Quoted from ypurchn:Everything is nice and tight. Posted a pic of the area in a previous post.
So I took the glass off and played for about 40 minutes and still can't put a finger on what's going on. If I roll the ball up there - almost regardless of how soft or hard - it goes in and ejects likes normal almost every time.
If the ball comes off the flippers it almost always doesn't lock and eject.
As mentioned you need to do an in depth check of the switch matrix.
In test mode, bring up the visual switch matrix.
Manually trigger your flippers (left and right), and the database lock, independently, then together.
Look for multiple "blips" in the matrix, when switches are activated.
If you see more than one (other than when are both activate on your test which should be two, flipper and database), than you may have phantom closures, or lack of register.
This can cause a lot of confusion to the MPU, and result in lock failures as it does not "see" the ball.
Other causes can relate to microswitch in the database lock itself, or a flaky diode.
I doubt this is a vibration issue, but if you have not checked wires and the leads already do so.
If you have not validated the microswitch diode, test it properly by cutting a lead.
Other failure to lock problems in the database are broken end clips on the plastic plate "cup" to retain the ball after rebound from the metal angle guide, or adjustments required on the microswitch itself.