Crane 168 security door slow to fall

[Maddog3632]

The door that stops thieves is slow to return to its normal position. I removed the small spring on the right side (inside) looking out. It returns to the position that it should be in when I do this. Can I leave the little spring removed without consequence? The reason the door needs to go back to its home position is to ensure products fall into the bin. I have pictures but trouble with uploading. Thanks.

[AZVendor]

You may have loose linkage on the side of the delivery bin or the bin is not properly secured to the door or one of your doors is bent.  Is this on a machine that has worked properly up until now?  If so, I would look at the linkage on the sides of the bin as it can become bent if the outer door is forced due to a binding inner door, or you could have missing retaining clips or the square ends of the doors have rounded off the square holes in the linkage.  You should carefully inspect the mounting of the delivery bin to ensure it's secured at each mounting point, inspect the linkage and how it is attached and inspect the ends of the doors themselves to be sure they are not bent, twisted or deformed in any way.

[Maddog3632]

Not one that I have on location. It is fully functioning with the exception of this. It doesn't look bent and linkage looks good. When the spring that is adjustable is removed it falls flawlessly and when it's connected it is as if the spring is to tight. Could it be that the spring is tight because the machine has not been in use for a while and is "shrunk"?

[AZVendor]

No, the spring won't shrink, but you could have some dried up lubricant on the linkage.  If the doors don't slam down, you could use it without the spring.  The factory puts lithium grease on the linkage and as the machine gets older the grease may wear off or gum up.  If it wears off you will get metal to metal contact which will wear the metal out and cause the parts to hang up.  Take a picture of the linkage and then remove it all, clean and inspect it, re-grease it and put it back together and see if that fixes the issue. 

 

If this is on a machine you just got, then it's still possible that the bin isn't installed on the door correctly, causing the bin to be tweaked a bit.  You have no idea what someone before you has done to the machine, so you need to check for proper bin installation.

[Maddog3632]

I am going without the spring because it works flawlessly when it is removed.  I opened and closed, opened and closed, etc.  and have found no issues now that the spring is removed.  Everything looks well lubricated and in line so I am not sure what the problem is?  I guess oh well because it seems to be working well now!