Aristocrat Payout help needed.

[rod71]

Hey guys.
I'm helping a mate here in AU with his Aristocrat "Super Star" 4 reel mech.

He picked it up the other day and it was set up to play without coins. When I first saw it and gave it a spin, I observed the 4 reels clicking and locking as normal, No click for the payout fingers to lock into the discs, but the final click from the slides was there. I told him to bring the mech around and I'd take a look.

So it was on "Free Play" by a piece of wire behind the coin mech that held the vertical bar up, and also a piece of wire on the rear of the mech that esentially held the payout fingers away from the disks.

So after removing the wires, I was able to coin it up and pull the handle, but the payout fingers won't retract from the disks, and reel number 1 won't move at all, and the other 3 are sluggish.

Also, the springs on the payout fingers looks weird to me, as I've never seen them all criss crossed like that.

I'm thinking it's gummed up with grease, but I figured I'd ask the experts to see where we are at.

Here are some pics. I have removed the coin slides and cleaned them up, as they were covered in gunk

Thanks for any help. Appreciate it!

[treefrog]

You may have answered your own question.....they look like the wrong springs and may have been criss crossed to give tension as they were too long. They are also probably the wrong compression. I do not believe in buying a box of your 500 mixed stainless steel springs that can work in a bandit, they tend to have the wrong sizes and tensions. These look like they are high tension springs, if you pull one of the fingers back is quite a bit of force required, very little is needed for these.

If this is the problem, you can get proper upper finger springs online/ebay, not expensive

[rod71]

Thanks!
Do you have a link for the springs?. All I can find are bags of 100 from the USA for crazy money.

Rod

[treefrog]

The guy selling them on ebay in the US is Bernie Bertin, or his son now, see link below to his site. He has 100 bags of lower springs for $40US shipped.....suspect if you check with him a bag 10 upper should be a lot less.

http://www.mrslot1.com/

[rod71]

OK, so I can eliminate the springs being the issue, as I replaced them all with good ones from my Aristo which is similar.

What I did notice, is with all the springs off and cycling the mech. The bar that retracts the payout fingers advances forward as it should, but after the 4 reels click into position, the bar doesn't move. It jumps back out if you wiggle the handle after the cycle has ended.

Cheers
Rod

[treefrog]

What bar are you referring to?

[badpenny]

I think he's talking about the reset bar that pushes the vertical fingers back and holds them there until the second to last action of the cycle.

[rod71]

Yep, not sure on the technical name for the part. But you can see it in the pic below. It moves a little bit, but not enough to retract the fingers out of the payout discs.

I have a feeling I'm going to have to remove the reels to get a better look, but I'm a bit weary. Is the process for an Aristo to loosen the retaining screws on each end, remove the E clip on one end and then remove the shaft from the locknut end?.

Because the fingers won't retract, I'll have to remove the springs to release the fingers from the discs to remove the reels. So once this is all done, I just lift the reel bundle out, and there's no way to bugger up the payout alignment unless I separate the reels from the bundle?

Thanks again
Rod

[rod71]

Success!
OK, forgive the lack or correct parts terminology, but on the pic below, I loosened the top bolt and tapped the tongue looking thing back so it was flush on the end. This allowed the reset bar to travel further forward and complete the cycle

Now, apart from the overall mech being a bit sluggish because of grease, One of the fingers is slightly out of whack and binding on the payout disk and slows down reel number 1. How do I go about adjusting the finger?

Cheers
Rod

[coppinpr]

Ok, you need to be careful here - the bolt you loosened and the rod you adjusted are a last resort adjustment. Moving this changes almost everything in the cycle. It may well have been the right thing to do, but the adjustment would have to have been very small to keep everything working correctly. Also, we must hope that the problem was caused by this adjustment; it might have seemed to fix it, but it might not have been the cause.

Are you saying the retract bar is not pulling one of the fingers back far enough to clear the payout disc?

If you need to remove the reels look at "Tips for Newbies" on this site for instructions. It's easy, but not quite as easy as you might think.

[rod71]

Ah, thanks for that Yeah there's just one finger that isn't retracting away from the disk far enough by like 1mm. The rest are fine. Changing springs doesn't help.

[badpenny]

Ignoring the adjustment for the moment, I'm going to show you the desired result using one of your photos.

If you pull the handle and then immediately stop the spinning fan at the bottom back (we usually recommend pushing a duster into the fan to avoid damage) the reels will spin freely until they glide to a halt.
Then remove the mechanism from the case, looking from the back you'll see.

20150915_173755.jpg (106.71 KiB) Viewed 1480 times

The spring loaded lever marked A should now be vertical having moved in the direction of the arrow.
The metal button marked B should now be sitting on top of the lever at point C

If that's not the case then the vertical fingers will not be retracted completely and likely to be fouling the discs.
A slightly more adjustment will be needed - the bolt you loosened and the rod you adjusted. Until it does.

If however if the lever A is vertical and B is sitting happily on top of C, but when you move the reels there is fouling between the vertical fingers and the discs you'll know you've got the adjustment right (it can't go any further - and indeed shouldn't!)

Can you slide the reel bundle slightly over away from the vertical fingers? If so try that.
Is there excess wear on the bar that pushes the fingers or even on that finger itself?
Sometimes the long thin screw (Arrow D) that the pushing bar hinges itself on comes loose and undoes itself at the far end thus reducing its travel.

Edited because of fat finger tryping

[coppinpr]

I've never had a four reel version of an Aristo (wish I did), so I'm not sure if this is relevant or not, but which finger is it? Is it by chance the one nearest the rear of the machine? If so, check the tension rod (just above the letter "B" in BP's post). These do come loose. Usually they make little difference, but it's a wide gap on a four reel - just possible the A frames are pinching together just a little, shorting the gap across the rear of the machine and moving the rear-most finger closer to the payout disc. Not likely, but worth a look.

[malcymal]

It might be possible to resolve the clearance issue by simply placing a thin washer (alongside what is there already, or completely replacing with one), perhaps just 1mm or less on the end of the reel shaft thus spacing/holding the payout discs slightly away from the payout fork. Thus the whole reel bundle is pushed by a smidging to the left in the A frame. As Badpenny suggests "Can you slide the reel bundle slightly over away from the vertical fingers? If so try that" in which case the washer would maintain that slight clearance. However, if there is washer on other end, adjust that width accordingly. I had exactly the same issue with an Aristocrat Esprit some years back. It also then became apparent that the kicker was then not quite striking one of the reel cogs which had wear in places, hence one lazy wheel spinning slow, so a bit of faffing with different size washers on either end for spacing needed. Its a very fine adjustment to get it right which is prety much my motto for all machines ive fettled with, half a mm can make the whole difference of machine working or not.