Your 200 points and 300 points scores would most likely go through the score motor. Since it works sometimes and "tries" to work other times you may just have too much gap in these score motor switches. Find and clean and properly gap these associated motor switches. You should be able to find them on the schematic on a "score motor switch position" card if it has one attached.

This might help you find the switches edednedy just mentioned:

There are a bunch of switches that have to be working correctly for that particular scoring feature to work. The L relay (100 pt relay) fires each time the score motor runs and the P relay fires:

Aquarius 100 pt scoring (resized).png

The score motor runs and the P relay fires 1, 2 or 3 times each time you get a ball in one of the kickout holes (they fire relays B, C, D, E and F). B for example is the first kickout hole on the left that should give you 100 pts. So in the snippet below, when the ball lands in the hole, the B relay fires, closing the B switches and starting the score motor. The Motor 1A switch in the lower right gives you 5 pulses, only one of which makes it through to the P relay (through DB2, Motor 2C [which only allows the 2nd pulse through], B, coil #1 and P). You said that you're always getting 100 pts, so I'm going to assume those switches are working.

Let's look at the path used when you land in the right-most kickout hole. The ball lands in the hole, fires the F relay which closes all the F switches and starts the score motor. If you look at the highlighted F switches, you'll see there are now 3 paths to the P relay involving an F switch: through Motor 2C, through Motor 3B and through Motor 1B. So the 2nd, 3rd and 4th pulses from Motor 1A get through to the P relay. If you could identify which pulses are not getting through and firing the 100 pt score reel, that might help you narrow down which switch isn't working - the Motor 2C switch allows the 2nd (of 5) pulses to get through, the Motor 3B switch allows the 3rd pulse to get through and the Motor 1B switch allows the 4th pulse to get through. (see the Motor Timing Chart)

Aquarius kickout hole problem (resized).jpg

I'd probably focus on Motor 3B and Motor 1B in the snippet above since they're involved in giving 200 or 300 pts. But there are switches on the C, D, E and F relays that are involved as well. Use the wire colors on the schematic to indentify the particular switch you're looking for.

Aquarius score motor (resized).png

I don't have an idea about what's causing that 3-5 ball problem - but I'd think it's a separate issue. See if you can fix that kickout hole problem first.

I wouldn't think so. Having the wrong brake leaf in there might change the speed of the motor (though probably not), but it wouldn't change the relative timing of the switches opening and closing.

But since switch timing is such an important part of this design, the gap in the motor switches that are involved in that kickout hole scoring (Motor 1B, 2C and 3B) could matter. If a switch gap is too wide, the amount of time the switch is closed might be too short and you might not be getting enough of a Motor 1A pulse through it. Those switch closures have to coincide with and overlap the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Motor 1A pulses.

I have a Quick Draw that had some similar issues with bonus scoring, and what it took was very small adjustments on some of the motor switches to make it work correctly. Ed Krinsky was getting alot of action out of that motor which is great - with the possible downside of it becoming more and more sensitive to switch timing.

I'd experiment - if you can hear which of the 5 Motor 1A pulses isn't getting through when your scoring doesn't work right, that might tell you which switch isn't allowing the pulse through. Otherwise, you can try making the gap a little smaller, probably one switch at a time, and see if that fixes the problem.

I still don't have any ideas about your 3-5 ball problem...sorry. I don't see anything on the schematic that would explain it - so you could just be getting some random short, which would be hard to find.

Great find! So you're almost 100 percent now....play with those motor switches a bit - I bet you'll get it completely right.