Need help getting a (vintage?) coca-cola machine working!

[Jwest7788]

Is this your size ...............http://www.ebay.com/itm/COCA-COLA-COKE-MACHINE-BACK-LIT-SIGN-POSSIBLY-A-VENDO-GREAT-CONDITION-/380730191817?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item58a549afc9

Nope, Mine is 14"X15"

Bought some polish today to see how the paint will brighten up before making the dive to start sanding and painting etc.

After photos soon.

[Jwest7788]

Got the missing electrical component from newark in the mail today. Any way to test the coin mech without the missing solenoid?

JW

[MoonDawg]

      Hook the 2 wires that go to the solonoid to a 110v light bulb.

[Jwest7788]

Right, stupid question, haha.

Cool, will have an update for all shortly!

JW

[Jwest7788]

Solenoid Arrived (Thanks again MoonDawg)
--> Thing took forever, haha.


Upon pulling out the vend mechanism (that right?) I realized that the whole back corner of the machine is covered in what appears to be decade old, crystallized cola.
--> Either cola, or some weird mixture of sugar, motor oil, super glue, and the black stuff from spiderman3 (http://goo.gl/Ay0Nrg)

Working on cleaning this thing up and getting the solenoid in shortly.

Found a little spring which appears to have connected to the mechanics near the solenoid at one point, anyone know where this little guy goes? (Not one of the long springs, quiet little)

[MoonDawg]

       4 weeks to get a package from California to Alberta?       I think the U.S. Postal service needs an overhaul.

[Pixel]

I'd be the last person to claim the Post Office is the best run concern in the world, but could there have been a hold up in Canadian customs?

[Jwest7788]

Hello All,

Sorry for the delay!

Have finally gotten most of the dried cola out of this thing, man is that stuff awful to remove.

Still cannot figure out what the little spring I found goes to, will work on getting some pics of my suspicions.


My larger problem at the moment is that the coin mech seems to be toast. I got a couple replacement parts as per the earlier mentioned thread, but upon testing it seemed to just blow a capacitor again, lights went a little crazy on the machine etc. So, New coin mech in my future.


Question, will any coin mech with a Jones Plug work?
--> I've love some help identifying a coin mech that will work in this machine and accept larger currency. (In particular I want to fill this machine with beer, so ~ $2 to vend would be ideal to cover my own drinking costs, haha.

Thanks for your help everyone!

[johnieG]

any 120 volt mech should work with your machine, as you mentioned with the matching "Jones" style plug, if you are popping the electrolytic (filter) capacitor one of three things are the cause, wrong voltage,( wrong working voltage on your zener diode, it should be 12-volts) wrong polarity, too much A.C. ripple from a bad diode in the bridge-rectifier circuit. ( the four diodes that are to the lower left of your filter-cap)
unsolder one lead from each diode & lift it's "tail" in the air, now ohm-meter across the individual diodes & confirm that they only conduct current in one direction, use the diode scale on your meter, remember that with standard diodes, current flows against the arrow, or in english, from the banded end to the opposite end.

[Jwest7788]

Hey all, See the attached, anyone spot anything out of place?

I'm still trying to figure out where this spring goes, it was sitting on the bottum of the inside of the machine when i got it..

Thanks!