My Close Encounters of the Third Kind (SS) ball return sometimes fails to return the ball on the first effort. It will return the ball normally for several times then take 2,3, or 4 efforts before the ball makes it over the rise in the track. This has gotten progressively worse over time. I removed the apron and watched the return and it appears that on those occasions when the ball is not returned the first time that the kicker effort is noticeably weaker and varies from time to time. Both the plunger return spring and the lower spring seem OK. The outhole is lined with metal and does not appear to be worn. The base plate also appears to be in good condition. Any suggestions are welcome.

The switch points looked good; I lightly cleaned them anyway. The switch gap closed as it should. The return is still the same as before. I have the schematics in the original instruction manual.

Is it possible that the coil is starting to fail? It looks good and seems to operate fine. Or could one of the springs be getting weak?

I checked the pins on the driver board and they look good. The power supply has been replaced with Rottendog, the control board has been replaced with Ni-Wumpf, and the original driver board is in place with ground wire installed.

Is it possible that the coil is just starting to fail? It is the correct coil per the original manual and it looks fine.

Or could one of the springs be getting weaker?

I may have discovered the cause of the ball return failure, but am unsure about how best to correct it. I attached a screen shot from a video of the ball return with the apron removed. It appears that the ball cam (lever) used to launch the ball sends the ball off to the side of the chute, causing the ball to bounce off the side of the chute instead of throwing it in a straight line, decreasing the force of the throw. You can hear the ball bouncing off the side of the chute when it is launched. The chute on the lower (right) side has a distinct wear pattern where the ball has hit it numerous times. Would it help to bend the lever? If so, what is the best way to do so without potentially breaking it? Is there another way to correct the throw, short of replacing the mechanism?

ball return (resized).png

Thanks for your advice. As you said, I could not rotate the mechanism; it was tight. I'm going to hold off a bit on bending the kicker until I can resolder the power connections to the kicker; they are only weakly soldered and may be contributing to the problem. I'll provide an update later on.

I resoldered the connections to the kicker and that made a significant improvement. Now it only rarely takes more than one attempt to get the ball to the shooter. But I believe the kicker may still need to be bent. Has anyone tried to bend a kicker while it is still in place, perhaps with it pushed up into the eject position?