Trying to diagnose balls that are getting stuck when hitting the subway access shot to the right of the left ramp and/or consistently if a mode hasn't been started by ball 3 and it autolaunches to the mode. I don't have a good sense what all is happening beneath the upper playfield as I know there are diverters in action at certain points. Are there any images, guides, or information on that? I'm assuming maybe a gate has broken or something but not sure and getting ready to disassemble to see.

AliceCooper_Playfield (resized).jpg

Thanks both! I honestly wasn't sure how the ball was held back there when a mode started (I knew about the code forcing a mode start on ball 3, it was just the best example I could give of a consistent need for ball search). Sometimes a shake would work but more often I had to wait for a ball search. I bent the switches along that path down to prevent the rejects occasionally on the secret path and also replaced the balls given I had not done that yet and the game gets a lot of plays which I imagine was why it was sticking to the magnet and things are looking much better.