I was having issues with my Turbo Scoop VUK on my Indy 500. Besides the ball bouncing out of the scoop 8/10 times, the VUK successfully kicks the ball into the turbo only about 33% of the time. The other times, the ball only makes it halfway up the wireform. The ball must be hitting something and losing its momentum. It doesn't appear that the backstop is in the way and the wireform is secure with no movement.

After looking at the VUK from a bird's eye view, I realized the problem and the solution may help others with a similar VUK setup where the ball rests on a metal plate.

The reason the ball did not make it up the wireform every time is because it was not centered above the plunger tip. The metal had worn away towards the front of the scoop causing the circle in the plate to become oblong. This was caused by the ball hitting the backstop and smashing against the front edge of the VUK plate. I believe this also led to more and more bounce-outs. The red circle in the first picture shows where the ball *should* be sitting when properly on top of the plunger tip. I have put in a piece of target backing foam for now to help center the ball on the cupped plunger tip. The pictures explain the problem and solution....

If someone has a better long-term fix, please post with a description of the mod.

VUK before 1.jpgVUK before 2.jpgVUK fix.jpg