Are the brackets from the playfield to the lockdown bar receiver where they hook on, bent ?

There should be three screws inside the plunger assembly you can loosen to adjust where it sits to hit the ball better.

LTG : )

Instead of shimming the playfield, shim the shooter assembly. Loosen screws, put a fat flat washer or two under the bottom of the outside bracket (below the plunger), retighten. This should bring the shooter tip down. Definitely hackish, but works.

Spinout ramp also needs to be rigid. A wobbly spinout will kill you every time.

My Taxi's spinout was doing same as yours only getting about 50,000 every time. I found that this is directly related to leveling. I put a new tip and spring on the shooter rod and it made little differences. Then I spent $35 for a craftsman level (you can read about that level in a thread I started) after I perfectly leveled the game at an exact 6 deg and level side to side. I am getting 100,000 very regularly with an occasional 75,000. If you over do it you'll end up going past 100,000 and getting the 1k bonus.

Have you taken apart your shooter rod assembly and cleaned the shaft, changed the rod sleeve and barrel spring? It might be binding up a tad. That should glide smoothly through that assembly, they are of ten gummed up a bit and will slow it down considerably when released.

+1000

Do you find that your ball after it goes throughout the spin out and the kicker kicks it to the top, draining a lot down the Gorbie/Jackpot orbit, instead of one of the 3 lanes? If so you may have a slight playfield twisting going on. I know on mine I was having a hard time getting both the bottom (near the slings) and the top (near the lanes) to both be level at the same time. And as LTG said, it turned out that my left playfield hinge (the one below the left sling that connects to the bar lock down area) was missing a screw and the other was loose. After I added a new screw and tightened the rest up I was then able to get both the top and bottom level and at 6 deg.

I've had my Taxi about six months & it's been a constant struggle to keep her level (on carpet...uggh) and keep the skill shot running smoothly. Once I figured out to install perfectly adjusted back legs onto a nice 30" piece of 2x6, skill shot spins perfectly now. You can really tell if Taxi gets out of whack when the locked ball drains on release. If that happens--- re level. I like it really cranked up (PAPA style).

A well leveled Taxi should easily plunge 100 at 75% pull. Great pin, hope you can work it out.

Do you have the correct spring?

Did you try that? ^^^^

You can also try shimming the shooter assembly from the inside, although I think I had to do it outside on my Taxi to make it work best.

Thought you already did replace the rod you called it the plunger? Did you mean the rubber tip?

Not usually. They get abused and are designed to take the abuse. Bent shooter rod is about the most damage you'll see.

A new one may help. It likely won't be identical to what you have now. You could also try making the hole in the cabinet slightly larger. With the shooter assembly attached loosely, see how much overlap you have over the hole. Then cut slowly and carefully with a sharp knife where you need more play.

See if the two screws that tighten down the plastic Taxi are too long on the metal shoot. If those two screws are too long, they will hit the pinball. Take off the taxi and try it. Good luck.

how high up does the shooter rod hit above the center of the pin?

Nice attempt at troubleshooting via forum. Might want to get on the phone and talk it out

I had a Taxi in my collection for several months, and I never managed to get the spinout shot past 50K either. Tried everything that has been mentioned in this thread to no avail! The ball seemed to be rattling and losing momentum in the wireform to the spinout ramp.

I will say that Taxi is one of the most difficult shooter alignment machines in pinball, probably the worst that I can think of. The shooter has to be perfectly straight, and from there the ball can slow down for a ton of reasons after that. As with most machines I find, no matter how straight the shooter assembly is, turning the plunger prior to shooting, and observing how the ball reacts based on where the rod was turned, makes a difference still for me. This can mean the difference between getting to 50k or 75k, or getting around to a few past 100k.

Then the kicker is that if you get it all perfect and you are firing it up there with enough force to constantly hit over the 100k, congrats, because now you are bashing away on a ramp that is mostly destroyed on all games and can’t be repro’d.

The skill shot in this game was a superb idea, but the way it was designed was asking for all kinds of problems. Easy to say now of course, but they should have had a more straight path to the spinout, and a metal protector back there. I don’t know why on all machines they didn’t start raising up the shooter lane on a wire form ramp, allowing for the PF to be extended underneath is. This gives you virtually a WB design width in a standard game.

Taxi is a great machine though. I’m so glad I finally landed one last year.

That's way off the mark... try using shims or washers on the plunger holder to set it on the center. I have my set dead on center. My plunge will go around and back to 50K.

That's what she said.

Mine has been great since swapping the spring out for red. Very easy to overcook the launch. Hope you get it working better. Sounds like your whole shooter assembly may be mounted slightly high.

Yes, raising an old post from the dead.

Recently bought a Taxi, like post #27, my plunger is misaligned too high by a good 1/4" and to the right of the ball. Wondering if anyone has a good fix that does not require shimming the plunger assembly on a tilt. I would like the casting to sit flush on the cabinet face rather than be shimmed outward at the bottom.

I have used a round file and cut the cabinet to fit the ball shooter assembly to the playfield.
I also had to put a "v" cut into the red ramp to help the transition from the wire form to
the flat plastic.

That is a good idea, I will see how much I can lower it in the cabinet. Wonder why Taxis are so inconsistent.