Just look at the switch matrix table in the manual. It will tell you which connector the white with various color wires go to. Looks like it’s 1J10. The switch doesn’t go directly to ground. It sends a low voltage signal when activated to the game processor which then tells a driver transistor circuit to activate the solenoid coil by sending the Solonoid voltage to ground. The wire may have been replaced at some point, so if it doesn’t have the right color coding then just focus on getting it to the right connector location per the switch matrix.

This is not correct. The switch matrix switches on the slings/pop are the scoring switches only. These 3 solenoids are special solenoids so the activation switches do connect a path to ground, but there is no one-shot built into this - as long as the activation switch is closed, the solenoid is firing, which is likely why it was either disconnected (path to ground somewhere it shouldn't be) or when testing, OP held on the switch too long when testing.

The inputs to the special solenoid chips from the playfield are connected floating to the chips - the other path (the white wire) is the ground the chips expect to fire.

Here is the snippet from the manual showing how the special solenoids are triggered. Ground is applied to the gate input, which causes the transistors to activate. There is a resistor and capacitor on each of the special solenoids that provide a minimum time for the circuit to trigger, in the case of a quick hit. They are not one shots though, in that as long as the switches are closed (grounded), the circuit is active. Some people fuse these solenoids individually for protection.

The driver transistors for your specials on f-14 are left sling Q75, right sling Q71, pop Q69. The game also uses the alternate path (what it normally uses to activate special solenoids in solenoid test, vs. grounding the input) for the diverters, those are Q77 and Q79.

Your 3 specials all go through U45 this is the activation chip. The predriver transistors are all 1 Q # down from the main transistor, so Q74-Q75, Q70-A71, and Q68-Q69.

Where the activation switches get their ground from doesn't appear to be easily shown in the manual. You've followed the lose wire physically through the harness or just tested it with a meter? Hopefully someone with an f14 handy can try and trace where that wire goes. Mine is buried or I'd take a peek myself for you.

Is it possible that you have some bum fuses? It's not unheard of but pretty uncommon. Another thought, if you turn the game on and start a game and just leave it for a while without playing, do any of the kicker or pop solenoids get warm? Perhaps the transistors are passing just enough current to not pull in the solenoid but are sort of active. (leaky)

As far as circuits in the system 11 world go, this one is pretty basic. People get confused when it works in solenoid test for instance but not in gameplay or vice versa, not realizing it's 2 differing activation paths.

pasted_image (resized).png

The ground has to come from somewhere for sure for the switch activations - my f14 manual copy doesn't have schematics in it for the boards that would hopefully call this out, I looked in a couple others to see if I could find where the ground comes from, but didn't spot it on a cursory look.

It might be helpful to individually fuse each of the special solenoids that way, and at a lower amperage (1A slow blow should work, or 1.5) - then if it's always the one that's attached to the left sling, for instance you know you have an issue there.

GRUMPY just responded to someone in the pinbot owner's thread regarding more info on special solenoids if you want to peek there.

It can go on pin 6 or 7.

sps (resized).PNG

This is the reason somebody removed it from the connector. Check the diverter coils, cut off the diodes and test them for the correct ohms and replace the diodes with new if the ohms checks out. Then start a game and test the left sling and pop coils only for a few minutes to see if the fuse holds. If good then try the right sling for a minute. Is the fuse burning now. Or did the fuse just burn after 20 seconds again?

If you just start a game but don't hit any of the 3 coils, does the fuse blow if left this way for 10 min?

There you go, problem solved. Great job.