Repro War Eagle Kicker Problem

[marsonion]

It finally happened: I've been tasked with refreshing a '70s-'80's reproduction War Eagle, the kind which contains what I assume is a SEGA mechanism. (The widow of a great slots buddy of mine asked for help with this, as she prepares to sell his collection.) Cleaning, lubing and removing various denominations of coinage wedged in the 25c, pays-on-a-single-cherry mech got it running well, except for one thing: the reel kick is almost entirely unreliable. I'd say about one in seven or eight pulls delivers a respectable launch of all the reels; most often, the first reel barely nudges maybe two or three symbols, whereas the second reel (usually) launches and spins well, while the third reel typically launches slowly but then picks up speed as it is dragged by the second reel axle. Stopping the clock and spinning the reels by hand reveals that all the reels spin very freely and easily, so gummed-up reels is not the problem at all...

I've taken long looks at the situation. This is a sort of kicker I've never dealt with: a flat, rectangular plate standing vertically, tensioned by a coil spring at its base. Pulling the handle slowly, I can see the payout wheels backing up until the notches all perch at the top of the plate, then at the launch, the plate flips directly backward-- not in the direction the reel spin, which would be directly upward-- so I'm thinking this contraption is intended to catch the payout wheel notches from below and flick them upward by briskly swinging backward. Sounds about right, but that's certainly not what happens; instead, the kicker just flips backward and apparently misfires on the notches 80% of the time, except for the 2nd reel, which-- usually-- launches just fine.

Does anyone recognize this problem and know what to do about it? I have already pulled the kicker off, cleaned, lubed, reattached, repositioned and tweaked in a number of ways, but nothing I do makes any difference, let alone offers any improvement. It's at times like these that I really miss Monti!