Page 1 of 1

prewar Jennings chief, pulling my hair out

PostPosted: Sun Jun 21, 2026 5:51 am
by just frank slots
Hello,
I have a prewar Jennings chief and I am pulling my hair out. I have two questions about that machine.
I first question I have is about the two coin chutes, I have a picture below... For what I can tell, I might be wrong, I am new at this forgive me...There is no way a coin can be kicked up into the top chute, from what I can tell the top chute can only be manually filled with coins that go directly to the cash box only... The second chute goes into the jackpot and "CAN" be filled when the coin tube is full automatically ... Am I wrong..

The second question I have is about the coin separator system. Mechanic found me that part, I was looking for it for a while now.
A hard part to find... What is the purpose of that part? I know it goes to the escalator but how? Does anyone have a photo how it pugs into the escalator. I have been pulling my hair out on those two questions for some time now... Thank you...

Re: prewar Jennings chief, pulling my hair out

PostPosted: Tue Jun 23, 2026 6:43 am
by just frank slots
Hello?

Re: prewar Jennings chief, pulling my hair out

PostPosted: Tue Jun 23, 2026 12:38 pm
by mazzeosa17
On the top chute, you can manually fill the coin tube, then excess coins will go down the chute to the cash box. The lower chute is for coins going to the jackpot, which is automatically filled when playing/cycling the machine. You can also manually (so more quickly) fill the jackpot by sliding the jackpot loading hole at the top of the jackpot. See attached photo from the Mead and Geddes book "Owner's Pictorial Guide for the Care and Understanding of the Jennings Bell Slot Machine" that shows these chutes. The book also explains how to manually fill the coin tube on page 7-8.

As for your second question on the coin separator system (for which Mechanic found you the part), I can't answer what is the purpose of that part. If you include a close-up photo, then I'll know what part you're talking about. Maybe it's to separate check tokens vs. coins, but I'd have to see the part.

Re: prewar Jennings chief, pulling my hair out

PostPosted: Tue Jun 23, 2026 1:54 pm
by just frank slots
Thank you for answering my questions... I have not yet installed the coin separator yet, I will soon... I am happy I found it, that's a tough part to find... I was hoping someone out there had a photo that I could use. True that book does have a photo of the parts and talks about it, however I was unable to find a photo anywhere where it plugs into the escalator... Maybe I don't know for sure, kicks the coin into the chute... I don't know at this point, someone out there knows for sure... I was told years ago it was common to remove the coin separator from these machines for some reason... Must have trouble with it I guess...

Re: prewar Jennings chief, pulling my hair out

PostPosted: Tue Jun 23, 2026 2:20 pm
by just frank slots
One more thing to add... The coin separator is in that book you mentioned on page 55 figure 7.31 and does talk about it plus more photos of it as well. My other machine bronze Chief never had one. From what I can tell the postwar Jennings didn't have that part for some reason...