Niggly payout problems - 873

[frenchmarky]

I seem to have licked the coin counter problems (contact size and alignment) but I have some goofy payout problems left.  
All payouts that are *supposed* to payout look like they are, correctly.  However I have hit some non-pay combos that are also paying out:

BL    7     PL
PL    PL    BL
OR  BAR  BAR

7    BAR   7  
BL   BL    PL
PL  BAR   BL

Example, both of these are acting as if the center line is all Plum or all Bells including the payout amounts, even though the last symbol is one line off that.  Pays out with one coin (center line).  Will pay out with two coins (top line) *IF* I also shift the above symbols all up one on the reels.  I've aligned the wipers as good as I can and I just don't see where they can be shorting onto an adjacent contact.  Have even tried resetting the coin counter, and while it's paying out have tried slightly pushing the wipers either way especially #3, by pulling down on the reel or pushing the wiper the other way with a stick, the payout doesn't get interrupted.  I'm running out of ideas!  
What kind of things could cause this that are not wiper position related?  Maybe I just need to play it more and find out more incorrect combos.  Any suggestions on where to look or something I might be overlooking would be greatly appreciated.  Again, all the "good" combos I hit always pay out ok, just these few bad ones that do also.  Thanks!

[frenchmarky]

Found a BIG clue... even if I remove wiper #3 from the circuit completely by putting a sheet of paper under all of it's contacts, that false Bell 18-coin payout still happens.  Does this conclusively mean that reel 3 circuitry is the culprit like a shorted connection on it's board?  This is really weird but then I've only worked on two of these EM Ballys.  Thanks!

[frenchmarky]

As Emily Latella used to say - NEVER MIND - I think so anyway so far  : \   I *thought I had checked ALL the relays in the machine, but that paper test made me take another look around besides the wipers.  The center Bar relay was missing it's spring so a couple of it's contacts were closed when they shouldn't have been.  Maybe I knocked the spring off accidentally while adjusting things but was probably missing when I got the machine a few months ago.  Anyway so far it looks like the bells are paying out only when they should.  Will report back if I find any remaining glitches but looks like this was my own inspection error.  Maybe this might help others if a similar situation occurs.  Thanks!
Frenchy