Doing some work on a friends SF2 and had a weird thing happen.

The right sling shot was not working (stuck on until it blew a fuse). Replaced Q3 and it was back in business.

Played a few games. Worked fine save for a few switches I still need to replace.

It was left in attract mode and I came by to play a game. Was going fine until it went down the left subway.

The ball was stuck. I checked the coil and it was melted, BUT, the kicker was not engaged. It was still in the down position.

I’m not sure when it melted. Since it was in the down position, it leads me to believe that it happens during game play and the mechanism hung up. It just seemed to happen awfully fast.

Is there another cause I should be looking for?