Pins rolling off the distributor?

[Kingram Find all posts View Profile Close Kingram]

Rather than spending hours or days trying to stop this, here is what we did and it takes about 5 minutes.

Hacksaw an inch off a 90's pinwheel strip. Take a hammer and tap it on the end of the O pan(clamping edge underneath) that the pin is rolling off of. Get it as close to or a little below the support guide as possible. If pins are rolling off both sides put this strip on both sides. The bottom of the pins orienting off the opposite side will not hang up on this fix. This has been working great for us and saves a lot of pin jams on the distributor and bin area. Jr. thought of this fix.

[Alastair Find all posts View Profile Close Alastair]

Re: Pins rolling off the distributor?

That sounds like a fix to your problems.
Would like to see pics of this if poss!!

Things that I do to try and eliminate such a problem are this :-

1. Level dizzy.
remove drive shaft and remove both springs (lateral and safety)
Level by loosening and then re-tighten all hardware to all brackets to level the dizzy. So that it will not swing from on side or the other when in the one pin position.
(but hey, you know that already)

2. The pin guide can be lowered as low as possible (from the rear of the pinwheel) so that it is as close to the pan as poss.
It also should be moved as far back as possible too. From this position move the pin guide forward untill they turn as slow as possible.

What I mean by this is that if they spin on the pan and touch either side of it then adjust the guide untill they don't.

I have found that with the guide really low, it helps the pins from spinning round fast on the pan, stopping them from rotating and falling off!

3. If thtat doesn't work then you can add the mother of all upgrades to your machine!!!
This works a treat as have run this on some problem machines in the centre and have eliminated head first etc.. by doing this.
Pics would be nice here.. (hint hint)
Add a pin ejector to the top of the pin guide (as shown in the early patent 1965).

(By the way ...AMF are / have a new solution to this pan issue which is in testing in the factory just now, and it is apperently superb!)

4. An idea which I may think may also be of vital importance which is over-looked in manual and may be included, is to level the pan!
Take a spirit level (after leveling the dizzy) across the pan and adjust it both sides, as there is room too, thus gaining a level pan, helping oriantation of pins!
[img]/content/btubb/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/cool.gif[/img]

[Kingram Find all posts View Profile Close Kingram]

Re: Pins rolling off the distributor?

Right on Alistar,
That is what all of us do to get rid of this problem!
I have a camera and will try to get Felix to post it for me as I don't have the means or know how to post it. I used to post them on my last centers web-site but they are non existent at this time. Will get my son to Email it to the Felix.

[Alastair Find all posts View Profile Close Alastair]

Re: Pins rolling off the distributor?

That would be good.

I know the above may sound contrary, but you never know. It's just the things that I go through when this problem arises.

The last technique is one I have just thought of recently. Levelling the pan once the dizzy is level sounds to me like a good idea!! A little anal perhaps but may contribute to pin orientation problems??

I have heard stories of training schools in the US which use a spirit level across the pan in order to level there dizzy's.!! Which we all know will not be true as you don't know wither the pan is set level before hand! The adjustment this way is false.

[felix Member Find all posts View Profile Close felix]

Re: Pins rolling off the distributor?

Subject: Distrbutor fix

By: Kenneth Ingram

Most of the clips stayed in place but some of them came off and we drilled a hole and put a screw in it. The clip laying on the distributor is the 90's pinwheel strip. This cleared up 90% of our dist problems

The before avi is the one without the clip.

The second is the one with it. The camera stopped as the pin was being fed butt first, but the pin didn't fall off!

A dist with the pin partially falling off is worse than one with the pin completely falling off as it can cause mucho problems.

[img]/content/btubb/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif[/img]

<a href="http://www.bowlaway.com/before.avi" target="_blank">Before
avi</a>

After avi

[img]/content/btubb/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/143.gif[/img]

[Kingram Find all posts View Profile Close Kingram]

Re: Pins rolling off the distributor?

Thanks Felix,

The pic with a screw in it is really a little too high on the O pan. I'm gonna try to secure the clip a lot closer to the guide with contact cement.

[Lampie Member Find all posts View Profile Close Lampie]

Re: Pins rolling off the distributor?

