My new crane (lower) assembly arrived today. I pulled the old one out and compared the two. I could not see anything obvious, however the gear assembly was rotated 180deg. The housing would have sat nearly ontop of the pop-bumper coil. Two bolts later and she was rotated the right way. Put it in, had to just tickle the plastic ramp down a touch so the rear of the crane would clear gate and all good. Motor travels the full 145deg to both switches comfortably.
Crane is now working 100%
The last thing is the DMD. Missing 2nd vertical line. So I will be looking for a replacement at some stage...I've been reading about the PinLED replacements but I think its still cheaper (at the moment) to get a std DMD display.
Thanks to Humpalot for his patience / troubleshooting with the crane too!