Great info - thanks!

Thank you for posting; is there enough clearance when this mech is installed to allow for tacking some thin but less flexible metal to the part that was bent via rivets or similar?

Just curious, if this is not a one off and a person has to keep doing this what a permanent fix would be...

Ah, I can see it better now. Given how thing that piece is, I would not be surprised one way or the other if it bent again (depends on the force of the mechanism when the magnet stops and it "shoots" back to its default position obviously).

But since it is essentially acting like a little hammer, hitting this small spot over and over again... it is not unexpected that it would give eventually. We'll have to see how many people are searching for this fix in the future.

Thank you again for posting.

if the tab were a bit more substantial, there probably wouldn't be any issues (but the fact that it starts right at the end of the piece that it rests against doesn't help). I'll bet that stern used an existing part as the bracket but given that the sparky mech is a larger and heavier than a drop down switch or something like that, there is more force being applied and causing the tab to bend.

from your other photos, it appears that the L-shaped bracket with this tab is mounted with 2 screws from the bottom. a replacement bracket should be easy to manufacture and eliminate the issue altogether by extending the piece (by the width of the metal below the tab) by another 1/2"-5/8" and eliminate the tab altogether

Thanks. That little metal bendable plate was also making the difference between my Nightcrawlers working or not. The release mechanism uses the same principal to release and let the NC's drop back down.

The more times you bend metal the weaker it gets so it will bend back easier every time you do this and it will eventually break.
When it does just fabricate a stronger one.

This coil setup is similar to what is used on EM relays banks. This is one of the adjustments you have to do to relays that won't pull in on EMs. Except, on those relays, there is a metal loop that rests against the moving plate in lieu of that bent tab.

Looking at that again it looks like bending it @ the 90 would be better than the tab.
It looks like you did a little when you bent the tab.

There was a discussion as well as pics of a brand new sparky coil i got from stern in this topic

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/noob-question-metallica-pro-sparky-doesnt-shake-at-start-of-multiball