New to slots - have a few questions

[RameGoom]

Hi all,
I'm into arcades and pins, just picked up a Jennings slot. It works, but not exactly right, and I have a few questions about some of the internals. Anyone can help? I have some detailed images that I can post.

Thanks!
John
EDIT: Here are the images that are in question: http://www.bummlbe.com/john/jennings_questions.pdf

[WS65711]

What model Jennings is it? I have a Bronze Chief, but the insides look a good bit different from yours . . .

[RameGoom]

It's a PACE by Jennings. Pretty basic model far as I can tell. It's the one with the two jackpot windows on the front.

[watlingboy]

This is not my exact area of expertise but I may be able to help with a couple of your questions. The machine was originally a Jennings gooseneck with a side vender and deferred pay, possibly a Dutch Boy/Dutch girl as these mostly had deferred pay. When jackpots started in the late '20's, these non jackpot machines were not as desireable so a bunch of companies started making replacement jackpot fronts. Some of these companies were Rockola, Sheffler, Roberts, Fey, Pace and others. If your jackpot works properly then you got lucky, if it is missing any linkage then that's a big problem because there were so many different kinds and types about the only way is to find someone who has a complete machine exactly like yours and have them send you a picture.

The third picture, that hook that is sticking up on the right that works a slide to the pay chute is for the deferred pay.
That arm that works off of the verticle pay out finger. That is for a free play lemon on the first reel. Unless the machine is equipped with free play, this part has no purpose. Another part attaches to that which would go into the pay out disc and give you a free pull if you landed on the free play lemon. I can't answer any of the jackpot questions for reasons stated in the previous paragraph.

That long verticle arm which goes from the base of the machine up into the head was for, as I recall, to lock out the vender when it was empty. When most all machines with venders left the factory, they had a mechanism which would lock up the machine if the vender was empty. This was because if it was being operated in a city or county where it was legal to run slots with venders, then a slot with an empty vender was illegal. I have had a few slots that still had this feature functioning. Some could also be easily adjusted as to not lock up when empty. No operator wanted his machines to not operate if the vender was empty so most of these features were removed or deactivated.

Hope this helps some.

Watlingboy

[RameGoom]

@watlingboy, THANKS. That's a great deal of help. I will probably fabricate a link of some sort, once I understand the mechanicals (that's my favorite part). Looks like this will start me on a venture of machines...

[tsparts4u]

Just thought that I would put in my two cents worth on your picture #2.

What mechanism pushes these two levers to reset the jackpot fill chutes?
Well, actually, the coins that are going into the jackpots control those two levers. As the jackpots fill, the weight of the coins cause these levers to close off access to the jackpots and allow the excess coins to be routed to the cash box.

Where does this lever attach to? It closes the jackpot release.
That lever does not attach to anything.When a jackpot combination is hit, the entire stack of coin slides move back. This allows that lever to move back also. There is a mechanism on the top of the payslides with a spring attached to it that will push the wide linkage to the left of the jackpots in a downward motion, thus releasing one of the jackpots that dump alternately. On the next play, the payout slides move forward and push the lever that you questioned forward, and that closes the jackpot that has just dumped, and sets the linkage to drop the alternate jackpot when the combination comes up once again.
I hope this is of some help to you.
Welcome to the hobby!
Regards,
Jerry (tsparts4u)

[RameGoom]

@tsparts4u, thanks for the info. I was trying to determine what mechanism resets those two levers. It does work; first coin drops in the first window, then the shutter closes. Next coin drops into the second window, then the second shutter closes. I'm trying to figure out what opens them to "reset"' the shutters.

When the jackpot is hit, the vertical lever pushes down via the mechanism, and opens one of the two jackpots. The escapement mechanism below the shutters alternates, so that once the first jackpot is emptied, the next time a jackpot is won, the second jackpot window empties. That all seems to work properly, but I can't figure out what closes those jackpot slides.

