I was doing some work on a friend's TAF a few weeks ago and noticed something strange. There is a solenoid on the side of the swamp scoop that basically pushes the ball over an inch into a VUK. The side-to-side solenoid was intermittent, sometimes waiting for a ball search to move the ball over to the VUK. I fired it in test mode and it moved veeerrrrryyyy sloooooowly. Sometimes it would move quickly, but not as fast as the typical 'pop' you get from a solenoid w/plunger.

I had a coil and sleeve on hand, so I swapped them out real quick. Didn't make a difference. The fixture moves smoothly by hand as well. It seems like the power is intermittent or not strong enough to bring it over. It doesn't work in test, so I'm not sure why it works in 'search' mode. He said that it gave up the other day and won't kick the balls out at all.

I don't know where to go from here. Any ideas?

Thanks!

Checked everything on that list except voltage at coil! Will do. Any other thoughts? It's location is a pain to get so I want to be well prepared.

Thanks a lot, guys.... I'll bring some extra ribbon cable and my best meter!

ALRIGHT. So this was WEIRD.

I checked voltage, connections, ribbon cable FIRST, then powered on the game. It's possible something was up, but that wasn't the biggest issue.

The balls would go to the swamp as a lock, and get stuck there, say 'watch for swamp kickout', get stuck there and do a ball search before kicking a ball to the shooter lane. BUT if you hit the ball into the scoop or swamp, it was kicked out as usual.

My friend never takes the glass off his games, but knows the rules inside and out. I thought the problem was getting the ball out of the swamp during multiball (but only then for whatever reason). He eventually told me that it usually doesn't tell you to look for the swamp kickout, it just goes to the lane automatically. I then realized that I had fixed the swamp. Even a slow push would get the ball over, and it was working great now anyway.

The PROBLEM was actually in the trough! The outkicker was worn and loose and ever-so-slightly rubbed the last switch, so it wouldn't let the next ball roll into place to be kicked out. The slight jostle from the ball search was enough to bump it over and kick it out. Took a little bit of thinking, and if he didn't know the rules so well, it would have taken even longer to find. I stuck my hand in and advanced the balls manually, and it worked fine. haha...

Anyway, thanks a lot for your help and I thought you might get a kick out of this repair.