Bally 873 weirdness

[profmike]

Hi all,
I'm new to the forum- so hello and Happy New Year to all! Hopefully, there's someone reading this who can help me figure out the problem that I'll describe below...here goes....

*and let me say in advance that I committed the cardinal sin of EMs- I didn't play the machine for months. It worked perfectly for the 9 years that I've owned it, but I wasn't able to play it since July due to medical problems. A couple of weeks ago, I was finally well enough to make it downstairs into the gameroom, and of course all my slots had problems. My 809 i was able to fix with a good lube/cleaning....but this one is driving me crazy.*
Anyway:
It's a 10c denom Bally 873. Typical cherries through bells payouts, 100 for bars, and the jackpots are for triple 7s.

Problem 1: It won't step. The machine will accept a first coin and will continue to accept coins, but won't advance to 2nd-5th coin played. It will take as many coins as you put in.
Problem 2: (discovered while playing it as a single coin machine)- I hit the three bars. no pay. Then I held the clock fan and lined up three sevens. No pay. The lower pays are all correct (bell rings, correct # of coins dispensed).

Any ideas, folks???? I'll try just about anything at this point!
(and if I need to post any further info, please let me know)
Thanks in advance,
Mike

[Jim]

step up problem:  after the first coin the handle relay switch has a set of contacts that transfers all in coming coins to the feature step up unit, I would clean the contacts on that switch first, you can manually step the feature unit by pushing the coil plunger, you will see the lights advance, then hit the reset coil on the same unit. if the contacts look black instead of shiny brass, clean and lube those also.

payout problem:  check the contacts on the reel mech boards. they too should not have any dirt build up on them, clean and lube as well.  usually when you jiggle the handle after after a winning combo will tell if the contacts are dirty or by moving the reels slightly.


Jim     

[profmike]

Hi Jim- thanks for the reply & I'll try what you suggested. I've already pulled the step up unit, and  it does advance manually & resets fine when i hit the reset coil while out of the machine....so one dumb question- is there a way, using alligator clips or whatever, to force step the unit while in the machine to check for operation (obviously the lights wont work while there's no power going to them)...or should I just do the cleaning and then see what happens?

And as for the payout problem, I'll do what you suggested. Now I'm even happier that i found this forum and posted....I was blaming the hopper and was about to start fiddling with that! And I really didn't want to open that can of worms.

I'll try these tonight and let you know what happens. (BTW i do have the Mead and the Fey EM service books, but they give conflicting info)...

Thanks again for your help!

Mike

[profmike]

Hi again...replying to my own post. Sorry if it had "duh" written all over it  I read your reply too quickly and saw "step up" rather than "handle relay"....guess this is what happens when you work on a machine for days on end (and throw new year's eve in the mix)!
Anyway, contacts on handle relay cleaned, top unit wiper arms removed and all contacts cleaned.....STEP UP WORKING!!!!!

The reels- board 1's contacts are indeed dirty and also in need of adjustment- the ones on reel 1 stop in between, rather than on contacts, so my next step is to clean & adjust those. (makes no sense why the smaller pays work though, as the reel 1 issue should be creating a bridge and causing erratic pays, but it's not).

Thanks again for the help...and btw my other question is still something I'd like to know....is there something I can rig using alligator clips etc for the upper unit? The "logic" behind that idea would be to verify if the orange was getting power properly and at the right times while the upper assembly was still inside the machine and the power on. Now who says there's no such thing as a dumb question?  :-)

Mike

[Jim]

you would have to make a extension cable to do what you want to do. 

the orange wire has 50vac on it all the time, the yellow wire is actually the switched wire that eventually will energize the coil.

Jim

[profmike]

OK, and thanks once again. I'll invent something. And yes,...yellow wire. 10-4 on that! Too much  fiddling with the Em's over the past few has rendered me quite electro-retarded!!!!!
Thank God I've graduated from Mills to the Bally Em's....from springs to contacts, coils and relays! (the IGT fixes seem so easy in comparison to the others)...
Mike