That would make sense, as these VUK inconsistencies seem to have developed over time on my POTC.

Things I've tried that didn't work:

• Replacing coil sleeve
• Turning VUK power up or down

I do suspect the problem is somehow wear-related, as it didn't do this when new and developed the issue over time.

My problem is I-lane drains on POTC where the ball hits the gate as if it's a wall, then drops down I. When I manipulate the gate by hand it moves freely, but I haven't (yet) ruled out some kind of weirdness where the ball hits it at an angle causing a brief jam against the lane guide or something.

I’ve solved it, at least for my POTC Depths issue:

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/jjpirates-of-the-caribbean-troubleshooting-tips-issues/page/49#post-5406496

Well I think I jumped the gun declaring victory on my Depths I-Lane drain.

It looks like the ball is rattling down the lane.

What I've done:

- Played with VUK power. Lower definitely improves it, but too low is its own problem as balls get stuck.
- Replaced the coil sleeve
- Cleaned the plunger, tip and landing pad

What I haven't yet tried:

- Bending the Depths scoop so the ball has a smoother trajectory onto the playfield
- Adjust the ball guide up or down (hesitant to do this since any non-VUK entrance to the lane flows perfectly.)

If anyone else has ideas, throw them out there. Ideally I want to be able to run the VUK at the designed power of 14.

I did some more thinking and experimenting.

What do we know about the problem?

Fact: The only time it fails is when the VUK chucks it down the lane. Normal entry to the lane always works.
Fact: This issue is somehow wear related, as it doesn’t happen initially and develops over time.
Fact: The nature of the failure is not the gate, but a bounce up into the guard above it.

I’ve replaced the coil sleeve and can eliminate coil wear. So what else could wear here over time?

Hypothesis 1: The lane guide shifts itself out of position over time. I was able to disprove this one, as there really isn’t much play at all. Only a very, very tiny amount. Adjustments here were inconsequential.

Hypothesis 2: The guard over the Depths VUK bends itself upward over time, causing balls to exit airborne and bounce down the lane rather than rolling smoothly.

I bent the guard down a bit and so far things are looking good - I played for about an hour without any VUK drains.

Fingers crossed this puts it to bed.

I'm still working on this problem.

Gently bending the scoop up or down didn't seem to help much, so add that to the list of things that don't work.

I'm now trying a cabinet bumper on the plunger rest for the VUK. This seemed like a cleaner and less hacky solution than the duct tape thing for reducing plunger travel.

I am currently running the VUK kickout at 13 - 1 down from default, and I don't want to go any lower. Honestly I'd like to find a way to keep it at 14, as multiple sunk balls can get stuck and end your game when it's too low.

So far this is working "ok", I have about 90% success rate out of the Depths, but I don't feel great that the issue is resolved.

It's got to be something wear-related, as I don't recall having this problem on new machines...only after time.

I agree with KornFreak28 that the corner of that lane guide is creating a bounce point for the ball. I'd rather not file that away, at least not without having a backup copy of the part first.