day one Coke machine troubleshooting

vintagegamer

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Well tonight I had a little free time so, I scampered out to the garage to see if I could get any vital signs on the wife's 50-dollar Coke machine. The seller told me the lights didn't work, but that the refrigerator part "used" to. I never asked when it last worked, or what changes might have been made to make it stop. I just loaded it in the truck and said thanks.

Tonight I opened up the unit and peered into the bottom, having very little clue what I was even looking at. It basically looked to me like someone had dropped the guts of a humidifier into the bottom of an arcade cab. I didn't see any fuses anywhere in the bottom, however there is a small junction block in the bottom left corner, populated by 3 wire harnesses attached by molex connectors.

Since I couldn't really see anything that I could "test" (ie fuses etc), I just said the infamous f**kit, plugged in the cord, and waited for the results.... Absolutely nothing happened. No "click", no lights coming on, nada.. I went around the unit again checking to see if anything smoked or gave any incling of life, nothing. So, I went around the back and started looking over the cord, because it just felt to me like the machine wasn't getting any power at all.

I noticed about halfway down the cord that Bubba had struck: a good 3-4 inches of electrical tape were on the cord. Feeling it you could tell some wires had been rigged together. I tried to peel off the tape, but it must have been there since Gerald Ford was in office, because there was no way it was coming off. I cut through it with a utility knife and as I peered into the swollen section of cord, I noticed 3 wires that basically weren't even touching their counterparts on the other side. :D I have a feeling when this unit was moved from its original working location, someone pulled the cord and all of the connections came apart... I saw this as a sign of hope, made clean cuts on the wires, bound them together with wire nuts for now, and proceeded back to where the end of the cord was sitting next to my extension cord.

I took a breath, and plugged the cord into the extension cord- I immediately heard the compressor in the bottom of the machine kick off, and it was a familiar sound- one like you'd hear from an air conditioner running. :D I was psyched. There were no lights yet, but she was breathing.

In the main door on the front is basically a small aluminum box where the wiring that comes up from the junction box, connects to the wiring that goes to the selection lighting, the top light, and the actual wiring for the selection buttons. On the side of that box is a push button that says "reset", and if you take the front panel off of the box, you can see that on the reset switch are 2 wires connected to it. I'm guessing this is the equivalent of either a fuse or an old-school "fusible link". I was going to put a wire in there to connect the 2 points, but in fear that I might do some damage to something that might not already be that damaged yet, I wanted to consult you guys. I can't find any actual "fuse" that starts or stops power to the top of the unit. I don't have a manual yet, and every place that I've checked for any signs of power are not showing any. They include:

1. the 2-prong connector that feeds the fluorescent light in the top is getting no power
2. the small 2-prong connectors that are on the back of the light assemblies for the selection buttons aren't getting power

I am pretty sure that it has to be this dumb reset switch that's burned out or something, as there isn't much else there. I'm not seeing any corrosion, wire damage, nothing.

Is there anything anyone can suggest or recommend? I can't get a pic tonight of that upper box but, I can look on the Web and see if I can find one like it.

All in all though, I'd rather be without the lights on a coke machine than without the compressor that cools it!

VG
 
what brand- model is it. most drink mach have flouresant lights in them. so it could be a ballest or a simple $1 starter. get the model i have a ton of manuals for drink mach. Ron
 
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well.. compressor running is a good sign.. but not the only sign...

it means it has enough freon pressure to run it .. w/o the low pressure switch kicking on to save it..

but doesn't mean it has enough to cool, or something else isn't wrong...

but you got a good start.. how about just take the wires going to the lights and either put on a plug and plug direct into an outlet to test??

or be brave like the old guys, skip the plug, and push the bare wires into the outlet... not hanging onto the bare wires of course..\

There should be a round knob with numbers to set how cold you want it... and also a thermo coupler type thing in the unit to say when to shut off...

pics are the best... you may have to get a pressure reading to see if it needs a recharge.. and what freon it takes to recharge it..
 
what brand- model is it. most drink mach have flouresant lights in them. so it could be a ballest or a simple $1 starter. get the model i have a ton of manuals for drink mach. Ron

I swapped the starter, but the prob is actually that there is no juice getting to the light assy at all.

The unit is a Vendo 125-G or 125-H.

Thanks for the suggestions!
 
I swapped the starter, but the prob is actually that there is no juice getting to the light assy at all.

The unit is a Vendo 125-G or 125-H.

Thanks for the suggestions!


Thanks Leinhit- I actually did not spot a dial OR any kind of regular plug in there. It's pretty plain inside. I think the machine's from the 60s so, don't know how many things they had in there to track temp etc.
 
its older so im trying to think. um in the lower left hand side there should be a buch of wires running together and a plug in the middle of all of them. the plug in the middle is the compresser power one of the other 3 is for the door electronics some had there own wire there just for the light ,man i hope im thinking of the right mach. as far as the thermastat its always under the can shoot. it might not have a knob. it can have a slot in the middle of it so you can take a flathead and turn it up and downown (forgive for the grammer) Ron
 
Is this similar to your machine?

v125.gif


Info here...
http://soda-machines.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=522&Itemid=14
 
its older so im trying to think. um in the lower left hand side there should be a buch of wires running together and a plug in the middle of all of them. the plug in the middle is the compresser power one of the other 3 is for the door electronics some had there own wire there just for the light ,man i hope im thinking of the right mach. as far as the thermastat its always under the can shoot. it might not have a knob. it can have a slot in the middle of it so you can take a flathead and turn it up and downown (forgive for the grammer) Ron

I'm pretty sure you've got the right one. The lowest molex was a 2-prong connector, looks like it's coming from the wiring in the bottom. The middle one did appear to go to the compressor, and the top connector probably had at least 10 wires to it that were bundled and headed for the door. You have a good memory! :D
 
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