New Life Games Tech Forums

I just picked up a bally 1088-1, i have no knowledge of slot machines and there is nobody that can help me in san diego. the one repair shop in san diego said that they only work on machines prior to 1980. the problems that i am having are... when i put a coin in the slot it just drops straight through the machine into the cabinet and the machine doesn't register that i inserted the coin and the tilt light keeps illuminating. I can get the tilt light to turn off if i wiggle the hopper. any thoughts or ideas of how i can try and fix these issues would be great. also if there are any manuals or schematics available i would love to get my hands on them. thanks in advance for any help. Andrew

:238- Andrew :88-

Is this an Electro-Mechanical machine or an E series? The model number suggests EM but the fact that your local shop refused to work on it suggests E series.
For the time being I've moved this thread to the Bally Reel Slots board.

 :211- of the inside and the outside.


StatFreak :31-
:nlg-   Global Moderator

I will take some pictures when I get home, the tech I spoke to said that he only works on pre 1980's bally slots.

after some tinkering with the machine i have discovered that the coin mechanism does register that the coin drops, the problem was the switch onthe bottom of the hopper was not making contact. I took the glass off the machine and found where the bell is located. i think my problem now lies in this area. I drop in a coin and one of the sensors clicks but the sensor that needs to move when the second coinis dropped doesnt click and the arm doesnt release. there are 3 reels in this compartment that i believe count the number of coins that you insert into the machine, the middle one appears to have been burnt... the numbers are gone and i can see smoke residue. I have posted a pick of the door and of the part I believe to be deffective. any thoughts on how to either fix this problem or where i might be able to purchase the entire part.

couple more pics

The good news is that you have an EM slot, which are basically always repairable, and not an E series (which are harder to deal with.) IMHO your slot tech was a jerk and should have worked on your machine. To say that he would only work on EMs and not E series is one thing, but to use an arbitrary cut off date without a description or pictures of the machine is ludicrous.


The unit you took out of the top (the half pic that didn't upload properly) is the odds payout unit (I might have the name wrong.) Those counters don't count the coins inserted; they are used to multiply the number of coins payed out when you win. Each one is tied to a specific number of coins played and is advanced once for each coin paid out. It then sends a pulse down to the main payout counter down by the hopper once for every n coins counted, where n is the number of coins you played. That's how the machine "multiplies" your payout.

For example, if you play three coins and win 10 coins x  3 = 30 coins, then the 3-coin payout wheel will advance once per coin paid but only send a signal to the bottom counter once every three coins. When the bottom counter has advanced 10 times it will shut off, but since the top wheel "absorbs" two out of three coin out pulses, you get 30 coins instead of 10.

If one or more of the relays is burnt then it would still need to be fixed.

There should be a large square board with a contact that has a bunch of arms (should be 10) coming out like tentacles and that rotates through the center. It is the odds relay. It should step up for each successive coin inserted. As you mentioned, there is/are relays that might be frozen or bad that could prevent the machine from doing this.

Don't worry about the numbers on those little wheels. Bally just "borrowed" those counters from their pinball division where they were used for the scoreboards.

I'll leave it to the experts to help you get it fixed.

Sorry for the bad pictures, i deffinetly appreciate the help. if I new how much fun it was tinkering with theses machines i would have done it for years. I have a manual on the way so hopefully i can learn the names of a lot of the parts. I spent the last couple hours checking continuity of all the wires, everything seems to be checking out ok. are the relays the cylindrical parts that you can see in the pictures below? and if they are the relays, is there a way to test if they work properly? not to get ahead of myself but it appears they can all be removed and replaced, and if i need to replace where can i buy them. i watched the part in the second picture as i inserted coins into the machine, for each coin insetred the middle part would click once, it sems that when i insert the second coin the bottom one needs to move to indicate the second coin paytable an so on for the third coin but it doesnt. I also havent figured out why the arm doesnt release when i insert a coin... hopefully the problems are connected and not to difficult to fix. thanks in advance

Now i am 100% sure i need to replace the parts in the pic below, they are all connected but for whatever reason they are not working together. when i test them for continuity i dont get any readings. anyone know where i can get replacements? and what they are called? they look like they are wrapped in wire and then covered with tape.

wops, the machine is a 1978. i found a different tag on the machine

Barry at Fox's Slots (foxsslots1) probably has them. He might be "under the weather" right now.  :30-
(I'm taking about hurricane Irene :5-. Not suggesting that he's ill.)

depends who you talk to - different definition of ILL works for me - anyway - still moving inventory - leaving Wed am to Florida - driving another truck back so I can't do anything for another week or so.

i spoke to the tech in my area and since the machine is pre 1980 he will take a look at it for me. If i decide that i can fix it my-self i will be sure to order the parts from foxsslots1, thanks for the help.

How's the machine coming along.

i have it with the tech at the moment, hes going to let me know if its going to live

Keep us posted