Since we removed the belt runner and slowly go over to the Stahl's orienter(picture), we never have such problems.
My excuses to Stahl; I make them myself, it was to easy...brilliant idea though!

picture also stolen from Stahl [img]/content/btubb/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif[/img]

[Tablejam Tech of the Year 2013 Find all posts View Profile Close Tablejam]

Re: Pins rolling off the distributor?

I've heard about the remove-the-runner mod but have never had to try it. But I have one question about it.
With the runner missing, couldn't the pins cause the belt to mis-track on th rollers or couldn't the pins end up under the belt?

And with the rear runner gone, would it cause problems with the belt wearing on the front runner?

[Tablejam Tech of the Year 2013 Find all posts View Profile Close Tablejam]

Re: Pins rolling off the distributor?

I've heard about the remove-the-runner mod but have never had to try it. But I have a couple of questions about it.....

With the runner missing, couldn't the pins cause the belt to mis-track on the rollers or couldn't the pins end up under the belt?

And with no rear belt runner, are there any issues with unusual belt wear on the front belt runner?

[JimDorsin Members Find all posts View Profile Close JimDorsin]

Re: Pins rolling off the distributor?

Originally posted by TABLEJAM:
I've heard about the remove-the-runner mod but have never had to try it. But I have a couple of questions about it.....

With the runner missing, couldn't the pins cause the belt to mis-track on the rollers or couldn't the pins end up under the belt?

And with no rear belt runner, are there any issues with unusual belt wear on the front belt runner?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">We tried it here, and it was also tried at my old part time gig. I had nothing but trouble. would get pin necks cought (correct direction) down inbetween the belt and rail. I put them back on in a hurry.

[poplarpetey Members Find all posts View Profile Close poplarpetey]

Re: Pins rolling off the distributor?

Only time I've had trouble with taking the belt runners out is with those old AMF white belts that were real thin. Otherwise, I haven't had any problems with unusual wear. I use a thicker rough top belt that I get from a local supplier.

Pete

[Alastair Find all posts View Profile Close Alastair]

Re: Pins rolling off the distributor?

From what I can can see from the video's it seems that the pins are really traveling of the pinwheel onto the dizzy at some rate of naughts.

Have you tried a slow down pulley on the gearbox? I think this would definetly help slow things down a bit, and help the orientation trouble.

I have one lane which has a black slow down pulley on it, I really want to know where it comes from, as I believe the AMF one you get is Blue. The black one is outstanding, as you can really slow down the pinwheel. This lane NEVER piles up or has problems with orientation etc...
It's ran for over 6 months without a dizzy stop! Which I feel is outstanding, it's just a pity about the rest of the centre....! [img]/content/btubb/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif[/img]

[JimDorsin Members Find all posts View Profile Close JimDorsin]

Re: Pins rolling off the distributor?

I like the ones from Stahls. They are grey (for the cast, the silver ones break out easily.)

In some cases you need to go with a 188 inch Elevator belt as well (also obtainable from Stahls)

[Kingram Find all posts View Profile Close Kingram]

Re: Pins rolling off the distributor?

Originally posted by Alastair:
From what I can can see from the video's it seems that the pins are really traveling of the pinwheel onto the dizzy at some rate of naughts.

Have you tried a slow down pulley on the gearbox? I think this would definetly help slow things down a bit, and help the orientation trouble.

I have one lane which has a black slow down pulley on it, I really want to know where it comes from, as I believe the AMF one you get is Blue. The black one is outstanding, as you can really slow down the pinwheel. This lane NEVER piles up or has problems with orientation etc...
It's ran for over 6 months without a dizzy stop! Which I feel is outstanding, it's just a pity about the rest of the centre....! [img]/content/btubb/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif[/img]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Alastair,
Have been working on AMF equip for 40 years and have rigged a lot of things on them but have NEVER slowed down the PW. If this fix works like it has so far we won't have to spend a dime on anything. [img]/content/btubb/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif[/img]

[John_Galt Members Find all posts View Profile Close John_Galt]

Re: Pins rolling off the distributor?

Here\'s the trick I was shown long ago. The loose end tucks inside of the 6103/6104 pin guides.