Aristocrat The Gambler mechanical incorrect payouts

[oneslottoo]

I am new to this site and also new to slot machines. I am in the USA and posted on NLG with this issue but have not figured it out. It was suggested to me to try this site for help and from what posts I read through it seems like there is much more knowledge on Aristocrat 1960's-70's era machines here.
I am just copying/pasting my original post from the NLG site to get this started.

"Just bought this Aristocrat mechanical The Gambler slot machine from approx. 1975 in non working condition. This is the first mechanical slot machine I have ever looked inside of so do not expect me to know the specific part terms.

I was able to get it working for the most part in 3 hours. I took apart the initial coin mech., cleaned, straightened, and adjusted to what seemed proper for a quarter to pass through, Then took apart the next coin mech (turret) and did some Hammer/filing work on worn parts, cleaned, adjusted so the quarter would rest at the play position and got this working well.

Then reels would not spin so I started to look for bad spring or stuck levers etc. Found that the L shaped lever at the back lower center was very tight/froze on the shaft, cleaned and lubricated and wheels spin fine.

The machine is working except that it pays out too often, I know on some occasions it pays on any 2 like symbols on the first 2 reels, seems to accept bars as wild, seems to pay out 14 coins quite often when it should not.

I know this was messed with before as I found a couple of incorrect things with the coin mechs. which I fixed. Not sure what else someone screwed up prior to me getting it. Overall it looks to have seen a lot of use judging by the wear to the coin turret parts. I do not see any other levers stuck and there is a lot of grease on parts (especially the clock mechanism).

The 2nd coin lockout coil is missing completely.

I think further disassembly, cleaning, lubricating would help out a lot but would like to know what I should be looking for as to the overly generous payout issue, also reels 3&4 seem to have more side to side slop than 1&2 do.

Thanks for any input.
Ed"

Since this post I have removed the payout slides and cleaned them, made 5 new metal spring/tension parts and riveted them to the plastic slides, rebuilt the arm dampener shock, charted the reel strip symbols and I think are in the correct order, charted 20 or so incorrect payout combinations.

[badpenny]

Howdy oneslottoo and welcome on board...

I'm sure we can talk you through the issues. There is an enormous amount of knowlege and helpful members here.

Firstly post us photos of the mechanism out of the cabinet, from all four angles please.

You've already told us there's grease evident, all of that should be removed. In fact most of us strip bandit mechs when we first get them in order to clean and oil them. That tends to resolve most issues.

Possibly the overpayment issue is down to dry grease fouling the horizontal fingers (the set of levers that hold or release the slides and sit behind them) if they are stopped from resetting after a payout those slide will continue paying out.
BP

[oneslottoo]

Thanks, When I first dug into this I checked levers for movement and found the L shaped one in back lower center to be stuck which caused the reels to Not spin, removed, cleaned, lubed it and reels would spin. I could not find any other levers that seemed stuck. here are pictures and if closer ones would help let me know.
On the front below the diagonal coin chute there is a bracket that appears to be missing a part.

I also would like a picture and measurement (length from bend to top) of the bracket on the white housing so I can weld in a new piece to repair it.
I also added half of the incorrect payouts I recorded (payline symbols, number is coins paid, symbol off payline is the double bar which pays on anyline).

Ed

[badpenny]

That's useful, thanks.
If you look at the picture below, you'll see what I was describing in my previous post.

The yellow arrow is showing that none of the vertical fingers have passed through any holes in the discs. Which is correct as the front view shows the line is not a winner. However the red arrow looks to indicate that some ... if not all of the horizontal fingers have reset properly and will have let the slides release.
If you look at the front view photo again all of the slides have paid out.

So like I said in my first post, it seems as if the horizontal fingers (red arrow) aren't resetting behind the slides as they need to.
Try playing it outside of the cabinet and just before it fires check the horizontal fingers and see if they've tucked themselves in behind the slots.

You said it's been fiddled with before you got it and that you'd done some work on the slides, are you sure the depth is correct? Those horizontal fingers are spring loaded at the back and should automatically jump in behind the slots when they are pulled forward.

BP

[oneslottoo]

Actually that IS a paying combination, The Bell is on the payline and the double bars are displayed 4 times which pays in any position(scattered anywhere in window) and not just on the payline(see glass picture). If you click and enlarge the picture you can see a finger near center that has passed through the discs. This did pay correctly (20 coins, maybe 21 as it seems to do this at times, probably due to coin wear) when it happened.

