OT: Personal Project - Dr. Pepper Machine Rebuild!

[VernGraner]

As a gift for my birthday, my wife bought me this very cool vintage "Vendo model 56" Dr. Pepper machine:



Complete gallery of pics, (including interior shots!) is here:

Vintage Dr. Pepper machine in my Shop

She found it moldering away filled with (gasp!) BEER in a dingy corner of an auto repair shop. She rescued it and now I have it plugged in in my shop and, so far, it seems to be almost completely operational:

• The chiller works.. maintains an interior temp of ~47.5°f!! (this is critical as this is what fails on most machines!)
• The coin mech does accept/increment coins
• Lock is drilled out for front door - fairly simple to replace.
• The bottle release solenoid makes a nice loud click when enough coins are inserted
• The change maker dispenses a nickel if you feed the machine a quarter.
• If a coin gets stuck, the "coin return" lever does release the stuck coin

I do have a few things to fix/evaluate:

• The light behind the Dr. Pepper logo is un-lit (could be ballast or bulb)
• The solenoid to release the bottles doesn't always "release", sometimes it just "clicks"
• The machine is LOUD when running... lots louder than a typical fridge!
• The coin mech is finicky in what coins it will accept. I have to hit the return lever more often than not
• The main door has "sagged" and requires some finesse to get to get it to close. Hinge adjustment needed.

My next quest is to find a nearby wholesale outlet for 8oz bottles of Dublin Dr. Pepper, Coke with Pure Cane Sugar, and maybe some Grape Nehi!

All in all, looks like it will be a VERY fun project to get it restored. Likely it just needs a good cleaning, some spot lubrication and a bit of TLC. As anyone that knows me knows, I am a HUGE Dr. Pepper fan so this just made my weekend!

Just thought I'd gloat^H^H^H^H^Hshare...

Vern

[MrAl]

Hi Vern,


Wow, that's definitely neat. I wouldnt mind playing around with one of them myself. I like Dr Pepper too.

[Bob Scott]

I like Dr Pepper too.

Yes. It's Cherry Coke with a different name.

[MrAl]

Hi Bob,


Oh wow, now that the mystery is out i dont like it anymore! (just kiddin')

[k7elp60]

As I remember a long time ago Dr. Pepper was really carbonated prune juice. I remember when it was dispensed in light green colored bottles, and had some times or numbers on the bottles. Boy has it changed.............but I still like it.
Ned

[Bob Scott]

Oh wow, now that the mystery is out i dont like it anymore! (just kiddin')

have
Don't laugh. Like k7elp60 said, it didn't used to taste like Cherry Coke. When I took a sip in 1964, it tasted like dirty dishwater, and I didn't try it again until 2000.

Anyway, if you have a intermittently sticky solenoid in the machine, you would normally replace it but sometimes you can get with just rotating the solenoid plunger 180 degrees inside the solenoid cylinder. Grooves wear into the plunger from constant use. Rotate it 180 so that the worn grooves no longer match up with the worn striations in the cylinder.

Some solenoids have a thin teflon coating on the plunger. If that is worn through, replace the solenoid.

I got this experience from working on ancient Sony EV series 1" tape reel-to-reel videotape recorders. They were chocked-full-o solenoids and microswitches.