New to the forum, with a Vendorlator!

[russelltatedotcom]

Hi Ian,
I got a VMC56 a year or two ago and all the guys here helped me out with lots of info. I know you have some feedback already, but I'll LYK what I've found out along the way


Any gotcha's when taking out the vending rack?

- Easier than you think! These machines were built with ease of disassembly in mind.
Once you've undone the bolts on the side and loosened the  wires below, the whole unit pulls out, it's basically just hanging on 2 lugs at the back.

The shelves all lift out easily, and it looks like I should be able to remove a couple of clutch head (and flat head) screws,

- I got a Clutch head screwdriver from Skyway tools for 12 bucks but found the small clutch head "bit" for  a small hand held electric screwdriver much faster to work with plus it was only 4 bucks from Funtronics

 and remove the whole vending rack as one piece. Are there screws holding it into the back wall, or is it resting on clips in the back? I don't want to start pulling the rack out, only to have the rack drop apart into tiny little parts that go *ping* off into the corners of the room, never to be seen again.

On the compressor, I would like to be able to slide out the cooling unit to clean it and the bottom pan. By looking at it, it almost looks as if I can remove the whole thing without letting the freon out. Can I?

-Yes the whole thing slides out, I just made a small jig to hold the Evaporator in place so it did not droop down and put any strain on the tubing, the only thing you have to remove is the putty in the door plate to allow everything to pull forward.



 If the whole assembly comes out in one piece, it would make cleaning the fans and fins a lot easier.


-you bet!



Electrically, this machine seems very simple. There don't even seem to be any kind of credit accumulator relays - since it only handles one vend at a time (not like a pinball machine, which must remember multiple credits). This machine cannot give change, it only accepts two nickels or one dime. The coin mech simply divides the nickels coming in - first dumps into the coin box while flipping over a lever, and second goes down to trip the switch, and flip the diverter/lever back over. I assume there is a solenoid in the box below the vending rack that releases the latches for the bottles, allowing one to be removed, and then gets tripped off by the motion of the catch. But what prevents two bottles from being removed at once?

-A special link mechanism get the manual it shows it in detail.
I found the larger Doctor Pepper manual from Steve at Funtronics to be best, It contained more info than the smaller Pepsi one (both relate to the same machine it's only the product branding that's different)

Weren't there versions of this machine that could give change, accept quarters, and have different pricing?

Is there a service manual online somewhere?

No, Steve is the only one who has it, I toyed with the idea of photocopying mine for you but felt on reflecting that I would be cheating Steve out of future business, So I'd say order one from him

I have photo's of my machine on various stages of disassembly if you want to see just drop me a line. you can get me at "Pepsi (a_t) RussellTate.com"


Russell