Bally Medalist

[drsmlojo]

Hi everyone: I just tried submitting a post, but not sure if I did it right or if it went through. I'm gonna try again just in case. I love the older Bally EM's and my all time favorite is the 5 reel Medalist Model. I'm troubleshooting/restoring a quarter one currently. On the left side of reel mech is a broken resistor (picture sent along). It no doubt was sticking out sideways when someone slid the reel mech back in and one of the tips broke off from the black wire. I have 3 questions:. 1. Where can I get another one?? 2. When I find one do I just clip the bad one and solder the new one to the ends of the black wire?? and 3. Would this unattached resistor have anything to do with my hopper not resetting back to the starting position after a pay off?? You guys are terrific, I 'm getting better at these older EM's but have never had to deal with a bad resistor before. Happiest of holidays and Happy New Year to all!! Steve L 

[drsmlojo]

Here's my photo

[drsmlojo]

Another photo.

[wolftalk]

that's a 2.4K (2400) ohm 2 watt resistor.

you can buy them from wherever is convenient online.  Depending on shipping costs, it can be cheaper to buy a 2W kit from amazon or ebay.  You can also use a 2.4K resistor with higher wattage rating if that's easier to find.

the black insulation is sleeving over the resistor legs.  You unsolder the legs from where they attach (the coil lug and a switch on the relay), slide the sleeves off and transfer them to the new resistor.

the game probably works without the resistor.

the payout counter unit resets via the reel mech B switch and the switch in front of the spiral cam on the wiper side of the payout counter.

the reel mech B switch is the horizontal one above the coin relay with the yellow and orange/black wires on it.  The orange/black should go to the open-at-zero switch in front of the spiral cam and a black/white wire goes from there to the payout counter reset coil.

make sure the switch in front of the spiral cam closes when the payout counter steps up once from reset.  You can get away with it not closing until the second step.  To test, you can jumper it closed and see if the payout counter resets.  It's purpose it to prevent the payout counter reset coil from firing when the unit is already reset, so the switch is open at reset.

if the two switches look ok, you'll need to check the plug connections.

[drsmlojo]

You said the game should still work without this resistor?? Can I just remove it and solder a wire from the switch on the relay to the coil lug?? Or what is affected if this switch is just left unattached as it now is?? Regarding the hopper not resetting, the B switch seems to open and close fine, the wires look attached ok, and the hopper and the zero switch in front of spiral cam looks ok and I can manually reset ok. What do I look for in your suggestion to check the beau plug connections?? Thanks so much!!

[wolftalk]

You said the game should still work without this resistor?? Can I just remove it and solder a wire from the switch on the relay to the coil lug?? Or what is affected if this switch is just left unattached as it now is?

just leave it as-is for now and see if it works ok.  You either need to replace the resistor with the same/close valued one or leave it out.  You can't replace the resistor with a wire ... that would keep the handle release coil powered almost all the time and it would cook.

for the payout counter reset the first test is to see if the reset coil works.  Attach a long jumper (or a wire) to the 85-1 wire on the coil (black/white) and shove the hopper back in.  With the machine power on, touch the other end of the jumper wire to the yellow wire on the coin switch.  The coil should fire and reset the payout counter wipers.

if that works, assuming you have a voltmeter, I'd stick one probe (via a jumper wire) on the orange wire on the payout counter reset coil and the other probe on:

1] orange/black wire 78-1 on reel mech B switch.  When you spin, do you briefly see 50VAC?
2] if yes, move probe to 78-1 on the spiral cam switch and spin.  If you don't see 50VAC, the 78-1 plug connections are no good.

a 1081-1 schematic on on https://bingo.cdyn.com/slots/ ... it's the w-1046-xxx file in the obvious folder and it will have plug charts  to help you find 78-1 on the reel mech and hopper.

with game power off, measure resistance between wire 78-1 on reel mech D switch and 78-1 on the hopper socket ... if you don't have almost zero ohms, the reel mech plug connection is bad (look for a pin pushed in) or the wire is broken somewhere along the way.

make sense?

[drsmlojo]

Well I have an interesting story to tell. My Medalist Hopper was still not resetting. I used the great suggestions from Wolf Talk to verify that when using jumper cables I could get the reset solenoid to fire and Voltmeter tests he had me do checked out fine. I became convinced that there was a bad/broken wire or bad beau plug connection and without cables I figured I was really stuck. One night with nothing better to do, I went back over old posts on this Bally E.M. Site. I found an old post from over 6 years ago where another collector's Bally EM's hopper also wasn't resetting. Like me, this guy was so frustrated. He discovered that even though the Zero Switch seemed to be touching when 1st coin of a payout left the hopper, it in fact was not making positive enough contact. So.....I checked the reset pawl travelling downward and closing the switch on my Medalist for about the 1000th time. Well, it was visually touching but when I tweaked it to give it slightly more positive contact, guess what?? VOILA, my hopper reset and hasn't failed to reset even once since!!!! It just goes to show the value of this NLG'S SITE and the value of reviewing old posts. Chances are good that despite the variation in these games (my Medalist being the most complicated one I've dealt with), there is probably someone else out there who has had the same issues as you. Thank you, thank you, thank you one and all (and especially Wolf Talk).
My Medalist is now working like a champ. I had another interesting problem that had also been driving me crazy regarding certain payouts. All payouts we're perfect and spot on for coin 1 (reels 1,2,3), coin 2 (reels 2,3,4) and coin 3 (reels 3,4,5,) EXCEPT when I played 3 coins and hit 5 oranges across, or 5 plums, 5 bells, or 5 watermelons. I could hit 4 of these symbols and payouts would be correct, but when hitting the 5 symbols across, the pay would still be only double the pay instead of the 3 times pay. Didn't make any sense to me!! Just today I finally found the problem. 2 small screws attaching the 2nd reel wiper board in back of the reel assembly were slightly loose. I tightened them up and now payouts are perfect!! For weeks I was dealing with this payout problem along with my hopper resetting. I hope this might help others down the road using this great Site as I was helped myself. Till next time, thanks to all!!!! Steve L

[Sunrise Side]

Thank You for posting your resolution!!!!

[DavidLee]

Great, you got it running smoothly.

It’s a good practice to check questionable contacts for continuity even when they appear to be closed.