[badpenny]

Okey Dokey ....... you're dealing here with a 60 year old man enjoying 4 chronic health conditions.

Play it until it throws an odd one, get it out of the case and do the same comparison. If for no other reason than to eliminate this line of thought.

I still think you'd benefit from a de-greasing strip down, you might want to consider the same for the machine.

BP

[oneslottoo]

I am sure the mechanism is ready for a thorough cleaning but am trying to figure out what I need to look for to get it working properly. I am thinking that the one or 2 discs are not synced with the reels properly.
I also noticed this lever looks like it should be engaged with the notches in the 4 discs (this picture is taken without disturbing the machine from the previous pictures in a correctly paying position), the 4 discs teeth are not in line and probably need adjustment too.

[badpenny]

I wouldn't be overly concerned about that lever and synchronisation of the reels.
It's purpose is to hold the reels steady as the kicker passes underneath.
It then releases its grip just before the kicker is released and flies back the way it came, thus spinning the reels.

The benefit of degreasing everything is you might cure the problem.
I refer you back to my suggestion .....

Okey Dokey .......

Play it until it throws an odd one, get it out of the case and do the same comparison. If for no other reason than to eliminate this line of thought.

That's useful, thanks.
If you look at the picture below, you'll see what I was describing in my previous post.

100_9129.jpg

So like I said in my first post, it seems as if the horizontal fingers (red arrow) aren't resetting behind the slides as they need to.
Try playing it outside of the cabinet and just before it fires check the horizontal fingers and see if they've tucked themselves in behind the slots.

You said it's been fiddled with before you got it and that you'd done some work on the slides, are you sure the depth is correct? Those horizontal fingers are spring loaded at the back and should automatically jump in behind the slots when they are pulled forward.

BP

BP

We have at least a couple of Aristocrat experts on here who could add valuable opinion ..... Come on lads.

[oneslottoo]

I think I have it figured out. There are several vertical levers that control different payout amounts depending on how far the lever has moved into the payout discs for some symbols. A couple discs are not true (excessive runout) combined with what seems like too much play between the reels on the shaft causing some levers to move far enough to register as if they had passed through a payout hole in the disc which in turn holds the slide lever from catching the payout slide and paying out when it should not.

I have the reel assembly out to true the discs currently and will see upon reassembly if this corrects the problem.

Ed

[badpenny]

Sounds about right ..... well done.

[coppinpr]

I'm guessing that this machine has been re cased for the US as it has the round escalator yet the escalator is not visible when playing the machine which is perhaps why you have had to do some coin mech work (the conversion was, as usual, not as good as the factory work).

The thing to remember about Aristo's is they are pretty much indestructible, because nothing much goes wrong over the years. Its' almost always dirt and oxidised grease that causes problems.

The horizontal fingers BP is talking about are always confusing to a beginner. Your first thought is that they should have tight springs and be very snappy. They are also locked solid when the mech is at rest. To check if they are moving freely you need to run the cycle,out of the case, to a point just before the unwind part of the cycle begins. At that point the slides are being held back by the clock operated brake where they will wait till winners have been decided by the reels. At this time the H/levers should move freely on their spindle. Strong springs are not needed as they have no tension to defeat, they are almost lazy in their movement, so prone to dirt and grease restricting them.

[oneslottoo]

After 3 attempts to reassemble we have a winner. I had a binding issue that was not present before (had excessive side play in discs) which turned out to be 2 aluminum shavings(looks like they have been there a while) between the aluminum hub and the nylon gear on reel #4 which caused the gear to distort and create a high spot that would bind with reel #3 hub opposite of where the space was set upon assembly.

The longest shaft had a bend which created resistance when inserting the axle and also caused wobble of this payout plate plus 2 other plates were bent (runout). Got these issues straightened out.

I just put $20 in with only 1 payout glitch (paid on 2 oranges thinking there were 3) which is pretty much what it had been doing but I think I just need to tighten up the disc spacing.

Compared to before when I could start with 5 quarters and empty the machine due to incorrect payouts this is very promising.

Thanks to all who helped.

Ed

[badpenny]

That's great Ed sounds like you really rolled up your sleeves and dived in there, well done.
You'll enjoy the fine tuning now and getting it spot on, there's nothing quite like living with a machine and knowing it works properly due to your own fiddling.
Now all we need is a similar solution to women.