New Life Games Tech Forums

After getting my E series machine running a few weeks ago, it ran fine until this week.

Now, when I put in a coin and pull the handle, the reel spins (will payout when right combination shows), the reels stop properly, the bells and buzzer work but the handle does not return to it's normal position.  It started this about two to three weeks ago.

Actually, it does stay in the down position for several minutes to a few days and slowly returns to the normal return position.  At that point, can be played again for one game.

When I worked on the machine several weeks ago, I lubed everything on the reel assembly and after starting it up, everything including the handle worked properly for several weeks.  I did not lube the handle assembly but I don't think that this is the problem because it worked fine for so long.

One thing that I am wondering about is the air cylinder.  The lube instructions said to oil and grease it but I could not find the "pin" hole that was mentioned in the instructions and could not see a way to take this apart to grease it.

Any ideas on what to look for now?

Thanks

Check the damper on the right hand side of the reel bundle.
Most likely the rubber cup on the piston is shot.
Remove the 4 screws holding the white cylinder to the frame and remove all the nasty melted rubber from what was the cup on the piston.

The rubber cup seal in the air cylinder turns to a very sticky tar like substance and all the oil or WD40 won't make it work.  :37-   You need to remove the air cylinders 4 Phillips screws and the e-clip holding the linkage together. Pull the plunger out of the cylinder. You will need to clean the steel part that the plunger was attached to and the inside of the cylinder, make sure the air hole at the bottom is clear and open... Be carefull not to loose the spacers inside of the steel part if you remove the pin holding it all together, these spacers hold the linkage centered. Once it's all cleaned up, I like to use a light weight grease to lube the inside of the air cylinder before reinstalling the metal plunger. If you use too much grease it will come out the air hole causing a mess inside your machine.  :25- :8- Reinstall the air cylinder and hook up the linkage and you should be good to go...

After thinking about it last night, I figured that there might be a problem with the air cylinder.  I will pull it apart and check it out.

If the rubber cup inside  the air cylinder is deteriorated, can it be replaced?

Thanks for the help.

No Just re-assemble with out one.
Add a little grease to the inside of the cylinder.

Neonkiss and Amachanic

Thanks for the help.  I did it this evening and it now works perfectly.  I ran a lot of quarters through the machine without any failures.

Your help is greatly appreciated by me and many others.  Without your advice and others who help, many of us would be sitting in rooms with machines that did not work and that we might not be able to fix.

Thanks again

Glad to help.. This is one of the first things I do to every machine I get, because if I don't the feeling of a hard to pull handle drives me crazy, but I have 2 already to go from machines I scraped...

The cylinder and piston were coated with what appeared to be melted rubber or plastic.  It was hard to get the piston out because of the hardened black material on the walls of the cylinder.

I forgot to mention that I used carb cleaner on the metal parts only, but the cylinder feels like it is plastic and you don't want carb cleaner anywhere near that.  Carb cleaner will melt plastic. 

For cleaning the cylinder inside and light cleaning on the metal, I used "Goof Off" whicih is a lablel remover and so far, it has never hurt plastic.  I just put it on paper towels (rolled up for inside the cylinder) and it did the job.

This is not a very difficult job but as usual, I took a digital picture before starting.  I always do that on lawn equipment and almost every other thing that I repair.

When it was all clean, I used the Bally 251 grease that I bought a while back.  Soon, I am going to order some more of that.

Now, the handle seems to be easier to use.

Now, I can tell my grandson that he did not break the machine.  When it quit on him, he felt terrible because I could not convince him that after many years in bars and casinos, these machines are tough and he could not possibly have broken it.  To make matters worse, I also have an old Mills slot machine and it appeared to have quit too while he was using it.   Turns out he was not pulling the handle far enough to work the old mechanical machines.

I thinik that Amacanics idea about cleaning this cylinder as soon as he acquires a machine is a very good idea.  It is a good investment of a half hour.