A little bit of weirdness tonight.
I turned on the pin and the same problem as yesterday happened again.
Ball in play 1-5 and game over.

I took the ball out of the trough and touched the ball contacts in the trough.
Ball 1 came up on the backglass.
I put the ball in play and was able to play.
It automatically went to ball 2 and so on.

I was able to play about 10 games with no problem.
Whatever gremlins got in the machine yesterday went away.

Is this wishful thinking or can I expect that problem to happen again.
I don’t know if it was an anomaly, but the game played as it should.

Do problems sometimes have a way of working themselves out?

I’m going to take this minor victory and call it a night.
Hopefully, this problem won’t occur again.

Gonna check on any friction spots on the vari-targets tomorrow.

Just an update:

After playing about 50 games everything aside from the right vari-target seemed to work alright.
Then…it happened…twice.

A loud hum/noise from under the playfield took over. The first time, the 100 bumper went dead, I shut off the pin, turned it back on and it was playable again.

Last night, the same thing happened. This time the ball advanced on the backglass from 1-5 and game over as the 10s reel added 10 with each ball.
Shut off the pin, turned it on and it happened again.

Shut it off but this time without a ball in the trough.
The ball in play did not advance.
I put the ball in the trough and it went to ball 1. (I think initially ball 2)
The very loud hum was still there. I tried to find out where exactly it was coming from with no luck.
I thought it was from the control relay bank on the left side.
I reset the arm and the game was playable again.
I played about 5 games without any problem.

I did check the “O” relay with a multimeter and it was close to 14 ohms.

I’m a bit hesitant to go about randomly cleaning relays or doing something that’ll cause other problems.

The right vari-target sometimes gets stuck and makes a hum as well but nothing like the volume of this last hum.

Are the contacts in the ball trough, control bank or playfield occasionally stuck or can it be something else?

On the advice fredsmythson : I made some videos concerning the problems I’m having with Playball.

I’m getting a hum when the vari-target goes towards the 300-500 Triple setting.
VARI-TARGET HUM

Again with the vari-target it seems according to Todd’s video the arm should snap back, I know gravity is working against me with the playfield up, but on the first rivet and the first lip if I release the coil plate it will snap back a bit and that’s all.
VARI-TARGET NON-SNAPBACK

With my very limited knowledge it just looks like the spring should be changed, of course I welcome any suggestions.

The ball shooter is another problem. Many times the ball will shoot out and hit the left bumper.
There is an indentation (see photo) at the base of the playfield, I’m not sure if this can be the problem.

Any Playball owners have this dent and have this problem?

It seems under the playfield, the shooter mechanism can be moved side to side. That little bakelite fingernail size that attaches to the plunger seems very flexible as well.
UNDER PLAYFIELD SHOOTER MECH

The other day a very loud hum/noise bugged the machine and the ball count went from 1-5 and game over. I reset the control relay bank and it seemed to fix the problem.

The sound seemed to be coming from around the stepper unit.
I think it’s seemed better days, but here are pictures anyway.

Thank you all for your help
Ball Shooter Indentation (resized).jpgStepper Unit (resized).jpgStepper Unit 1 (resized).jpgStepper Unit 2 (resized).jpg

Videos are now available from last post...

Some more weirdness with Playball.

I ordered some parts from PBR for the shooter.
I got the plunger assembly along with a spring and the shooter itself.

As you can tell from the picture I placed them side by side and the shooter isn’t in the same orientation as the original shooter.
On PBR, it said it’s a replacement shooter, (Ball Shooter A14833 Replaces A7283)

The screw holes don’t align (they are on opposite sides) and the rod that holds the plunger is on the right side instead of the original left side. I tried installing it anyway and it seems the plunger couldn’t expand properly and only shot the ball out a couple of inches.

The original plunger was really dirty, so I just replaced all the parts except for the new shooter.
Now, when the ball ejects I hear a sound from the coil/plunger that I don’t recall it making before. It kinda sounds like when you hold the flippers a couple of seconds.

Do you think I should put some super lube on the plunger so it can rest in the coil sleeve smoothly?
Should this noise be cause for concern?

Shooters side by side (resized).jpg

Plunger (resized).jpg

Thank you for that link Fred. It looks like it's in the proper orientation. The one I got from PBR everything is on the other side, but I'll double check later.

I'm using the new plunger assembly and spring with the old ball shooter unit in the video.

I didn't have that sound when I had the original plunger in there.

I'll check everything when I get home.