Does the kick from the crate hit the leftmost pop and then rattle around? This is the typical behaviour in my experience. Similarly, the autoplunger should launch hard enough to rattle around up top before coming to the lower PF.

Both of those things make the return from the top of the game very inconsistent, which means it shouldn't do <i>anything</i> consistently, including going STDM.

Also, if you're getting bad returns from the frogs (leapers), have a look at them. They're almost like captive balls in how much momentum they take out of the ball, so you shouldn't get really hard returns.

Lastly, if you're getting a lot of sling-drains into the outlane, I'd have a look at the rubber and coil on the slingshots. Sorta half-lame slingshots can be very dangerous on SS, while really zippy ones tend to be not-bad.