place and trips it. (For clarity, I've coloured it red in my picture below). To activate the jackpot, this rod is positioned inside the bracket affixed to the right side of the payout hopper. At Twelve O'Clock the hopper is raised to its highest extent, thereby lifting the trip rod and releasing the jackpot. Twelve coins are paid from the hopper, plus whatever has been loaded into the jackpot. On some versions, the maximum hopper payout can also be adjusted by a gold plate which modifies the depth of the channels in the star wheel.

See patents:
http://v3.espacenet.com/textdoc?DB=EPOD ... 353451&F=0
http://v3.espacenet.com/textdoc?DB=EPOD ... 622329&F=0

[treefrog]

Superb, both are working now , many thanks PM, I knew someone would know the answer. As you say though, I am not sure how effective the tension bar really is, although I did win two 12 coin wins one after the other using it, of course that may have been beginners luck. What an excellent machine and love the finish.