Quick Dixie Narco 501T question for a newbie.

[suprcrackers]

Hi I recently purchased a Dixie Narco 501t for $100 of Facebook marketplace.  I purchased it so my 12 year old daughter can get a start on learning responsibility by keeping track of inventory, etc.  It will be located at a business next door to our house.  I figured it would be a good learning experience for her.   Little did I know it would be a learning experience for me as well.  I would like it to run on triple depth so she doesn't have to constantly monitor and refill it.  It appears it is set up for single depth only in the double columns because it has a blue cam instead of the green cam.  It also looks like it's set up for single depth in the single depth in the single columns also because the rotors are missing the rod and spring assemblies needed for more than one depth.  Am I correct in this assumption?  If so can this be remedied by buying green cams and rod and spring assemblies such as this?

https://www.dsvendinginc.com/p-7511-d80050383001-dn-501e600e-rod-spring-3-deep-19-12-long.aspx

It says it is for a 501e.  I assume it will work for a 501T, but am not sure as I can't find one specifically for the 501T.

I think I have all the spacers I need, but if I am missing something please point it out.

Thanks.

[Southeast Treats]

The T and E are different in cabinet depth, the T can only hold cans two deep.  You should be able to make the adjustments on the existing motors.  If you need additional rods or shims you need to be sure to order for the T model cabinet, the E parts will be too long.  If the rotors are already shimmed for cans, you should be able to adjust the motors and back stop to make the changes without any other parts.

 

 

[AngryChris]

49 minutes ago, Southeast Treats said:

The T and E are different in cabinet depth, the T can only hold cans two deep.  You should be able to make the adjustments on the existing motors.  If you need additional rods or shims you need to be sure to order for the T model cabinet, the E parts will be too long.  If the rotors are already shimmed for cans, you should be able to adjust the motors and back stop to make the changes without any other parts.

 

 

The T models can be 2 deep or 3-deep depending on the model.

[suprcrackers]

Thanks for the quick replies.  I officially am an idiot because I was just looking through the pictures I took of the tag on the machine and it is a 501R.  I'm guessing the reason why I remember it as being a 501T is because I read a while ago that the 501R is essentially a 501T with a rounded front.  I don't t know if it effects the shimming/cams. 

[AngryChris]

8 minutes ago, suprcrackers said:

Thanks for the quick replies.  I officially am an idiot because I was just looking through the pictures I took of the tag on the machine and it is a 501R.  I'm guessing the reason why I remember it as being a 501T is because I read a while ago that the 501R is essentially a 501T with a rounded front.  I don't t know if it effects the shimming/cams. 

If it has one wide column and 8 narrow columns (9 columns total), it is an E cabinet.  If it has 3 wide and 5 narrow (8 total), it is a T model.

There are a lot of differences between certain dixie models.

[suprcrackers]

Yes it is a 501R which would be the quivalemt to a 501T because it has 3 wide columns and 5 narrow ones. 

[AngryChris]

On the 501t, they were almost always setup solely for 12 oz cans, meaning there shouldn't be any rods.  The rods work like a shim but inside the rotor.  The oscillator (the weird looking rotating piece in the wide column) shouldn't need any adjustment inside of it.

As long as you are doing standard size 12 oz cans and no oddball size packaging, then you can follow the instructions on the door.  To go 3-deep, you first need to check your cam to see if it can be set for 3-deep (it should) and set it to such.  The easiest way to do that is to turn the cam until the little tiny plastic piece fits into a hole.  What you want is to see 3 notches on the outside of the cam.  So, if it's setup for 1 can-deep right now, there should only be 1 notch on the cam where the "arm" of the switch goes in.  If that's the case, then you get the visual representation of it.  Now, depending on which way you turn the cam, you may need to push the switch arm out of the notch so you don't bend it.  You need to pry up on the cam a little so you can turn it (the little plastic piece in one of the holes will be what's stopping you) and turn the cam to a different hole and count the notches on the outside.  If you see 3, then you should be alright.

Once you have adjusted the cam, you then need to set the back spacer which is the long vertical piece inside the columns.  Notice where the holes are on either side of the column and where the metal tabs fit into those holes.  The instructions on the door should tell you but you want to go almost all the way back most of the time.  It's difficult to explain (there are 2 different styles of back spacers) but, depending on the style, you either need to squeeze the metal piece in the middle of the back spacer to get the tab out of the hole or you have to kind of "slide" the back spacer to one side to get the wire piece out of the hole.  You probably have the style that you squeeze in the middle though.  You can usually only go so many settings at a time on the top or bottom before the other end needs to be adjusted too.  Going from 1-deep to 3 deep, I would just get the entire spacer out and realign it in the back and straighten it back there.  You can look at the holes to make sure the tops and bottoms are in the same holes.

Once the cams and back spacers are adjusted, you SHOULD be good to go depending on if your motors and switches are all in working order.  The main 2 things to check is that your cams definitely have 3 notches and make sure that there is a gap of about 1/2" between the cans and the "sold out paddle".  This means that, when the cans are pushed all the way against the back spacer and the sold-out paddle is resting against the nearest can, you can get about 1/2" inbetween the paddle and the nearest can if you pushed the paddle down all the way.  The reason you need some gap is to prevent jams and the reason why it can't be too much of a gap is because the machine will think the column is sold-out if the paddle isn't down far enough.

