I have a few Bally machines (Skateball and Hotdoggin') which have hooded drop targets. Both games have 3 individual banks, and both have one of the 3 banks (which happens to be a 3 target bank) in the mid-playfied facing straight towards the flippers.
I notice on hitting these, sometimes the target does not drop at all, but the ball simply bounces straight back as if it hit a wall, with the target still standing. Removing the glass and trying it with my fingers, or manually bouncing the ball against the target, shows no issue at all. Also, the springs to pull them down are fine.
They drop about half time I hit them in gameplay, and it seems the harder they are hit, the more likely they stay standing. I noticed if I put the ball right against the target, it just fits almost perfectly under the hooded part of the target - see image below
I then began to wonder if this is a case of the ball hitting the target, pushing it back (to the point where it should drop), but does not drop due to a combination of the ball temporarily holding it up (ie. the ball "supporting" the hooded part of the target), then due to the force of the target being struck, both the target and ball being rebounded back to the position the target was before it was hit. Hope that all makes sense.
When I hit the targets (during normal game play), it appears like the target does not even move back at all, but it may be a case of the target going back and rebounding forward so quickly it does not get the chance to drop at all.
I have no other explanation why the targets do not drop sometimes. I notice that if the ball "clips" the outside of one of the 3 drop targets in the mid-field bank (and the ball does not rebound back), the target always falls. Again, visual inspection shows no issue at all.
The other target banks (wih hooded targets) never have any issues.
Anyone else have this experience, or can shed some light on this? Thanks.