Aristocrat Starlite - won’t payout

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condense
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Aristocrat Starlite - won’t payout

Post by condense »

Hello
This is my first ever machine and I fear I may have been duped. It was sold as working but it doesn’t look like it will pay out. It is full of coins and to be honest I am not sure where to start. Does the bit in the photo look broken to you?
The wheels turn when a coin is added and as the coin stack is full it falls in to the machine as expected so it partly works
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treefrog
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Re: Aristocrat Starlite - won’t payout

Post by treefrog »

Yes you can see a broken slide, I have never had this happen before on an aristocrat. Also did you remove the screws from the slide cover plate, as with loose and missing screws the slides will lift up out of the cradle, which will cause payout issues. The slides look in the wrong order as well, the one above the broken one should be at the top.

I think you need to take off the coin tube and remove the slides for inspection, check for breaks and check springs. Take a picture and share so we can advice |/XX\|
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Re: Aristocrat Starlite - won’t payout

Post by condense »

Thank you - I really appreciate your help - I will try and do that as soon as I can and post some more photos.
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Re: Aristocrat Starlite - won’t payout

Post by condense »

I’ve managed to take it apart and there are a number of missing springs. However the very bottom slide spring was intact and I would have expected some movement in that one but it takes more force than I would expect to move the lever which has to move to the side in order to release it. I’ve taken some photos and would welcome any advice. The broken slide is only a bit broken so I hope it is ok.
I will need some more springs - can anyone advise the best place to get those as well please?
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treefrog
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Re: Aristocrat Starlite - won’t payout

Post by treefrog »

I can see why that slide was broken, there are screwholes in the top three slides, usually done to restrict payout to 10 coins and someone has removed the screws. The break may not affect play as long as it runs smoothly in the cradle.

Springs come up for sale occasionally on eBay and on Colcon auction site or try looking at the Archive/Services on here, there are a couple of spring suppliers.

The horizontal fingers should all move freely, if not look at what is blocking them
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badpenny
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Re: Aristocrat Starlite - won’t payout

Post by badpenny »

If you were trying to move the horizontal fingers out to release the slides while the machine was at rest then it would have been very hard to do.
This is because the weight of the slides would be sitting heavily on them.
They only move allowing the slides to retract during the cycle.

If you haven't found it yet we have a section on the forum dedicated to Tips for Beginners which explains how to stop the mech mid cycle in order to check (amongst other things) slide behaviour
Access it here

BP :cool:
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Re: Aristocrat Starlite - won’t payout

Post by coppinpr »

BP beat me to it on the fact that the fingers holding the slides shouldn't move when the machine is at rest, so you have no problem there.

It looks like water has got on the slides at some time and caused rust on the bottom master slide. This will not be helping matters. Clean it all off with fine wire wool and some form of dirt remover but remember NEVER oil the slides or any part that touches a coin.

The correct springs are preferable for sure but boxes of mixed springs are available on Ebay very cheap and these will do a temp job so you can get the machine working. In fact, you are NOT missing any springs. As mentioned earlier, three of these slides were joined together to adjust the payout, so one spring would have pulled all three back (although it's usual to add more springs, in this case, to even the load).

Once we can see the award card on the machine we can conform the payouts compared with the slides.

Be sure to remove and clean the large bottom slide and the base under it.
Unless you paid a lot of money for this machine you have not been duped, Aristos are pretty much indestructible and it will come back to life with some care and attention. Can we see a photo of the machine please? It will help us get our heads around the problems.
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Re: Aristocrat Starlite - won’t payout

Post by condense »

Thank you for your help. I now understand why it was so stiff.
I have taken some photos. I will go through the link and come back once I have sorted the slides. They clearly need a good clean and polish and some springs. The timing appears to work ok and I have just successfully managed to make it give out a low payout by stopping the clock and then lining up the outer set of holes for the fingers.
It is however evident that this doesn’t align with what is on the wheels and that the LH wheel is slightly out compared to the other two. I have tried to take a photo to show the issue. A number of the plastic teeth on the brake cogs are broken off too but I don’t think this is the problem
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Re: Aristocrat Starlite - won’t payout

Post by condense »

I thought I should post a couple more photos as I think my primary problem is the alignment of the discs on the end which the fingers go in to.
It seems the LH wheel (RH disc) is out of alignment with the other 2 so a winning alignment can’t happen as the fingers can’t poke through the 3 discs as the outer one isn’t aligned with the other 2.
Could someone advise me please as to how to adjust it. It looks like it has been knocked at some point.
Thank you all so much for your help.
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Re: Aristocrat Starlite - won’t payout

Post by badpenny »

You're right it looks well out.
Show us the reel stop sitting in the star wheel of the first reel. It may be that the arm is bent, so is engaging at an angle.

BP
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Re: Aristocrat Starlite - won’t payout

Post by coppinpr »

Looks very much like you're right about the lineup, all the areas marked "A" below should stop lined up and be held in place by "B" at the end of the cycle. (In my photo I've indicated the edge to the left of the correct position that needs to be moved but it could just as easily be the edge to the right. I can't tell without seeing how they line up when adjusted). I think you need to adjust the nylon cog on the far left reel, although strangely I've never had one of these later ones with the nylon cog. I assume it's easy to adjust. This might lead to the symbols being out of line but the machine paying out correctly, but that's another adjustment and can be done once the machine is paying out correctly.

