Dixie Narco 440 quit dispencing, baffled?

Narcoholic

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Hi everyone!

Man am I glad to have found this site. I love fixing old machines and giving them new life! Actually, it's mostly because I can't afford new ones, but the satisfaction of fixing an oldie is priceless, isn't it?

So I have a Dixie Narco 440 (it's a mid 1980s model) that has finally quit dispensing drinks after working for the last 8 months. During this time, I've replaced almost everything in the machine (seems like every week something would break), but this time I'm stumped.

The machine accepts bills or coins and will give correct change. However, as soon as you press a vend button (any of them) it goes out of service....... nothing happens and you have to unplug the machine to clear the error displaying in the bill validator. Usually when this happens it's a bad vend motor, but all of the motors work flawlessly when you manually operate them. I thought it might be the coin changer, so I purchased a refurbished one and it does the same thing. Then I tried another changer from a working machine it still will not vend.

Tried a known good bill validator too, and it didn't fix the problem either. I changed every vend button switch in the unit and no luck. I changed every "sold out lamp" as well, still no vend. Then I changed the relay......... no luck, does the same thing. I check the wiring harness and I can't find any problems at all.

The only replacement part I'm not 100% sure was working properly is the relay I put in it. It came out of a spare parts machine that was supposed to be working fine when pulled out of service.

Anyone have any ideas? I really like this old girl and would love to have it working again.
 
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Hi everyone!

Man am I glad to have found this site. I love fixing old machines and giving them new life! Actually, it's mostly because I can't afford new ones, but the satisfaction of fixing an oldie is priceless, isn't it?

So I have a Dixie Narco 440 (it's a mid 1980s model) that has finally quit dispensing drinks after working for the last 8 months. During this time, I've replaced almost everything in the machine (seems like every week something would break), but this time I'm stumped.

The machine accepts bills or coins and will give correct change. However, as soon as you press a vend button (any of them) it goes out of service....... nothing happens and you have to unplug the machine to clear the error displaying in the bill validator. Usually when this happens it's a bad vend motor, but all of the motors work flawlessly when you manually operate them. I thought it might be the coin changer, so I purchased a refurbished one and it does the same thing. Then I tried another changer from a working machine it still will not vend.

Tried a known good bill validator too, and it didn't fix the problem either. I changed every vend button switch in the unit and no luck. I changed every "sold out lamp" as well, still no vend. Then I changed the relay......... no luck, does the same thing. I check the wiring harness and I can't find any problems at all.

The only replacement part I'm not 100% sure was working properly is the relay I put in it. It came out of a spare parts machine that was supposed to be working fine when pulled out of service.

Anyone have any ideas? I really like this old girl and would love to have it working again.

relay would have been the first thing i would replace to .as it sounds like its canceling the credit as soon as you push a button .i have had vend motors that have done this to me in the past also check to make sure your wires to the motors are not grounding out to the motor cover unlikely as it would spark but i have seen it to .
 
Still not working!

Well, my new (not "certified" used, but brand new) relay came in and it still did not fix the problem! This thing just will not vend, it still does nothing.

Another symptom I forgot to mention in my last post is that none of the "sold out" lamps work when you press a vend button (any of them). I noticed before the machine quit working that when you press any of the vend buttons, the sold out lamp would illuminate as long as you held the button. It no longer does this. Also, keep in mind all of these lamps are new.

So now I have a question about troubleshooting. I'm wondering now if I have a short in one of the vend motors (or motor switches). Like I said, all motors work perfectly when you manually activate the vend switches, but I'm thinking now that one of these must have gone bad? I mean what else could it be? So my question is can you unplug one motor at a time and try to operate the machine? If this is possible, then maybe I can find the bad motor by process of elimination.
 
you need to check the motors first to make sure that they are all in sync. if the micro arm on 1 motor is out of place the machine will shut down. relays rarely fail i may see 1 bad relay every 75-100 machines.

oil your motors tap on the pivot arm a few times then cycle each motor.
also check continuity to each button if you have a wire loose or off it will stop also.
if in doubt post a pic of the bank of motors.
 
also if you reversed a wire on a motor (would be one of the lower 3 on the motor) it will not allow a signal through either. i had one i fucked with for half a day simple fix once i found it haha.
 
Thank you both for the advice.

A few days ago I did find a few minutes to attempt to troubleshoot the problem. First I tried unplugging all the wires to all of the motors and motor switches, then plugging one back in (I choose one at random), but I quickly realized you can't do this because the machine will not do anything (no heartbeat on the bill vilidator) if you unplug any of the motor switches.

So then I just unplugged all of the motors (just the two wires at the coil windings) but left the motor switches plugged in. I choose one motor (at random) to plug back in to see if I could get one column working............ well no luck, that didn't work either. I did this with several other motors with the same result.

