The plunger tip should be aligned with the middle of the shooter lane (yours is off to the left). Could be a bent shooter rod or alignment.

looks like the link on your auto plunger may be broken. give it a check

I had this problem. My fix was to realign the entire shooter housing against the cabinet.

What's Wheels said.
Loosen the two or three nuts which hold the shooter housing to the cabinet from the inside.
This will allow you to then reposition the shooter housing so the shooter is centered between the auto plunger and in the dead middle of a ball in the shooter lane.
Then retighten the nuts. There may be a wood screw there IIRC; so look at it or the manual to get an idea of how to remove the housing.

I had the same problem; and fixed it years ago using this method.

I have a STLE that had the exact same problem. To fix it adjust the shooter lane housing from inside the cab.

4 screws need loosened from inside the machine. The are attached to the shooter housing. The whole shooter housing moves. No new holes needed.

I believe I had to run new screws because the screws (not nuts) were off quiet a bit.
I'm not 100% sure tho as it was years ago that I did this adjustment.

I think I did what jonharvey did, if memory serves me correctly.

Loosen the three Phillips. Remove the two hex. Slide housing over. Tighten three Phillips. Drill new pilots and replace hex, or just push like hell and self tap the hex.

Good to hear! Can you mark this as resolved / answered?

Pinside_resolved_(resized).png

Not sure; bad lighting.
Look closely at the whole assembly.
First; the manual plunger should be centered directly on the ball in the shooter lane. The tip should hit the ball in the center horizontally and vertically.

Second; make sure the manual plunger does not hit the autoplunger in any way. IE make sure to spin the manual so the washer is checked for interference. On mine from factory; the washer at the tip was occasionally hitting the auto plunger causing poor manual plunges.

Third; make sure your tip is completely seated on the tip.

You have to be the eyes here... and explain what is going on on your machine.

Is there an autoplunge power setting? Not sure; asking because I don't know.

Take a good look at everything underneath in that area.

If you are certain that the shooter rod and tip are not interfering, look underneath at the auto shooter assembly and see if you can see anything. Look at the coil for the auto shooter and see if the plunger and especially the blue plastic coupler is not broken. See if there is anything hindering its movement.

Check your shooter rod and make sure the spot you moved it to is not preventing the auto plunger from going all the way back. I had this problem too. The auto plunger was not going back into position.

Also, check to see if the auto plunger is catching on the washer or retaining clip(ring) on the plunger end. Mine used to catch on the retaining clip(ring) and fling it on to the playfield. Don't they play test these things before they leave the factory??

If you lived slightly closer, I would offer to drive down and fix it for you.

One option is to just move the plunger where it was before and just use the button on the lock down bar to launch the ball.

I would call Stern and send them a picture. They may send new parts even if it's out warranty. Stern customer service is pretty good.

They could tell you how to fix and mail you some parts.