Check your kicker prongs they might not be spaced correctly or not hitting ball at same time. Easy to adjust.

This might help. Cheers

The prongs on mine had spread out causing weird behavior like sideways and soft launches. I just put a ball in the lane and carefully bent them back until they contacted evenly. When the problem started, I also checked for slop in the coil and other stuff as that had seemed to be the source of most problems but it was all fine.

I know exactly what the problem is, it was happening on my LE. it is is the nylon bushing in the auto plunger assembly. There is a lot of slop in the mechanism due to that bushing which causes it to hit the ball unevenly. we fixed it by machining a brass bushing to replace the nylon bushings I have had it in there for almost a year now and have not had the problem since. every time it fires it fires straight and true. I also have been keeping an eye on the bushing to see if it wears or binds at all and have not noticed any issue. I have been asked a few times about making these bushings but due to the time it takes to do it the cost would be about $40 and due to slight tolerance differences in the mechanism I cannot guarantee that it will be exactly the same fit in every machine. If anyone has any questions, would like one made or would like the measurements to machine their own feel free to shoot me a message

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In the last pic you can see the I.D/O.D of the sleeve then goes a brass washer then the e clip the other end we have a flange. If you need more pics or measurements please feel free to PM me and I'll help however I can

Ps I never had to bend the prongs you may want to try this first before bending anything

I was advised by stern to bend prongs....even Michael at AMD advised the same thing. This fixed the problem with ball not clearing shooter lane. 2k games later still working well.

Ps when I say bending prongs it's only a slight adjustment, your not bending them more than a few degrees.

Glad you got it fixed Mil.

Agree 100% mech could have been designed better. There is a lot of play in it. Cheers

Had same problem.

My quick fix was file down a flat washer to take up slack in bushings. The shooter has a ton of side to side play. I removed the e clip and put the washer between the bushing and the clip therefore reducing the play to almost nothing. After watching the auto launcher shoot about 30 ball up the lane with no issues I think I have a decent repair. I am going to see if my shooter from my Walking Dead machine can be installed in place of this one. The Walking Dead has a much better design, maybe they fixed a flaw.

Anyway thanks for the tips to help find my problem quickly...

I had the same issue. Mine was the cliffy protector was to far to the right and the ball was hitting the corner of the cliffy and going crazy. Moved it slightly over to the left and problem was solved.