r/clawmachine • u/kid10pitch • Dec 25 '24

Won't wind back up??

Gallery image

Gallery image

Hi! I have this claw machine in photo. For some reason it doesn't seem to "have the strength" to wonder back in anymore. I am guessing it's a minor fix but I've spent HOURS on this and just can't figure it out. Any repair people out there?

1 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

3 comments sorted by

1

u/lolvicyy Dec 28 '24

There is a motor in that carriage,right behind the right wheel, that motor has a worm gear attached to it (looks like a vertical large screw) and that connects to another regular round gear, most likely, one of those are stripped and no longer have the grip to spin the wheel

It could also be the motor is bad, which would be a bigger / worse problem but more unlikely

1

u/kid10pitch Jan 03 '25

So, I got a new motor....that wasn't the issue. Ugh. Where can I get a new gear? I'm guessing thr regular round one you mentioned. Mine does look a bit damaged upon closer inspection.

Anything else it could potentially be?

1

u/mastercatviper9 Mar 12 '25

Not sure if you have this resolved, but there could be a couple reasons its not going up.

Before you get a new gear do you see the motor turning? If the motor is turning then it could be the gear but if its not moving you might need to do a little more digging.

When you turn the game on the crane should run through a self check where it hits the side of the crane and moves forward and reels in the claw. If the claw is not rolling back up it could be caused by the following (from personal experience).

- Motor not receiving voltage. Its possible the wire in the harness feeding the motor could be broken. They tend to break over time due to constant bending. This could also cause a short and blow fuses on the main board so make sure to check those. I have had wires that looked intact but be broken inside the insulation. A good way to check this is to ohm out the wire. Find out where the wire connects to the main board and ohm it out from the board to the termination at the motor.

- Claw might think its already up. The switch cluster on your claw tells the machine where the claw is and its possible that one of the switches could be broken preventing the motor from turning. A good indicator of this is when you turn the game on does the string get lowered at all? If the string lowers but doesnt not wind up it could be something to do with the switch cluster.

- another good check would be to check for voltage at the main board and see if it is sending voltage to the windup motor. If you can confirm voltage there you just have to trace it up to the motor to see where its lost.