Quoted from MotorCityMatt:Does it really start the mutliball or does it just start kicking out balls?
This. Reel kicked out all three balls on me a few days ago. Game played as normal with three balls and not in actual mb. One of the screws that attached the switch to the wireform that feeds the reel came off. I suspect the switch did not trigger and game lost track of where the ball went. Check that switch first. You can get instant mb from one of the boat ramp awards or from a mystery award but doesn't sound like that is the case. You would see the mb start animations and hear the music change if in mb.