Problem solved! I want to thank everyone so much for all their comments and help. So I figured out what was going on.
I tried a new rectifier diode, no difference (which I had suspected). I tried adjusting the coil and the ramp, made sure the armature was centered exactly on the coil, perfectly parallel with the coil, etc. Still no luck. I remember John saying his works great around 12 volts. But mine was jumping and buzzing like crazing at just 8 volts, almost as soon as there was enough power to power up the coil. At 12 volts it was jumping off the table. All the instructions say about a 1/32 gap, so that was what I was trying to get close too. But then I thought, how can the PW version be using 12 volts and mine goes crazy at 8, makes no sense. So I decided to make the gap between the coil and the armature wide. I set it to 1/8" a pretty large gap. Bingo! It works! Also the loader comes with Non Shiny barrels, but my barrel cars have shiny ones. I scuffed up the rings on the shiny barrels too and that made them fly right up the ramp even more. Here is what the gap looks like. It's huge.
The only thing I can think of is this coil in the reissued version is more powerful than its suppose to be, so the 1/32 gap does not work. Basically when you power up the ramp and no barrels are on it you should not hear anything except a slight hum, no buzzing. I was hearing crazy rattling at just 8 volts.
Here it is in action.
