Finishing up my Top Card and it sometimes has an issue with outhole kicker getting the ball over the hump. I can tell by the underside of the apron that it's taken a lot of hits from the ball over time. The outhole itself doesn't appear that worn. However, the ball doesn't always land squarely on the kicker arm. Not sure if this is more of an issue with the outhole or the kicker arm. As you can see in the photo the one side of the kicker arm has mushroomed quite a bit. It doesn't have that little extra point that may keep the ball from sitting too far towards the trough rail side.

I did see this post and the Mr. Pinball fix with a switch blade which I may try but it doesn't always get the ball over the hump even when the ball lands squarely on the arm.
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/em-ball-return-kicker-trouble#post-1445177

Note that the entire assembly was taken apart, cleaned and reassembled. The coil fires just fine with plenty of kick.

Opinions before I give Steve Young my money, if he has one. I don't see them listed on his site but, as we all know, he has much more than what's on there.

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The spring feels like it has good tension and certainly "looks" original. Sucky thing is this is all one unit till you get to the plunger linkage. I did the Mr. Pinball mod and it's helped somewhat. One thing I added was some heat shrink tubing to the end because, no matter how short it was, once in a while it would ground out with the ball and cause a small spark.

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I will look for this next. Yes, even though I've already cleaned and adjusted the score motor switches, sometimes a switch just needs to hold contact a LITTLE longer.

The plunger and sleeve are clean. It's just that this game had so much white corrosion over almost every metal part it would have taken a long time to get all the staining out of the metal. I'll only sit there and polish a part so long till I've had enough. It's clean and smooth. That's what matters.

According to the manual, position 4C on the score motor pulses the O relay (return relay). I recleaned and adjusted the score motor switch closer but this made no difference. I recleaned and adjusted the O relay which seemed to have helped. It hasn't re-ocurred since then. Nonetheless, I think the mushrooming on the kicker arm is my real issue. I'm placing an order with PBR for some stuff and I'll inquire as to a price for one. If it's too much, I'll just wait for Allentown.

Oh, and I don't mind the decagon score units anymore. I even bought a couple clean used one's at the last Pinfest and stripped them for parts. Good stuff.

It seems that each of these manufacturers had their own pluses and minuses. Williams's ball return mechs are awesome because they slam the ball over to the shooter lane where Gottlieb's kinda just lolly gag over a hump. However, you have to remove the apron to service a Williams one where a Gottlieb you don't. "Six of one and half a dozen of the other".