Interested to hear the replies on this one. I've had trough issues like this for a while on my JP but my issue seems to be balls getting stuck under the ball lock assembly. There's a service bulletin from But it's for LAH regarding the spring but mine still acts up from time to time. Here's the bulletin link:
http://arcarc.xmission.com/Pinball/Stern%20Service%20Bulletins/sb/sb48.pdf
Hope something comes of this.