Check for coil lugs close enough to anything metal that may short.

LTG : )

Yes, dead short could do that before fuse blows or short stops.

LTG : )

It's not, this is likely your biggest error in troubleshooting this issue. F104 should be your low power solenoids, now if you were blowing F105, you looked at the right items.
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EDIT:

...or maybe it is, I now have too much conflicting information to help.
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Man with 1 watch always know what time it is; man with more than 1...never quite sure.

Have you OHM'd out the coils on F104? I had a similar problem on my RFM. One of my pop bumper coils was bad and would blow the fuse when activated, it looked just fine no swelling, no burnt wrapper, good solder connections, but it would blow a slo-blow fuse instantly.

As for the other weirdness you are experiencing, do you mean the trough coil loses power, or the entire trough board loses power?

I don't find this weird, it just provides more more credibility that the actual A-12697-X schematics shown in the first 2 images in my above post are correct and your problems are tied to the low power solenoids 1-8 and NOT the high power solenoids (9-16) as listed in your manuals fuse listing (last image) from my post above.

If you want to confirm which fuse goes where, just remove both F104 and F105 and then do a resistance check between the trough coil and the supply side of the F104 and F105; only the fuse powering the device will have continuity, the other will read open.

I went ahead and did this for you on the board side...
Any references you have that list F104 connecting to J107-3 are incorrect. There is no doubt whatsoever that J107-2 is powered by F104, which according to your game manual is connected to solenoids 1-8, and not solenoids 9-16 as shown in your fuse listing.

Image below: A-12697-3 Power Driver Board that is listed in your game manual as being the installed power board.
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Yes. If sol #9 gets its source voltage from J107-2.

Your manual page 3-6 and your fuse list on page 1-45 contradict each other on which solenoids are powered by which fuse. Only one of these two pages can be correct and since I don't own this game, the only thing I can say with absolute certainty is if you are blowing fuse F104 then the source voltage for any ground checks is J107-2 not J107-3.

The point I'm trying to make here, is that unless you confirm what solenoids are actually connected to what source voltage, you really have no way of knowing, but you should be able to confirm this by the wire color alone which makes it super easy to check.

Yes, but there is really no reason to do that as you can isolate this by measuring the resistance of the coil, this should be an AE 26-1200 and have a resistance of around 11 ohms. and you can measure the resistance of the return (Brown-Black wire) to ground, which should be open when not energized.

Just reasding this post as I have a similar issue. Not sure if I should start a new thread or work on here.

i've followed Pin_Guy advice and checked out J107. I get no continuity on any of the pins in the female plug. So I assume that means no short there?

I get F104 AND F105 blow instantly on turn on with J107 plugged in. So both high and low solenoid circuits.

I have tested J130 and J127 for continuity, dont get anything there on the short front.

I do have LED3 on the Powerboard ALWAYS ON, I see thats not meant to be the case...I shall rty and find something on that next I think!

Is your game the same? World Cup soccer

;0) Arrrr, it isn't.. Its The Getaway HS2... A good point!

But similar board and plugs?

Pulling J107, which looks to have the same solenoid actions, doesn't blow the fuses.

I have no more fuses, so I'm too scared to plug it in and try it, after checking there was no continuity..

Really it is better to start your own thread. It makes it easier to search and find the repair thread by game name.

Start a new thread; with everything connected normally, measure your resistance between the load sides of F104 and F105, with the fuses removed to verify these aren't shorted together...post this information in your new thread.

Ignore it, LED 2 and LED3 are suppose to monitor high/low voltage conditions on your unregulated 18V circuit.