I have been battling the ball count issue for awhile and its finally solved!
It seems it was not a ball count issue AT ALL!
The ball count was correct, I was getting EXTRA balls in play.
I was getting an effect like this:
The problem occurs ONLY if there is one ball in the trough and One ball drains.
This single ball causes the ball thats ready to be released to jump the gate-stop.
The effect occurs when the power is slightly UP.
The effect occurs during 3 ball multiballs mostly.
After the game warms up or is hot from playing a few games the problem goes away.
This is just due to some coil fade and less coil power throughout the game.
As this problem is intermittent, it was difficult to diagnose.
When the game cools off the problem returns.
The fix was pretty simple and would have worked in the case that was presented in the video above.
The outhole kicker on these system 3 games is pretty anemic, specifically to avoid the ball bouncing out past the gate.
To improve the outhole performance, I have unwound the outhole coil enough to bring the Ohms down to 10.5 ohms.
This has done WONDERS to keep the balls from accumulating in the outhole, or getting 2 balls in the trough to be kicked up the trough ramp.
The normal coil WONT kick 2 balls let alone 3.
Under examination, the ball sitting at the release gate is too high!
The centerline of the ball is WELL above the gate latch.
It takes very little force to "rattle" the ball over the latch.
This only really happens when there is only ONLY 1 ball at the end of the trough.
Multiple balls seem to absorb the shock pretty well.
The adjustment is in 2 parts:
Place #6 washers under the outhole release mech to raise it slightly, and to raise its centerline HIGHER than the centerline of the ball.
There are 4 screws to hold the mech in place. The washers go UNDER the mech's plate at each screw hole.
There is plenty of clearance for the latch to work with a single washer, 2 washers will bind up the latch.
part 2:
Where the ball rests at the end of the trough AT THE LATCH, bend the left inner rail of the trough ramp DOWN about 3/64".
Make this bend at a length of about 1" of the inner left rail.
You dont have to bend the right rail. If the ball is sitting too high still, feel free to bend down the right rail slightly.
I just used a nut driver and pounded it with my hand to bend the inner rails down a bit.
This causes the ball to rest more to the left in a slight "pocket".
The ball will still release properly, but cannot be "rattled" out and over the latch.
The right rail (that is now slightly higher than the left) will keep the ball "in-line".
With these adjustments, no matter how HARD you fire the ball at the release, it will stay in place.