You mention that some of the teeth are missing on these cogs. This can happen, but it was also a common way for operators to reduce the number of winners: file off the teeth and that reel position can never come up.

The payouts on the award card seem to indicate that the three offending slides MIGHT need to be joined together.
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condense
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Re: Aristocrat Starlite - won’t payout

Post by condense »

Thank you for your very helpful posts - I really do appreciate them. The brake levers appear straight.

When I line up the areas that you marked A it is clear to me that the left nylon cog wheel is out of alignment with the other 2 ( the pictures on the wheel are also not aligned)
So my query now is how to realign them as the nylon cog cannot move independently of the wheel. Is there a way to make the cog and wheel move independently of the disc with the holes in it for the payout levers (sorry I don’t know the part name)
Would it be to undo the bolts in the first picture?
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special when lit
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Re: Aristocrat Starlite - won’t payout

Post by special when lit »

condense wrote: Wed Nov 03, 2021 1:24 pm Thank you for your very helpful posts - I really do appreciate them. The brake levers appear straight.

When I line up the areas that you marked A it is clear to me that the left nylon cog wheel is out of alignment with the other 2 ( the pictures on the wheel are also not aligned)
So my query now is how to realign them as the nylon cog cannot move independently of the wheel. Is there a way to make the cog and wheel move independently of the disc with the holes in it for the payout levers (sorry I don’t know the part name)
Would it be to undo the bolts in the first picture?
Yes. slacken the two bolts in the first pic, make sure the reel symbols are lined up, then you can move the payout disc to the correct position to allow payout.
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Re: Aristocrat Starlite - won’t payout

Post by condense »

Thank you all so much. I have managed to realign them. Fortunately the wheel has 2 low payouts right next to each other and so I was able to match this with the position of the holes on the side piece and even better have managed to get a small payout - even with my slides still in rough condition. I can’t thank you enough!
I still need to clean and polish the slides. Should the top ones screw together? I just wondered if they need springs as well - I currently only have springs for the bottom 3.

I would like to rebuild the nylon cogs and so was considering building them up with araldite - I can’t think of another way to do it. Any chance anyone has a more sensible way to do it?

Sorry to ask further questions - I am really grateful for all of the support so far - what an incredible forum - thank you
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treefrog
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Re: Aristocrat Starlite - won’t payout

Post by treefrog »

Your machine is limited to 10 coin payout, so only the lower three slides are used. Someone has removed the pins, but also the fingers for high payouts above 10 will have been adjusted on the upper fingers. Whether a spring is needed or not will depend on whether there is strength in the others to move the top three slides.

The plastic cogs are a pain in the arse and one of the flaws on Aristocrats and do break or get brittle over time. I understand they moved to these to help with the claim to be one of the quietest machines to use. My view - you will need to replace the broken ones…
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Re: Aristocrat Starlite - won’t payout

Post by coppinpr »

Tom may be right about the 10 limit but it might not be the case. Your machine has had operator changes made over the years and it's left it a bit confused. You can easily check it out.
The award card is what causes the confusion; it says "BONUS". This could mean one of three things: it's just there to look good, the machine used to have a bonus payout, or it still has a bonus payout.

This gets even more confusing when the award card says "A A A +10". Does this mean it pays 10, pays something +10, or used to say before being altered "A A A 10 +10?
My guess is it's the last option, and the first "10" has been removed from the award card. This, I think, would make sense of the slides. The bottom three are a "5", a "3" and a "2", so they can handle the 3,5, and 10 normal payouts. The other three are also a 5,3,2, but were once joined together to make a single "10" and this was only used if A A A came up firing the bottom three slides for the 10 as well as joined slides to pay the 10 bonus.

So what does this mean to you when setting up the payouts of the machine? This will be partly up to you and partly depending on how the bonus feature was removed. If you want to ignore the 10 bonus, simply don't put springs on the top three slides and the machine should pay as per the award card. If you wish to reinstate the 10 bonus, this will depend on what the operator removed when downgrading the payouts. If the vertical and horizontal fingers are still in place (I can see the verticals are still there so the chances are the horizontals are as well) and none of the holes in the payout discs have been welded/covered up, then all you need to do is join the top three slides back together, add springs to at least the top and bottom slides of the joined up set and change the award card to 10 +10. So the first thing to do is check what is there and what's not and decide if you want the bonus if it's still available.
condense
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Re: Aristocrat Starlite - won’t payout

Post by condense »

Thank you for the comprehensive replies - that’s really helpful.
I think I will leave the slide set up as it is for now and save that for a later date.
The cogs on the other hand are in quite a bad way with many of the teeth broken. It seems that part is very hard to obtain and I have drawn a blank. I have found somewhere that thinks they can 3D print some for me so I am going to give that a try:
Thank you all so much for your help
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Re: Aristocrat Starlite - won’t payout

Post by condense »

Wow - you are right about the payout card having been changed - I can’t tell what was under it before as it has been painted over though. Thank you the slides make sense to me now!
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