Need Some Help With A Locked Up Columbia

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Need Some Help With A Locked Up Columbia

Postby WoodrailFanatic » Sun Jul 14, 2019 2:35 pm

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I need some help from a Columbia expert.

I will confess upfront that I have limited slot experience. I have worked on pinballs and other EM arcade games for over 40 years. And my slot experience has been focused on Mills and one Jennings. Now I am looking at a nickle Columbia machine that is locked up and I cannot figure out how to get it freed up.

Initially the second and third reel stops were stopped mid-cycle. I got those freed up and sometime after that I got the machine to complete its cycle...not sure what I did that allowed that to happen.

At that point I was able to pull the handle and the machine spun the reels and the clock ran. But this time it stopped with the third reel stopping part way.

Now from a visual inspection I knew from the git-go that I had an obvious issue with the machine. The ball that is supposed to go in the cavity at the bottom of the Cross Slide Arm (A-143) was flopping around loose (photo attached). For the life of me I cannot imagine how that happened. What I don't know is what the Cross Slide Arm does or if its obvious lack of proper function would cause a mid-cycle lock up. And if so is there a way to manually manipulate things so the machine will complete its cycle. So those are my first questions.

I removed the large nut and bolt that holds the Cross Slide Arm on and got it out of the machine but with the machine stuck mid-cycle I cannot get it positioned such that I can reinstall it when the ball is properly positioned in the cavity on the Cross Slide Arm. Is there any hope of getting back on there until I get the machine to complete its cycle?

A coupe of other questions on the Cross Slide Arm. Does it attach to anything else when I put it back in. I see mention of a Cross Slide Arm Spring in the parts manual and that would seem to imply that spring might attach to the arm but I don't see any place to do that. And when I put the Cross Slide Arm back into the machine do I need to postion or insert it into any other part of the mechanism? Before I removed it from the machine the top of it was just free to move left and right but did not appear to be attached to or riding in anything else. And what are those 6 "channels" that have been cut into one side of the arm (photo attached)?

On a Mills machine when I remove the mech fronm the case I have completely detached the escalator from the mechanism. that is obviously not the case with a Columbia. So my question is with the mech out of the case and cycling the machine by hand can all of that elaborate coin handling stuff on the top of the machine cause the machine to lock up mid-cyce or is it out of the picture at this point?

Any help you can provide would be most appreciated. I have studied this thing over until my eyes bled!
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