I made the mistake of taking my wife to the Pinball Exchange club. She got a High speed and my Wizard! was used as partial trade to soften the blow of having to pay retail for a machine.
I did play the game in my youth but it was located in an arcade on the far side of town so I grew up playing other machines.
Anyhow,
Recently my kickback has been inconsistent (sometimes it shoots it to the upper flipper, sometimes to the next lane over, sometimes enough to go right down the middle) and I have very little experience troubleshooting non-EM machines. One of my pinball mentors has suggested the rubber grommet as the first issue to check.
Just looking for some further input for people who have had the same issue.
My favourite quote "504 this is dispatch he what ???"

Be thankful it kicks well.
I had to change mine as sometimes it would barely kick enough to send the ball right down the middle.
As long as your hitting and moving up past the right top flipper it's working good in my opinion.
I would suggest inspecting the tip of the kicker. I know my old one was not very flat and pretty mangled when I compared it to its replacement.

My tech buddy always chimes to me about how transistors tend to get weak with time. I was asking about my checkpoint drop targets and that was his go to on the subject of them being slow to react, not being 'crisp' enough for my taste.

Just put some superbands on my High Speed on the weekend and wow what a difference. I can easily make the left highway loop from the left flipper and make it all the way up the ramp with some of my more wonky-er shots.
Good thing I have it set to hard, I don't want to be setting new high scores all the time.

Once I get my Checkpoint all 100% I am heavily considering modding it by adding the Porsche 'Carrera' script to the top front of the head. Probably the shield emblem to the coin door or under the start key as well.
I was considering the same for my High Speed.
The question is: That kinda looks like a Lambo on the backglass. Is it an artist rendition of an actual car or just something somewhat close but not a real car.
Then both my machines could have some simple appearance mods.

I have mine set to hard and it ramps up. Not getting a 'free' stoplight for completing the ramp. Having to re-light the kickback. it adds up. I am pretty sure it also lowers the amount of time to get the spinner to advance the ramp values and light extra ball.

Yeah, hard mode and the saucer doesn't spot you a light.
I missed that one.

I replaced the spring with a spare flipper spring I had in the short term. Later I got a new kickback plunger (as the end of mine was pretty chewed) and a few new springs from Playdium.
It was not the contact as I tried adjusting it first, and cleaning up the area.
Works great now, kicks the ball up past the spinner but not so far as to go around the corner.

My HS. I can't believe how reliable this pin is. I bought it quite a few years ago from a retailer ToPEC and it has never broke down. I do have superbands installed.
Sys 11 rules!

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Anyone out there installed a shaker motor?
I really like it on my Checkpoint and was thinking it could be a nice first mod.