Mills Silent FOK - How does empy vendor coin return work?

[insertcoinhere]

I have recently acquired a Mills Silent FOK with future pay. It took a little work but I have the future pay working properly and now want to tackle the one remaining feature on this machine that is not working - the coin return when the mint vendor is empty. I see the lever that pokes from inside the case into the mint holder/slide and I see the tab on the coin mechanism that will redirect the coin either down into the escalator mechanism or out the coin return right next to where you put the coin in. The tab that pokes into the mechanism to redirect the coin is attached to an arm that runs parallel to the other two arms on the escalator (coin detector and token detector). What I don't understand is how the lever from the mint slide is supposed to activate the coin return mechanism at the top of the machine.

If anyone has any information or pictures on this I would sure appreciate some help. It almost "feels" like there should be some linkage on the mech that will make the connection but....

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

[altort]

Hope this helps, I restored this silent F.O.K. a wile back have many pictures of the restoration.

[insertcoinhere]

Thanks altort. I think I have a much better idea now. Sadly it would appear that the restorer of my machine removed that linkage presumably so having rolls of mints was not required in order to play. I will pull the mech back out tomorrow and see if there are any elements still remaining. Even the plate by the payout slides I think is different than mine (mine does not have slot for the "finger" to ride in but rather is just notched out) but your pictures will certainly help me try to track down the missing pieces.

If anyone is restoring a Silent FOK and plans to remove these pieces I would be interested in purchasing them. Please let me know!

[watlingboy]

I have had a few Silent Mills Fok's over the years and only 1 still had the coin rerurn if the vender was empty. Most of the machines that were equiped with venders, both front and side, could not be played if the vender was empty. Mill, Jenning and Watling all did this. If it was being run in an area where it had to vend something to be legal then if the vender was empty, it was an illegal machine. However, this was frquently the first thing removed from the machine because the operator or new owner did not want to lose a penny of revenue. So the fact that your machine is missing linkage is much more common than if it was still intact.

Watlingboy

[insertcoinhere]

Thanks Watlingoy for your feedback. That really makes sense and gives me the idea that finding the missing linkage is not going to be as easy as I had hoped. Oh well, the hunt is at least half the fun!