Quoted from mac2444:I like the look of the gap in that top photo, this should negate any issue with it hanging up in the gap. Try placing balls in the arm with this setup and pulling the release coil slowly down by hand and see if the ball is still sitting in the arm with that post as far down as you can get it. If it's still sitting there with the post totally out of the way then you are right, it must be the angle of the arm. This seems super odd though as you say the machine had been working fine previously and the arm shape has obviously not changed.
If you get to this point and are sure the arm is at fault, I'd talk to DP about a replacement but in the meantime, how about a couple thin washers or shims, under the pf between the pf and the arm assembly on the side closest to the release pin. This should slope the entire mech a little, hopefully enough to keep the ball rolling out of the arm with a little more force.
WINNER WINNER mac2444 deserves all the chicken dinners!!! Except the solution was the opposite (or more likely that I read his advice/direction wrong). I put one washer on each L & R arm/stepper motor bracket screw on the other side (away from the coil/release pin) and all of a sudden noticed more success with the ball dropping in test. This has tilted the arm enough forward to overcome the terrible design of it having to go up the upslope and over to get past the arm itself. However, if the arm was at it's furthest L or R position, the ball would still get stuck in the arm even with that single set of washers. So I then added a second washer on each side. Currently the ball is consistently dropping now, but still kind of struggles at the far L or R points (video below).
What I will say is that there's still an alignment problem. If you look closely in this video you'll see that the arm is "tilted" in that all the way Right, the gap b/t the arm plastic and PF hole closes up, then all the way to the Left it's more open. Also the arm sinks one position or the other. Regardless it is working now. Pics and videos showing the overall current positions and the washers I added to ultimately get things working:
PXL_20210520_010133313 (resized).jpg
PXL_20210520_010140417 (resized).jpg
PXL_20210520_010145888 (resized).jpg
In TEST:
In Gameplay:
Quoted from cpr9999:Is there a crack in your orange piece widening it or is this just an illusion?[quoted image]
Good eye cpr9999 . Yes I just recently noticed as well. The "hole" in the orange arm is chipped. That may have been part of the issue all along. After I get advice from the technician I have coming this weekend to assess, I will likely be requesting an entirely new assembly in this area for the sake of everything holding up in the long run. I am still beyond clueless how this started out of nowhere.