Jennings Silver Chief 25¢ – Higher Payouts All One Quarter S

[Mully911$]

Hello all,
Thanks for letting me join into all the great folks here who have helped me so far On this slot revival journey.

I’m working on a 25¢ Jennings Silver Chief and trying to diagnose a very consistent payout problem.

I removed and thoroughly cleaned the payout slides and reassembled them dry. With the payout tube properly filled, these are my repeatable results:

• 3-coin payout = 3 quarters — correct
• 5-coin payout = 5 quarters — correct
• 11-coin payout = 10 quarters — one short
• 13-coin payout = 12 quarters — one short
• 18-coin payout = 17 quarters — one short

I numbered the seven payout slides #1 at the top through #7 at the bottom. By watching them operate, I have determined:

• 3 payout: #6 + #7 retract
• 5 payout: #5 + #6 + #7 retract
• 11 payout: #4 + #5 + #6 + #7 retract
• 13 payout: #3 + #4 + #5 + #6 + #7 retract
• 18 payout: #2 + #3 + #4 + #5 + #6 + #7 retract

Because the shortage first appears when slide #4 comes into play, I removed #4 for inspection.

I discovered that the small metal separator/cutoff tab or spring assembly on this slide has quite a bit of movement. I’m attaching a video showing exactly how it moves.

My questions for anyone familiar with Jennings payout mechanisms:

Is this amount of movement in that tab normal?
Is this the coin separator/cutoff spring that determines where the coin stack separates?
Could excessive looseness or an incorrect resting position here cause the payout to be exactly one coin short?
Does anyone have a known-good 25¢ Jennings 6-coin payout slide (V3-131) that they could photograph from both sides for comparison?
Does anyone have a spare V3-131/6-coin slide they would sell?

I don't want to bend, tighten, peen or otherwise adjust the tab until I know how it is supposed to operate.

Any Jennings-specific experience would be greatly appreciated. I can provide additional photos or videos if needed.
Here is a short video of the #4 slide tab movement.
https://youtu.be/53Iktr9JrZk
Thanks in advance
Mully