Expert: Rodger Knutson - 8/8/2011

Question
QUESTION: Hello, my brother recently passed and I moved his Bally Continental nickel slot machine from one room to the next.  It worked perfectly before the move but now it says Tilt and will not take nickels.  I have opened the coin bucket area and have looked around but do not know what to do to clear the Tilt.  There is a flat bar with a bend in it that goes to a switch in the left rear that I think I need to press to either get the coin bucket back in, I have tried pushing the bar & switch but that doesn't seem to do anything for the Tilt.  Hopefully I do not need to do something in the top area, I do not have keys for that.  As you can see from the picture, he also had a Mills totally mechanical slot as well.  If you could tell me how to clear the tilt and also a little about the 2 slots, it would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks, Clint.

ANSWER: Hi Clint,

On the Continental machine: That bar below the hopper pushes on a reset button for a hopper time out. This will happen if your hopper runs out of coins, after a bit with no coins exiting the hopper the timer will kick out to protect the hopper motor, if this happens all the machines lights will go out, the machine will be out like the power if off, the only light which will be on is a little red light next to that reset button, when you push the bar which resets the button all the power will come back on. This is a complicated machine, a great machine, and a lot of fun to play! There are several different models of Continentals. You should really have a couple of manuals for this machine which will also help to sell it if that times comes. One of the Bally manuals, just has to do with all Bally Continentals Electro/Mechanical models, it's Bally Manual number 1100 and the other manual you should have with this is Ballys Manual number 2400 which is very good, and easy to understand all about Ballys Electro/Mechanical slot machines and there components. With these two manuals you should be able to fix about anything that goes wrong with your Continental in the future, and you can get these two manuals at:

http://jackpot7.freeyellow.com/page21.html

Look for these two manuals there, plus a third one dealing with troubleshooting problems:  

Bally Electro/Mechanical Manual Number 2400. This is about the best manual Bally ever made for the Electro/Mechanical machines, from the 700 Thu the 1000 model number series machines. Includes wire color codes which will tell you what solid colored wire is caring which voltage and what circuit that is for like the 50 volt coils circuit, etc. Also has detailed stepper units for some of the models. Very good book, good for learning and troubleshooting with. 131 pages of great information. Some of these Manuals may be too large to email, if so, you will receive a email with a link to where you can just click the download button there, and download it very fast and easy, emailed to you.

Bally E/M Slot Machine Manual for the Continentals and the Super Continental Machines, Manual # 1100. This Manual is 128 Pages covering all of the Bally "E/M" Electro/Mechanical Continental and Super Continental type slot machines. A manual packed full of information for these complicated Continental machines, a must have for anyone owning one of these great, super interesting slot machines. This would work best if you also had the Bally #2400 Manual (also listed here above) as a companion to go along with this manual,emailed to you.

Bally Electro/Mechanical Trouble Shooting Manual/Guide. This is great help for finding those problems with your Bally e/m slot machine, emailed to you.

Oh...... Try to flip the coin wire right under the coin acceptor inside the front door and see if the slot machine will "coin up" and let you pull the handle. It should, and this should also make the tilt light to go off. If this works, you need to clean out a bad coin from the coin acceptor or just clear it with the return coin button, make sure the coin acceptor closes all the way after doing this.

Now on to your "Mills High Top" slot Machine:

There are piles of different High Top they're and years, there a common Slot Machine and several thousands have survived the years, but yours is in a Regal Cabinet, and this makes this a very nice combination! Now you really have something here, I love machines in club type cabinets! I might have something on just the standard high top Mills Machine which I will attach to this answer, but this information will be for a high Top only, and not one in a fancy Regal Cabniet like yours.

I hope you enjoy the information, and think about getting the suggested manuals so you can get started in understanding that teriffic playing machine "the Super Fun... Bally Continental!".

Thank You and please leave feedback here for me, thanks for that.

Rodger Knutson
Http://www.coinslote.com

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Roger, I got the Tilt to go away by hitting the coin wire, thanks for that.  Before I got your email to do that, I took out the coin accepter mechanism and noticed a couple nickles stuck in the reject chute, after I cleaned those out & put the coin mech. back in, now it won't take any nickels to start again.  Even if it is plugged in, when you put in a nickel, it just comes out the bottom, like it is not on.  With my limited knowledge, I have tried everything I can think of, took the mech. out & made sure it was clear, removed and replaced the money bucket.  Plus now, even though the Tilt light is gone, it only clicks but does not register credits when I flip the coin wire.  And, of course, the slot handle is locked and will not make the wheels spin now.  I should have never moved the thing !!  I'm sure it is probably and easy fix but I am out of things to try, any ideas would be greatly appreciated.  I would hate to have to try to take it somewhere for someone to just press a switch or something.  Thanks in advance, Clint.

Answer
Clint,

This could have several problems and we could e-mail back and forth for years and still my never find it. If these machines sit for a long time they get a host of problums.Right now I would try cleaning those aluminum pins on the back of the reel mechanism and the coin hopper, this pins corrode while the machine sits and cause problems, on is the handle not release on coin up. These pins are the one that plug into the cabinet when you shove in the reel mechanism or the coin hopper. Clean them with a wire brush and then see if your handle will release on coin up. Or this could be a stepper unit up in the top box that need attention.
Rodger Knutson
http://www.coinslots.com