That long extension spring provides the direct power that spins the reels by pulling the kicker as it presses against the underside of the payout discs, kicking them into rotation. Before we do that, take a look at the photo above. The kicker is attached by a single cotter pin and a long extension spring, so it’s easy to remove. It may have been hard to locate in earlier photos, but you shouldn’t have any trouble now. Now it’s time to remove the kicker assembly. This lever being activated essentially marks the end (or at least the beginning of the end) of the mech’s cycle. This lever holds the payout slides in place until all the reels have been stopped, the payout fingers have been released and the horizontal payout levers have been tripped (if applicable). Next, we’re going to remove the payout slide lock lever. The clock mechanism is pretty dirty, and we may well have to disassemble it and clean each part individually, but I’m hoping that a dip in some solvent and a re-oiling may be sufficient. Loosening these two screws and removing the two in the back of the mech should allow the clock to slide free. On this particular mech, the front two screws (right in the above photo) don’t even need to be removed since they are in slots rather than holes. You don’t want to unscrew the wrong screws here and have the clock come apart. Please note that these screws are located directly on the base plate. Removal of the clock is accomplished by removing four screws that secure it to the base plate. If the operating fork is the spine, the clock assembly is the heart. Now, we move on to the clock assembly itself.Įarlier we referred to the main operating fork as the “spine” of the slot machine mechanism. More such springs are on the way, so we need to be sure that we have a box or jar in which to store all the stray springs. The extension spring must also be removed at this time because it attaches to two ears and isn’t locked into a hole, so if we don’t remove it now we might lose it. It’s secured by a cotter pin and an attached extension screw. The reel timing lever is the part responsible for slowly allowing each reel stop lever to come in contact with its related star wheel, stopping the reels in a 1-2-3 order as the clock unwinds. Next we’re going after the reel timing lever itself. The lever is held on with two cotter pins, so no big deal to get it off the mech. The next part we’re going to remove is a small linkage lever that runs between the clock and the reel stop timing lever.

Vintage pace nickel slot machine