Looking for any owners of a Bally Skill Derby.

I have a few questions. I have been taking apart my Bally Skill Derby and in particular, the horse section. This section uses clutches and clutch washers like in a Bally bingo. Has anyone ever taken one apart? I would like to ask a few questions.

I have taken mine apart and went through everything. My original concern was that the chains, as you went further from the gearing, cocked over as if the chain had scoliosis. When I took it apart, I found that some of the clutches were grooved from the sleeves inside the main black plate (stepper) of a few particular horses. The black steppers have a 3/8" side and a 3/4" side (which is used as a spacer between each stepper). The geared shaft goes through these plates and the clutches are slid into the shafts key way and lock in the shaft so they always spin, followed by a freewheeling geared wheel used for horse advance and reset, then at the end is a bakalite switch disc, a spring (for tension), and a nut. I was able to reverse the clutches, that were grooved by the 3/8" exit point with the clutches on the 3/4" entry point. This way there was no loss of distance between each stepper because of the grooved clutches. I put it together and I had the same chain issue but it was less extreme. I am guessing that the clutch washers are worn. I bought some brass (oiled) thrush bearings and I am going to try to fill in the gaps between each of the horses stepper units. When I pull these steppers (they are floating not anchored) towards me, I can get the chains to line up. I believe the thrush bearings will make up the distances that I need to make the chains parallel to each other. Has anyone ever experienced this problem?

Next question.

I never worked on clutches. In fact I thought these were spacers with rubber washers the first time I took these apart. So after looking at this game I figured that the solenoid of the stepper will advance the horses forward and then the motor will reverse and bring them back. My question is that since I have a spring that is applying tension to the clutches and steppers, that a gap between two steppers would be bad and that the horse will not move because there is no pressure being applied to that particular stepper. Is this true?? The spring applies pressure to three of the steppers. The fourth and fifth steppers are loose. I believe that the thrush washers will make up the difference, but the shaft will spin freely in the washers. Just worried that the cut out key way groove will grind on the thrush washer. I have 3/8" by 1/16" and 3/8" by 1/8" thrush washers coming today.

Does anyone sell new clutch washers?
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Does anyone know the thickness of a new clutch washer?

Here's some pictures of different areas.

Thanks for any advice or answers.

Larry.

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Thanks for the reply. The leather washers were taken out and cleaned. I bought some neats foot oil and followed the directions from the post I read. Probably was your post from the bingo site. The washers are smooth on both sides but I can tell which side was the rough side and that side is against the freewheeling gear with the chain on it.

I was going to try the unit but since two of the five steppers have gaps between them, I figured those horses wouldn’t move. I would guess that the tension spring should press all the steppers together evenly. Correct?

If the clutch washer is smooth, should you roughen it up?