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Hi everyone, I have recently got hold of a Bally E-2000 (im in South Africa). Plugged in the power and the machine starts up, lights go on, fan runs. It takes the coin, but the arm does not release and cannot be pulled down?  Any ideas what the problem can be? A picture is attached.

I'm relatively new to the E series machines as I have acquired several within the last year, and are in the process of refurbishing them. I did start to put together a diagnostic sheet that would be helpful in troubleshooting the machine:

http://www.ramegoom.com/john/E2000/Maintaining%20your%20Bally%20Slot%20Machine.pdf (http://www.ramegoom.com/john/E2000/Maintaining%20your%20Bally%20Slot%20Machine.pdf)

It's a work-in-progress and I will be adding more info as I go deeper into these machines. In the meantime, it might be helpful to you.

thanks. I have no idea where to start with this machine, or if I should at all bother. My knowledge of slot machines is currently = 0. But I am going to have a closer look at your guide and spend some time on this...

Well, for what it's worth, my very first introduction into this hobby happened just over a year ago, Nov. 2012, when I purchased an antique Jennings slot from the Chicago Coin Op show.

Flash forward 15 months later, I have accumulated dozens of mid-70's to mid-80's slots, half of them Ballys and the other half EM Jennings machines, in the hope that I get them all working properly.

Lots of learning along the way, much of which I found here on the forums by some very knowledgeable and intelligent people. Still in learning mode, but a background in digital electronics helps a great deal....

Well, from looking at the picture it appears to be a military machine,  usually the coin in, tilt, winner paid, coin accept, are LEDS, opposed to lamps. and the winner paid meter up in the top glass is another tell. This is only a guess on my part (from the pictures).  The only difference between this machine and a regular Bally machine is the reset and test procedure. Normally on a regular Bally you could push the reset and test buttons (located on the top of the hopper control board)  and they would respond accordingly, on a military machine, you have to press the reset button (key activated), located on the side where the handle is. you can do this using your finger when the door is open. then the test and reset buttons will work.

As with any machine the first order of troubleshooting is to look the machine over and make sure you have all the boards, this machine should have 8 logic boards. CPU- leftsidewall cabinet , I/O board, back cabinet wall, three reel readers, (located in the reel mech. to the left of each reel) one reel reader distribution board (located inside the reel mech on the front wall) the power supply board, located on the backwall cabinet beneath the reels, and the hopper control board (mounted behind the handle on the hopper assembly). Make sure all the boards are plugged in. All fuses should be checked with an ohm meter, and then the power supply voltages should be checked. There are wire loops on the power supply board for this purpose.

Then try and reset the machine, push both buttons down for a few seconds, if you hear what sounds like a click and the reels are locked in place, the machine has reset.

Hope this helps

Jim   

Hi Jim, thanks for taking the time. From your description it appears that this is a military machine because it has the reset button on the inside wall by the handle like you say. However the test and reset buttons that are supposed to be at the top of the hopper control board are not there.

It seems to me that all the boards are there. The guy that gave me the machine said that it work when he got it and he believes all the parts are there because he never took anything out.

I started fiddling with the cables, switches, plugs etc. and when I disconnected the long black plug on the board (while power on) located on the lower back wall where the hopper sits I got clicking sounds and other noises (1st picture is of the board). The reels also locked in place. small lights also lit up between the reels. The meter started showing different numbers. such as 1....2. & 1..0..2. At one stage I got 50.0.no which was the most encouraging because it is a 50c play. At this stage the “insert coin”, "coin accepted”, “tilt” lit up. But the 50c just fall into the machine but the lever does not release so the machine still doesn’t work. All other coins just fall through so Im pretty sure that it takes 50c. I kept on fiddling but now I cannot seem to get it back to the initial codes and now it is stuck at code 1....2.  But it doesn’t end here.. on top of the machine there are 2 yellow buttons. If I press the left one a small box located on the bottom of the machine (shown on the 2nd picture) makes clicking noises and the code changes to 100002 (the oooo being subscript).

Any ideas?

You might want to remove the IO board, attached to the back wall, then check Q16 (Triac) to see if it operates correctly. If not then the likely cause
would be a bad 74174 chip located at U5. The other thing to do is to take a wire brush and clean the pins on J1 - J4. I have found several where
the corrosion will not allow the board to operate as it should.

The other components to check are R16A, R16B, R16C,C16 and CR16, these resistors and capacitors may not be there if your board number is AS2980-5500