Bally 809 Coins dropping through...

[shortrackskater]

While I'm waiting for my repaired MPU board for the IGT S plus, I'm now working in my Bally 809 that I recently purchased. It was registering 1 - 5 coins and would cycle. It did pay a couple times - the bell went off with a three watermelon payout. It wasn't working well though, and it had been in storage in a garage for some time.
Now it won't register coins at all...they just drop through.
* I manually flip the microswitch, they will register up to 5 coins, BUT when I pull the handle it drops to 1.
* Shouldn't it stay registered at the highest value played until the next play?
* And if I do flip the switch again, it takes only ONE time to advance it to the 2 coin. It should click and stay on 1 coin.
* And, for a time, the WINNER PAID light stayed on. After cleaning a number of contacts, that went out.
* The INSERT COIN light does go out after 5 flips of the switch and returns on after the machine cycles.
* I've checked the RM A and C switches and the hopper contact board. I have yet to see a "rubber barrel zero stop" anywhere. ?

I've done everything in the troubleshooting manual but it's rather confusing when this problem could be occurring in more than one place in the loop. The coin acceptor is good and being energized (it drops through the correct path when out of the machine) but I'm thinking something's not telling the machine to pay and reset for the next play. I'm NEW to working on EM's and I do have a manual with the parts list and locations but I'm thoroughly confused at this point.
Can someone point me in the right direction?

[shortrackskater]

38 views so far and no one has any idea? Is it my deodorant?

[Neonkiss]

zero stop switch is on the side of the hopper.
In front of the spiral cam. I don't have a picture right now.

Also check in the top unit if the coins are not advancing

I do have some manuals, the trouble shooting one doesn't have any pictures but the other one does.
Here some reading material.

edit.... Too big to post here, check your email.

[shortrackskater]

Thanks! I do have the big Bally manual from that website with the slot downloads. I did remove the top unit and check contacts...twice. I'm not confident on those switches. Should I ohm out each one? They visually look like they're making contact.

[Amachanic]

I like to use my ohm meter to check the contacts where I can get at them. I have found that even if they look like they are making contact but they read that they are not.. I agree with Neonkiss about checking the coin stepper unit to see if it's advancing and returning. you might need to clean the contacts on the stepper unit..

[arfulruf]

the red arrow points to the zero stop in these pics .

[shortrackskater]

Sorry for the delay here...got stuck with my birthday and another frustrating slot project...thank you for the pictures. I'll get to this by the weekend and report back!

[shortrackskater]

I'm still not sure what I'm looking for. I've checked ALL the switches and contacts in everything, including the top portion. I think I found the zero stop. It's hard to tell. I can see the round contact plate and to the left is a set of contacts. I'm assuming that's it.
What's confusing is WHERE to start again.
It won't take a coin. But if I manually flip the microswitch below the coin acceptor, it registers a coin and will play but not pay off. I am positive the coin acceptor works - I have two and checked with both.
What "tells" the coin acceptor to take a coin? Isn't this where I should start?
UPDATE: I've gone through every contact again in the hopper, upper unit, and reel mech. I've followed the Bally troubleshooting guide in two different areas: COINS NOT ACCEPTED and NO PAYS. Only change is now there's a red LED that's on constantly. It's just below the first reel, inside the glass. And the COIN ACCEPTED stays on. The INSERT COIN does go off after I manually flip the micro switch. It still won't accept coins and still no pays. I'm stumped.

[shortrackskater]

I hope SOMEONE can chime in here...I just made a discovery.
With the door open and, this time, holding the coin switch DOWN (after clicking one to five times as if a coin was entered) the machine WILL stay lite at the proper place, depending on how many clicks I did. I just held it down and after each cycle, I could here a reset click from the door. And it paid off properly, at least for what I've hit so far.
Could this just be that the coin switch is wired wrong? I replaced the old one when I bought the machine but I don't think I wired it improperly. I just soldered in the wires the same way as the other switch. Only thing is that the coins still drop through to the payout tray.
Help! It's almost working.

[Neonkiss]

Coin switch has three legs
C = Common
NO = Normally open
NC = Normally closed

It sound like you might have the wires reversed. I would try switching the NO and the NC
Leave the Common alone.

[shortrackskater]

I'm not home right now but is there an indication of NO and NC on the switch? Or, do you know which wire colors go to each side? I think one side has two wires twisted together. I know the hopper divertor is bypassed so coins can't go out the chute that leads to the cabinet cash box.

[shortrackskater]

WORKING...mostly.
The NO and NC tabs in my replacement switch were flip flopped from the original switch! I never even thought of that until I held down the switch last night. I wonder why a manufacture would do this? The labeling was on the bottom as well so I couldn't tell until I had take the switch back out. Thanks again everyone for the help on this. I'll probably never have any problem with switch contacts again since I checked and cleaned them all about five times.
Now it's working, mostly but it's not always registering a coin in. The coin does drop to the hopper but doesn't register. I swapped out coin acceptors but it still does it. I wondering if I just need to bend the switch wire a bit?

UPDATE: I noticed not enough of the switch wire was in the channel to get tripped. I simply bent the wire in and now it's accepting coins all the time. Looks like I have another working machine!

[poppo]

The NO and NC tabs in my replacement switch were flip flopped from the original switch! I never even thought of that until I held down the switch last night. I wonder why a manufacture would do this?

Those types of switches can come in any configuration. Same with relays. Always need to check and make sure they are the same as what you pull out.  I recently bought some relays (with only a common and a single contact) that were listed as NO, but it turned out they were NC. It took me a while to figure out what was wrong. Luckily I only had to change one line of code in my project to make them work.

Glad you got it working.  

[shortrackskater]

I just has assumed that the switch would be the same. Well...another lesson learned in my early stages of EM slots.
 
***   ***   ***   ***
After playing awhile I found out it RINGS when it pays on a 5 line win!
I bought this on Craigslist for $425 with the original stand. It's in amazingly clean condition, inside and out. Whoever owned this before me took very good care of it. Somehow I'm getting it inside the house tonight. At least it's not as heavy as my slant top.  

Anyone know Bally's reason for having so many watermelons on the reels? I've hit the three-watermelon four times now but have yet to hit anything other then cherries. I wonder why they did this? Maybe that symbol configuration gives the player the illusion of frequent big payoffs, but in the long run, it does suck your money away!