Stoner 180 pull knob stuck

[SodaShopNick]

I have a Stone 180 with a mint wheel that I had the outside restored, but the inside left as is.  It has been working pretty good for the past several months until yesterday.  My son went to select a piece of candy and pulled the pull knob, but nothing came out and now the knob is stuck out or should I say won't go back in.  Now because of this nothing vends on any of the selections.  Before I go digging through the manual I thought I would ask if anyone has run into this before and if so what the fix is?  Any thoughts would be appreciated.   Will attach some pictures shortly.   Thanks, Nick

[SodaShopNick]

Picture 1:

[SodaShopNick]

Picture #2:

[Slapshot42]

There are springs behind each pull knob.  Make sure your spring isn't struck or completely stretched out not allowing enough tension to recoil back!

[SodaShopNick]

Thanks Slapshot.  I will take a look and also look at the manual.  Do you know by chance if you have to remove the entire vending stack to get to this?

[Slapshot42]

You can see it from just simply looking behind the serving tray.

[Jim]

This could be several things...
Did you open the cabinet door and take a closer look...?

[ajf5577]

I think the mechanism is jammed. Won't go back in until it has cycled all the way out. No product delivery says that the candy ( or ?) may be jammed into the slide bar. I agree, open the door and take a look. Remove the remaining product from that slot and see what's happened. You won't have to remove the mech for that and it may then be easy to spot.
This isn't the first time this has happened and we used to have to replace knobs because some brute started kicking the handle when he didn't get his candy.

[SodaShopNick]

I have taken a look inside, but not a close one.  I will do that though and even remove all the product and see what happens.  Who knew I needed to be a vending serviceman.....    I appreciate all the responses. 

[SodaShopNick]

I did a little closer look inside and it appears the price bar assembly is locked for that slection (not sure this term is 100% correct).  Pictures coming shortly, but it appears locked on the metal post that is part of the knob assembly and it won't budge.   When I drop a nickel in the coin mech it either drops all the way through or doesn't drop at all, but no selections work.   I have moved all the product and so there does not appear to be anything jammed.   Any thoughts?

[SodaShopNick]

Picture #1:

[SodaShopNick]

Picture #2:

[Jim]

First, remove the coin mech if you can to eliminate that part of the equation...
This could be problematic since the 5 cent pricing bar will not return. Try locating the pricing bar end that engages with the coin mech and see if you can apply pressure backward to disengage possibly allowing the pull knob to return...
I did notice there are dimes as well as nickels in the delivery tray; do you have both ten & five cent pricing on products...?  This particular pull knob is set to five cents so dimes wouldn't work, unless you happen to have a functioning changer giver coin mech...
In the photo, see if you can apply backward pressure on the vertical shaft/rod the red arrow points to.  Try this at the lowest point with a straight-slot screw-driver, perhaps below the five cent pricing bar.
Let me know if you get anywhere...

[ajf5577]

I would remove the coin mech first, if you can. There could be an errant coin in there holding things up.
These machines will free vend without the mech in place.

[SodaShopNick]

Thanks guys.  I will try to remove the coin mech, but will try to apply backward pressure on the vertical shaft/rod first and let you know what happens.  By the way in regards to the coin mech the person I got this from said Stoners came with coin mechs set at specific price.  Meaning if your coin mech was for five cents you could not change it unless you change the coin mech.  Is this correct?

[ajf5577]

There were change making mech's, but they are more complicated than what you probably have. When I saw what Jim mentioned, I looked again and see a dime, nickel and quarter all in the delivery tray. If someone put the wrong coinage in the slot and pulled too hard or fast, the coin may not have fallen through and could be the culprit here.
A jammed coin mech will stop the works. The machine only allows one pull at a time, so as long as that column is still somewhere in the "vend" position, none of the others will work.

To get a better side view of the coin mech, you should be able to pull the entire vending stack out a little, more on the right side, to gain access to the mech. There may be a little block lever somewhere to facilitate the vend mech sliding out.

[SodaShopNick]

Thanks, I will try and take a look at the coin mech today.  I know it is metal so I am assuming it is a one price version.

[Jim]

As far as pricing is concerned, the pricing bars determine what any particular product column will sell for. Your machine has two pricing bars, 5 cent, the lower, and 10 cent, the middle and is missing the upper price bar. The middle and upper pricing bars have the ability to open/close the price set lever for each column allowing individual pricing, 5, 10 & 15 cents.  Most of the coin mechs are the same or similar and do not determine the price.
As to why this column is stuck/jammed, I do not really know with seeing the internal parts...  You may have to remove the complete vending stack to properly address the issue...  Keep us posted though

[ajf5577]

I stand corrected. I was recalling that the Stoners were similar to the Nationals. Going from memory.
I'll have to go look at my Stoner again.

[SodaShopNick]

So I stand corrected.  This coin mech vends on 25 cents only.  It only though takes quarters and would never work with any combination of anything else (dimes and nickels).  I am going to try to take a look at it tonight and will report back.

