Keep in mind that the game powers that motor with 11V more than the 9 volt battery, so if there is a problem with the gears, it should be exposed by this. Many people seem to disassemble the gearbox to “fix” a problem that isn’t even there. In my case, the motor wasn’t being given enough power while in the game because I had lost one of the -2- wires which are feeding the motor

Not 1 wire to the motor, there is a flasher (I think it’s the doctor 5 flasher) that the mini play field power also runs through - in my case, there was a connector that had 1 hot wire from the harness and 1 hot wire from that flasher which joined in the connector. The connector (if I am remembering correctly) is a 2-pin molex which then connects to the motor

I wonder if mine was wired incorrectly? That is pretty bizarre