after getting home from work had another 15 minute look.
Made what felt like minor progress.
Replaced diode on both kick out coil and ball plunger start coil.
Test ohms on kick out coil. Read 4 ohms
Now also resoldered the wires on both coils for good measure.
Started game and it did not reset, so pressed start and the ball come out. then took the ball and tested the game. many thins were working then game reset. a 2nd time got started again but while throwing the ball around, reset when the ball went up the ramp.
seems no consistency when it resets. last few turns reset again when ball comes out ready to press launch button.
Will now have a look at the slam switch which i just read.
