My Evel Knievel has had this problem for years - if you "nail" the center stand up target with a hard direct hit, the ball bounces off but does not register a hit. However if it is hit by the ball a bit less directly, a bit softer or at an angle, it always registers the hit with chimes and scoring. I have cleaned and adjusted the switch behind the target but still no change. I am now thinking it is something else, on the boards or the electronics that are the problem. Anyone have any ideas how to diagnose where the problem is that prevents recognizing a fast/hard/direct hit ?
Evel Knievel

Well it is a SS Evel, and I did clean the switch contacts with fine emery and contact cleaner, however the suggestion re capacitor does make sense to me, I will check this tomorrow. I had the feeling the root cause was too-brief a signal based on a fast and quick hit and rebound off the switch contact, given that it works otherwise fine with a slower or angled hit.

So the target switch does have a flat disc-like round capacitor attached. It is labelled AE R05M 100V. I have not tested the capacitor on its own.

I do have a spare capacitor in hand which I was considering as a replacement, I believe it may be the right kind -- the new one is
more of a rectangle shape, semi-glossy green coating and labelled 473J 100V which should be .047uf capacitor ?

There appears to be a negative polarity mark to the left of the label (an elongated octagon with a vertical bar inside it).

Would this be the right capacitor to use?

Is polarity a factor? If so, the original capacitor does not appear to have a polarity marker ... at least not that I can see ....

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Thanks for the advice -- just to ensure I understand you -- which one is ceramic ? The green one ? The one in the machine I will remove and install the green one but across the switch contacts not the diode contacts if I understand correctly (assuming the green one is a good replacement and polarity is a non-issue?)

Sorry for asking such basic questions, I have not worked with capacitors much before and don't want to screw things up.

Ok I did the change moving the one leg over to the other switch contact -- then the target switch became unresponsive when game powered up. Perhaps the existing capacitor is defective.

So then I just removed the capacitor, and the target works as well (if not slightly better than before) in terms of responsiveness to direct hits.

Meanwhile, I guess I can just leave the capacitor off for now, and order up a .047 uf @ 50 volts ceramic disc capacitor and that will hopefully improve things further. I saw the advice above the ceramic capacitor has no polarity, so that seems to be the simplest part to install.

Thanks to those who responded with advice, I now have a better understanding of how things work with capacitors.

Ah, thanks for suggesting that. I had meanwhile figured out the green capacitor is a polyester part with no polarity. I just installed it and everything
works absolutely perfectly. No matter how fast or direct the target hit, it now always registers. That's awesome to fix that after having that nuisance
for years and years with this game. Thank you.