[SodaShopNick]

So I took a closer look and when I moved the coin mech to the right the price bar released and the pull knob went back to it's normal position.   I then removed the coin mech (assume you are supposed to be able to do this without removing the vending stack as it did not come out easily) and found about eight quarters stuck in it!!  Remember I misspoke earlier as this is a mech that vends on 25.  Removed the quarters and replaced the coin mech.  Then closed the door and tried deposited a quarter in to get it to vend, but it won't and the quarter gets stuck.  So for now I have taken the coin mech back out so it will vend for free and will be looking at the coin mech.  I am not sure what is wrong with it as it always worked on a quarter before.  Posting a few pictures of it shortly.  I did not take them with the quarter stuck, but thought someone might recognize something wrong with it.

[SodaShopNick]

picture 1#:

[SodaShopNick]

picture #2:

[SodaShopNick]

no, the coin mech is off and the pull knob is not stuck anymore.    Then I removed the coin mech completely and everything is working on free vend.  Now I am just trying to figure out why the coin mech is not working. 

[ajf5577]

no, the coin mech is off and the pull knob is not stuck anymore.    Then I removed the coin mech completely and everything is working on free vend.  Now I am just trying to figure out why the coin mech is not working.  

Right, I responded, then looked up and read your previous post...  

If the mech is quarters only, it's been converted somewhere along the way. No problem.
Drop quarters in it and see where they stop. If they go through the rejector OK, then take that off ( the upper most unit) and keep looking by process of elimination. The slides can get dirty, or something gets sideways, or possibly bent and jammed the mech, thus jamming the handle. You're getting closer. If all else fails, have someone on this board rebuild the coin mech for you.

[SodaShopNick]

Thanks, that will be my next step.  I will let you know what happens.   Thanks for the help.

[Jim]

Your coin mech does not appear to be modified for quarters...
Can you test it with nickels only, make sure the two "slide fingers" that engage with the pricing bar ends are returned to the right, the normal position. Make sure the "free vend lever" is pushed in for testing purposes!
Deposit one nickel and try to slide the lower "finger" to the left; if it will not slide, add another nickel and then try to slide the lower finger only. If it still won't slide to the left, add a third nickel and retest...
Last question: Look closely at your coin entry bezel and see if the coin slot has been modified/cut/enlarged to accept quarters; generally, these machines/coin mechs do not accept quarters...
Let us know with your results...  Then we can begin testing for dime + nickel testing...

[SodaShopNick]

Thanks Jim.  I will follow that process to test the mech.  That is interesting about the mech not being modified for quarters though as the person I got it from said it was a quarter, the slot takes a quarter, the price on the product is a quarter (I know that is just paper) and it has always worked on a quarter.  Very strange.....  Thanks for all the help.   I will let you know what I find out.

[SodaShopNick]

Jim, I "think" maybe I got this thing working.  I took another closer look at the coin mech and found about 5-6 quarters (could of been some dimes and nickles) jammed where the coins would leave the coin mech and drop into the coin box.  I was able to get a small screwdriver in there and dislodge them.  Then I followed your instructions and made sure the slide fingers were returned to the right and the free vend is pushed it.  No matter what combination of dimes and nickels including just one dime or one nickel or multiples of either the lower slide finger would not move left.  Then I used a quarter and every time the slide finger would move to the left.  I have to assume like I was told when I got this machine that this is a quarter only coin mech?  In fact only quarters and no combinations to get to twenty five cents work.  I did take a closer look at the coin bezel and as you thought there are some very small cuts that allow a quarter to go in the slot.  I have not returned the coin mech to the machine yet, but will try that in the next day or two.  Hopefully this is fixed, but if I need to be checking anything else please let me know.

[Slapshot42]

This a very good thread for us "new" stoner users.  We should pin this to top of the "Misc Coin Op" section?  Perhaps we change the title though...

[ajf5577]

Yep, the coin mech instructional is worth the price of admission.

[Jim]

That's great you were able to gain some functionality!  What still concerns me is there were a bunch of jammed quarters/coins...  Even more confusing to me is this mech accepts quarters at all ! ! !  From what I see in your pictures, this slug rejector is a nickel/dime rejector; when you look at any slug rejector that accepts quarters, the design, mechanics and coin paths are different, not to mention the over-all size of the rejector!
I can verify this coin mech, not the slug rejector, has been modified and has a slightly different configuration than most I have seen/worked on... Appears to missing the "middle finger" which does correlate to why your machine only has two pricing bars...

[SodaShopNick]

Well, we are back to completely functioning again!!   I put the coin mech back in today and it is vending perfectly on a quarter.   I guess I don't know what the original issue was except to say that the coin mech was jammed.   Maybe it was the dimes and nickels going into the mech, but when I tested it they just fell through which is what they should do.  Either way ajf5577 & Jim thank you so much as I learned so much from this thread.   Jim, I am posting a picture of the slug rejector and coin bezel where you can see the way it was expanded to accept a quarter.

[SodaShopNick]

Picture of the slug rejector.  There has been some question on how this mech was set to accept quarters so I thought since I posted the other side I would post the rejector also.

[SodaShopNick]

Here is a picture of the coin bezel where you can see it was cut to accept quarters. 

[HowDueYouDue]

Glad to hear you got it working 

[ajf5577]

Yes, when the coins jam up in the mech, that happens. Then an angry customer beats the heck out of the machine.

Luckily these production machines were pretty standard and easy to work on. I don't see any Fawn or Federal machines mentioned much here. They were an entirely different story.