[suprcrackers]

Angry Chris, thank you.  That's must ha E taken you a while to type all of that just to help me out.  I appreciate it.  I'll have a look tomorrow to better see what I'm dealing with. 

[AZVendor]

The 501R is a machine with a door designed for a juice distributor like Veryfine in the 1990s.  You will also see them on proprietary Gatorade machines.  They often have a bottom panel on the door with the product brand name embossed into them or the brand name emblazoned on the bottom of each selection button.  In any case the selection panels are specific to those machines in that the select buttons, 2 columns of 4, are not standard size and normal flavor strips are too tall for them and must be trimmed.  Years ago you could get a normal selection panel for standard buttons but those wouldn't be available now since Crane decided to rape and pillage the vending manufacturing sector and has abandoned legacy equipment parts support.

[suprcrackers]

Allright I have an update.  I figured out how to get the wide columns to work with cans at triple depth by adding two can retainers to each oscillator and adding two ribbed shims to the left and right side of each wide column. 

 

The narrow columns I have not been so lucky.  Being as it is a 501r it was equipped with 1 bottle shims per narrow column.  I ordered 1 can stop shim for each column and replaced the bottle Shim on the right side of each column.  I am now vending 0,1,2.  I think this is because the 501r comes equipped with wide rotors instead of the narrow ones. 

 

Is there any place out there that offers economical old style narrow rotors for a 501r/t or a place where someone can buy old style 501r/t rod and spring assemblies so I can make my wide rotors be able to function like narrow rotors and be able to vend triple depth cans? 

 

And finally if this is not possible could I purchase rod and spring assemblies that are meant for a 501e (yes I know they won't fit because they are longer).  Could I modify/cut and grind one to make it fit in a 501r/t?

 

Thanks

[AngryChris]

1 hour ago, suprcrackers said:

Allright I have an update.  I figured out how to get the wide columns to work with cans at triple depth by adding two can retainers to each oscillator and adding two ribbed shims to the left and right side of each wide column. 

 

The narrow columns I have not been so lucky.  Being as it is a 501r it was equipped with 1 bottle shims per narrow column.  I ordered 1 can stop shim for each column and replaced the bottle Shim on the right side of each column.  I am now vending 0,1,2.  I think this is because the 501r comes equipped with wide rotors instead of the narrow ones. 

 

Is there any place out there that offers economical old style narrow rotors for a 501r/t or a place where someone can buy old style 501r/t rod and spring assemblies so I can make my wide rotors be able to function like narrow rotors and be able to vend triple depth cans? 

 

And finally if this is not possible could I purchase rod and spring assemblies that are meant for a 501e (yes I know they won't fit because they are longer).  Could I modify/cut and grind one to make it fit in a 501r/t?

 

Thanks

Please take a picture of the inside of the narrow columns so we can see the shims and all.  Is there another cam setting you can try for 3 cans?  If so, try that.

[suprcrackers]

Here you go. 

[AngryChris]

Do all of the narrow columns vend 0,1,2?

[suprcrackers]

Yes. 

[suprcrackers]

This is with the can stop shim in the on the right side?  Is this a wide rotor like I assumed or am I wrong? 

[AngryChris]

I don't know which rotor it is.  Very few of those cabinets were modified to take wider items like 20 oz bottles.

I still think this is a cam issue.  You look like you do have can shims but the standard rotors should be fine without rods.  And you would need good skills with a lathe to modify a 501e rod.

I guess the next step is to take a picture of the cams.

[suprcrackers]

Well I figured it out.  My 501R did indeed have wide rotors installed.  The wide rotors made in impossible to vend correctly.  The only possible solution according to Dixie Narco Technical Bulletin 438 was to replace the wide rotors with the narrow rotors.  

https://www.dsvendinginc.com/p-1853-d80120115021-dn-rotor-old-style-motor-single-column-3-deep.aspx

At $44.95 a piece x 5 rotors this would add up to $224.75 plus around $50.00 shipping from D & S vending.  This was not going to be my first option by a long shot because my intentions for this machine is to give my 12 year old daughter some light responsibility.  I decided to take it upon myself to try to modify the equipment that I have to try to make it work.  

I accomplished this by doing a combination of grinding down the can stop shims and rotating the motors about 20 degrees clockwise and drilling new holes to mount the motors.  Rotating the motors allowed for more of a rotation to give the cans the little extra space they needed to drop.  Some more modification was needed for columns 4 and 8 respectively.  My theory is these columns were slightly different from the inner 3 columns because they reside next to the wide columns. 

All in all it was a complete success and I now have a completely functional 3 deep setup on a 501R with wide rotors.

 

[suprcrackers]

Here's pics of the original Can Stop Shim, after it was modified, and the new motor positioning to make it work.

https://imgur.com/a/C5XUrP6
 

[orsd]

Nice work.

I actually did not know there were wide T series rotors.

[AZVendor]

They were optional parts and may have made it into production at the end before the Es came out. The first E's were just slightly deeper T's but they came with wide rotors.