patrick,
I have owned 3 Banzai's and I have seen this problem before. I dont believe this has to do with the popper fork but how the entire assembly of the post is aligned. I would pull the entire assembly off the game and mess around with it. You should be able to manipulate the assembly to make it function manually somehow. From there, it should give you an idea on how to tackle the problem.
Kind of vague answer, but I am hoping you get the drift. Pull it, pull the coil and go from there.

thanks
Scott
Detroit Pinball

thanks for posting the final result. Sometimes the most logical of things are the easiest to overlook and catch.

Scott