The only thing I was able to get working by unplugging the motors was the "sold out" lamps on each button when pushing it. They all illuminated, except for the one selection where it's motor was plugged in. I also hooked up several motors and each time the "sold out lamps" quit working as they were plugged in.

Never the less I still could not get the machine to vend anything.

When I go back in to the office I will take & then post pictures of the machine & motor columns so that maybe someone can spot if it has a motor "out of sync".

Finally, I don't think I have a plug reversed because after replacing the last vend motor that broke the machine worked fine for about two months, then it just quit working all together.
 
I also wanted to mention to anyone out there reading this post that this machine is NOT in a commercial / retail environment, so that's why I'm not in a big hurry to get it fixed. I purchased the machine for $200.00 to put in the office at my auto salvage yard.

It's there mostly for the employees and for thirsty customers. Even though it's still making money (employees just give me the money for drinks and we open it up to pull out what they want), I still want it fixed because in the summer months it generates about $200.00 of sales per month! When I first put it in I really didn't think it would do much of anything.

It's nice to have something making some money for a change :)
 
just a quick look all your cans are all in backwards
colum 5 motor switch is not pluged in check all of them and make sure thay are in the connector not just in the plastic
 
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hello, i have also just purchased an old dixie-narco dncb 440cc 252-7. its old and has some gremlins in it unfortunately. i have no experience with vending machines however i am ready to conquer these problems that are presented to me.

here is an internet picture of the machine i have:
http://dfwvendingsolutions.com/images/178_Dixie-Narco-Coke.jpg

there are 2 things that i am having trouble with

1. the bill acceptor doesn't work, it doesn't pull bills inside it and the whole bill acceptor seems to be lacking power in general. i'm not sure if it is a power issue or a bad censer or something completely different. i am aware that the bill acceptor can be replaced but i would like that to be a last resort.

2. i can't seem to be able to program the prices for different drinks. this seems really easy and everything i have read makes it sound rather simple, however i am still having no luck. i have read this:

http://www.vendingadvantage.com/manualspdf/dixie/SIID-2-Button-Manual.pdf

the manual is helpful but i can't seem to find the SIID. there is a black box above the coin dispenser and next to the bill acceptor that does resemble a computer's motherboard like the manual described however i have looked up and down it thoroughly and i can't find the button that the manual seems to be talking about. so i guess this is a simple question, where is the SIID?


anyway i would greatly appreciate any help or advice you could throw my way.

thanks, krimit
 
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here are some pictures

here are some pictures of my machine Narcoholic. you might find them useful.

and the black box i am talking about is in the top right of the first 2 pictures other 3 are of my machines motors and wiring, which all works perfectly. and the last one is the machine itself.

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l83/krimit_da_frog/P1010001-1.jpg

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l83/krimit_da_frog/P1010002-1.jpg

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l83/krimit_da_frog/P1010003.jpg

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l83/krimit_da_frog/P1010005.jpg

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l83/krimit_da_frog/P1010006-1.jpg

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l83/krimit_da_frog/P1010007.jpg
 
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hello, i have also just purchased an old dixie-narco dncb 440cc 252-7. its old and has some gremlins in it unfortunately. i have no experience with vending machines however i am ready to conquer these problems that are presented to me.

here is an internet picture of the machine i have:
http://dfwvendingsolutions.com/images/178_Dixie-Narco-Coke.jpg

there are 2 things that i am having trouble with

1. the bill acceptor doesn't work, it doesn't pull bills inside it and the whole bill acceptor seems to be lacking power in general. i'm not sure if it is a power issue or a bad censer or something completely different. i am aware that the bill acceptor can be replaced but i would like that to be a last resort.

2. i can't seem to be able to program the prices for different drinks. this seems really easy and everything i have read makes it sound rather simple, however i am still having no luck. i have read this:

http://www.vendingadvantage.com/manualspdf/dixie/SIID-2-Button-Manual.pdf

the manual is helpful but i can't seem to find the SIID. there is a black box above the coin dispenser and next to the bill acceptor that does resemble a computer's motherboard like the manual described however i have looked up and down it thoroughly and i can't find the button that the manual seems to be talking about. so i guess this is a simple question, where is the SIID?


anyway i would greatly appreciate any help or advice you could throw my way.

thanks, krimit

1st thind on the doller val. is to check all the connections, make sure you have clean tubes on your changer ,make sure it has plenty of change ,
2 the siid is the computer in the machine the one your looking for is a big silver box should be the last thing on the top of the door with lots of wires running to it . in the 5th pic the 2nd colum from the right check the plug on the motor switch it dont look like its connected Ron
 
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