From the moment the game turns on the motor is going and trying to move the claw to the left. Switch test mode show the optos do read for left and right.
Q36 and 38 of the driver board? What else should I be looking at?

Took it all apart and it looks like the optos were replaced at some point.

Yes, even does it while it is in the menu.

Did yours boiled down to j116 and j118 being backwards?
Here are the relevant parts of the manual. What to replace first...
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Woah where'd all these points come from, oddly well rounded numbers too.... 447500? Really?

Nice, might be a minute before I can test that out (as it's not at my house at the moment) but will definitely start there.

I'll be interested to see if the motor is still good or if manually moving it has stripped the gear in it.

Parts ordered for the two motor boards.

so now the claw works.... but is disabled due to an elevator broken error.

in test mode it goes up and down but the magnet doesn't grab it, the opto for the elevator hold works in test mode. Any ideas? probably need to open a new thread.

elevator broken is the error. Magnet is on the claw. Elevator can since a ball with the opto and goes up and down, but the magnet won't grab it.

Elevator Broken
This message is displayed when the CPU cannot detect an activation of the elevator index opto
switch. This can be caused by either a broken switch, or a non-functional elevator motor.

may have just worked it out myself, would love it someone will chime in with confirmation. flakey index opto seems pretty likely.

So, new DC motor control board, EMI board, 7switch opto board, AUX driver board installed and now:
claw can move left and right, Switch test mode shows it sees the all the way left and all the way right switches
Elevator moves up and gets stuck in the test mode "auto run" if I go to "park elevator" it works and goes back down activating the index opto, other than that the index opto seems flakey still.
now if I put a ball in the elevator while it's down it sees it, the claw grabs it and the magnet works, but after that I hear and audible hum and can't move the claw with the controls.

claw test still says elevator error
error on boot up is "elevator broken"

all connectors have been reseated, looks like previous owner replaced Q36 and Q38 on the driver board when they were trying to figure it out, might be worth reflowing/replacing those again.

If you're pinfu is greater than mine, I thank you in advance for your assistance (and for reading this small essay)

I ordered the index opto board but its going to take a while to get here. Time will tell if I get impatient and just replace the components on the existing board.

I just want to skip to the part where I can use the ACMAG...