Hello everyone, this is my 1st post.

I am about to dive into my 1st EM repair, a Gottlieb Big Hit, wood-grain version.
There doesn't seem to be too much wrong with the game...it's very clean on the backglass and playfield. Cab could be better.

I fired it up for the 1st time today, played it for about 15 minutes, seemed great and then I had a problem.

Big Hit automatically kicks the ball onto the playfield, there is no plunger with this game.

After you hit "Start" you push the right flipper to shoot the ball from the center and then you play.
When the ball drains the bonus collects and then you hit the right flipper to launch ball 2, etc and so forth.

After a 15 minutes of playing, the machine decided to not shoot the ball out anymore. If the ball doesn't shoot out, the flippers don't energize and the machine seems to be in a state of "game over"

So I unplugged the game and then restarted it.
Coin switches work.
Pushing the start button works, score resets to zero...everything seems ready to play.

That's it...nothing else will work unless the ball shoots out but the ball won't shoot out so nothing on the playfield will work with one exception (vari-targets).

The ball return switch is working and it does energize the ball return relay when pressed.

The ball return coil is fine..... one strange thing I did that confirmed this was this....
On this machine there are vari-targets (push targets) on each side, 2 of them. When the ball hits them they push in so far and then they reset after each hit. If I push these vari-targets manually when the machine is ready to play (but won't) the ball kickout will kick 2 or 3 times! The machine is still in a state of "Game Over" though.

So I know the ball kickout coil is good, I know the switch is good and the ball relay seems good.

From what I have been reading... a loose wire or a faulty or dirty switch on the score motor could be to blame.

Do you guys agree? Any tips for a newb?

BTW..I am new to EMs but I have worked on newer pins for years...I know this has to be something simple (I think).

Help?