EM pinball if nothing else.. it's a learning tool

So my pinball still isn't working. I can get it to start a 3 player game if I manually kick the relay over behind the backglass (pretty much everytime), but of course this isn't the way it's meant to be played. The flippers are still weak (and the left one keeps dying), so I went ahead and purchased some replacement coils for the flipper solenoids (along with a new lock key and rubbers for the flippers). It doesn't feel like there's anything obstructing the flippers, so I figure spending $8 replacing each coil (which probably should be done anyway) is a good place to start.

I did take a good look at how the flipper mechanism worked. Here I was going to invent my own way of controlling the flippers when it's already been designed so well. There's a little arm that has a build in collet with a set screw that attaches to the pinball flipper rod. There's no reason I could connect my car actuator to something like that. Also on the old ones (perhaps the new ones too), they use a spring to pull the flipper back into position. To my earlier revelation, this is how I also plan on getting mine back into position rather than trying to flip the voltage to kick it back.