maybe the wire you ran down from the leds is catching on something? I remember having to meticulously zip tie things to neaten things up. keep us posted

Sounds like mechanical binding. Try lubricating it. I worked on one that was pretty well seized up.

Is it not sinking properly during a game or while you're testing it? If you leave the coin door open while testing, the ship won't sink. If you haven't already, run the ship test with the coin door closed. Use the start button to start the test. Watch the switches. One of them is likely out of adjustment. The blues section of the manual has detailed disassembly instructions and diagrams.

There is a switch when it is all the way down and switch when it is all the way up(i think). There is a diag test mode that shows the switches and sends the ship up and down.

Motor shaft might be slipping

The upper switch might be closing to soon(if there is one) the switch closes early on a half sink and game thinks it is reset all the way.

Use the diag mode test.

Might be coincidence, but your motor/gearbox might be at the end of their life.

Remove the ship from the game ( 6 bolts and some connectors ) unbolt the motor gearbox. See if the big plastic clutch things kind of turns freely on the gear box, if so you found the problem. The gears inside are slipping.

LTG : )

It's in diags, game specific tests.

Had a similar problem with mine. Check that the set screw to the gear box shaft is tight. Put a drop of lock-tight on it after.

Maybe a clutch problem,I read a while back that there's 3 plates inside (gray plastic block), apparently you can just switch them around once it starts slipping to get a bit more life out of it,dont know how true this is but I've had a look at mine and seems fairly straight forward.

I've hear of the clutch breaking too. Just two 1/4 drive screw to tighten. On mine it was on tight, the gear box was free wheeling, as in shot.

Terry at Pinball Life has the motor/gearbox assembly and clutch. And I believe Bay Area and Marco has them too.

LTG : )

Glad to help and in turn you have me by confirming this works,cheers!!!