Leaderboard

Hi everyone, it’s been a while. Time for a new project, tipped off by a neighbor. It was listed on Facebook Marketplace (Netherlands). A Bellfruit Full House; there was only a photo of the front, but you could see the damage to the artwork. Asking price: €20. Naturally, I couldn't pass it up. This machine needs a lot of love to get it looking good and playable again. Fortunately, the machine is complete; the instruction sheet is inside, as are the build year and serial number.

Started removing rust from various parts of the Reel today; disassembled the motor... but immediately spotted a problem. It clearly hasn't been looked after; there was hardly any grease inside. There is a worn bronze bearing, and there is significant play in the output shaft (can this be ordered? Otherwise, I'll have one machined). I'm not sure if the output shaft is supposed to be like that, though. Fortunately, the gears are still in good condition.

Thanks Dave 138, that puts my mind at ease. I assembled the reels today; they were finally clean enough. I went ahead and replaced the AMP connectors while I was at it. I also received replacement bulb holders today; the old ones were too rusty, so I replaced those right away. Does anyone know what the switches on the side of the reels are for?

When I worked for Bell Fruit, we never did any maintenance on the reel motor. I don’t know if Ron can confirm that. It was rare to have a motor problem and, if we did, we just fitted a new one. There again, the machines were not very old.

Thanks, Dave 0138 and Zulzerned. It’s a lot of work, and progress is slow. Started on the reels today. Found black, oxidized contacts, seized bushings, and rust. Needed a lot of contact cleaner to scrub everything clean again. Tomorrow I’ll take the motor apart (but first, I’ll read through Ron’s thread one more time). I’ve taken reels apart before, but this is much more complex, and I don’t want to make any mistakes. Here are some photos of the process.

What a great project .look forward to seeing the progress

Nice find. It should keep you busy for a while.

Hello, my name is Victor French Collector, and my passion for collecting slot machines, jukeboxes, and arcade games started with an old ATARI jukebox. I’m also passionate about vintage chip technology, like the TMS or the 4004. As I explored these worlds, I discovered the Ace Coin Equipment machines from the Series 100, and I fell completely in love with these models. i love making Dump of ICs and Manuals/ Schematics Redraw. i m also a good member of MO5 Assaciation of old french Machines preservation.

Lovely looking machine Marco! Can you take a picture of the MPU, is there a battery on the board?

Well, first of all, I can't tell you what a relief it is to hear, unprompted, that you find it interesting. It was an incredibly interesting time to be in the industry and with such a great company and bunch of people, many of whom still meet now. Stegarv66, consider that we were 300 people and often the 'game' itself was down to 10 or 15 people, so although we would have seen it, in answer to your question no. Also we tried to get a new game out of the door every 8 weeks so for us it was always looking to the new machine! sulzerned, you are dead right and forgive my oversight, the SRU (stepper reel unit) controller was the controller in the EWN and you have just (by coincidence) introduced the next chapter or are you hacking my machine..... ha ha. BF74, I never did like that very crude % control. Apart from anything else, unless it was dead right you could hear the double flick of the solenoid arm as well. It was also an unfortunately simple method to keep the PO% down. Bit like cutting a stop off the old reel stop disk to make sure it never landed on a particular symbol. BTW I still have SWP's, Astra, Coinmaster and Gamesoft to go yet! ( but I'm not sure if they should go in here? ) Again, thanks people.