Does this make any sense? The problem I'm having is, once the brass tube fills with nickels, they tend to spill out into the cabinet, and cause a jam at the top of the tube. Seems like something is missing there, but I'm not sure. If you happen to have one of these machines, can you post a picture of that part of the mechanism? I'm almost there...works most of the time, but the payouts aren't working correctly (seems to be a delay in the payouts, or sometimes none at all) and I think it has to do with the way the brass tube is situated in the machine.

THANKS!
John

[tsparts4u]

The shutters above the two jackpots remain open until the jackpot below each of the shutters has filled to where it cannot take any more coins. Then that shutter will close. The same with the other jackpot shutter. When both shutters are closed, the excess coins bypass the shutters and go to the cashbox. When a jackpot combination has been hit, and one of the jackpots empties, the shutter above that particular jackpot will open once again, and allow coins to refill the jackpot.

You mentioned that you can't figure out what closes the jackpot slides. Are you referring to the stack of coin slides on the mechanism itself?

As far as the problem with coins at the top of the coin tube goes, there should be a small vertical slot in the casting that is at the top of the coin tube. There should be a piece of linkage that goes in and out of that slot each time the mechanism is cycled. That linkage is there to push the coins off of the top of the tube when it becomes full. The coins the will then go down the chute to fill the jackpot/s. Many times, when someone has removed the coin tube to correct some payout problem, they forget to put the linkage that I referred to, into the slot in the coin tube casting. When that happens, there is nothing to push off the coins at the top of the coin tube, and that can cause problems. The linkage that I am referring to, looks sort of like a small boomerang. Another thing that can cause coins to spill into the cabinet would be a missing splash guard. That is a small guard, that prevents coins from being flipped over the top of the coin tube. The splash guard is attatched to the casting at the top of the coin tube by two small screws. Check to see if you have one there.

Payouts sometimes are a problem due to the thickness of newer coins that have a ridge around the outside edge as compared to the old coins that were originally used back in the day. When the newer coins are stacked up, the result can be a slightly higher stack than with the old time coins. This can sometimes cause the payout slides to become stuck due to misalignment of coins. Another slide problem can be the result of dirty slides that stick together. Sometimes people oil the slides thinking that this will help. The payout slides should NEVER be oiled. They should be clean and dry. Still another problem with payouts can be that the small spring clip that is in the thicker slides can be out of adjustment, or possibly broken. Care should be taken, if you are not familiar with removing the slides, to keep them in the proper order if you remove them, as the slides can be of different thickness.

Best regards,
Jerry

[RameGoom]

@tsparts4u, again, thanks for the detailed info. I will disassemble the payout slides, as I believe that's where my problem is; delayed payouts or no payouts due to coins hanging up in them. The brass cast linkage you are referring to seems to help keep the coins in the channel, but there is something missing somewhere, the way the coins stack and jam up in that area. I will look for that "boomerang" shaped part, which may be missing.

The shutters for the two jackpot windows close once a coin passes thru. First, shutter 1 (which I set to OPEN) allows a coin to pass into Jackpot 1, then closes, which allows the next coin to enter jackpot 2. After the 2nd. coin enters Jackpot 2, both shutters are closed, which then allows the 3rd. coin to travel into the cash box. What I can't figure out is, what then opens both shutters, thus allowing the traveling coins to again enter the jackpots. I can see that, once the jackpots are full, the coins essentially jam the shutter fingers down, preventing additional coins from filling the jackpots, so that part makes sense. It seems that there should be some mechanism to pop the shutters open at some point, but I can't see anything that re-opens them. Opening them would allow the jackpots to fill.

Still unsure about that.

I will get the stacked coin sliders nice and clean, then see if they work properly. I am using current nickels and need to consider picking up some old, worn out buffalo nickels, where the outer ridge is worn out.

Back to the drawing board...

John
>>

[WS65711]

I don't know enough about Jennings/Pace to know if the info at the link below helps or not...
but some of the included drawings look somewhat similar to the machine pictured above.

http://rwatts.cdyn.com/download/Pace%20Manual/