I've got a 1965 Gottlieb Kings and Queens that has 4 "chained" horizontal kickout holes. A ball falling into the Ace hole is kicked sideways into the King hole, which in turn kicks it into the Queen hole, etc. The Ace kicker often doesn't get enough force on the ball to propel it into the King hole. In fact, most of the time the ball rises slightly out of the hole and falls back into the Ace hole. It's similar to a straight up pop fly in baseball. All 4 kickers are powered by the same coil, so the problem is mechanical and not electrical. All the linkages that connect the 4 strikers appear OK, nothing is broken or loose, so I believe an adjustment to the tip of the kicker is needed.

The kicker mechanism is pretty heavy gauge, so I wanted to ask if anyone has got a recommended approach for this kind of adjustment. Should I just go in with a long nose pliers and try to bend the striker's tip? I'm concerned that I'm going to break the striker tip.

Thanks.