My flasher #5 circuit is out on this game - the one circuit that controls the flashers between the ones you circled. This would be my last "fix" to a big upgrade project if I can figure it out. If you find out before me, please post it. If I find it, I'll post. I did buy some resistors on eBay that are supposed to replace the "crusty ones" but I'm not sure these would work for the flashers or not:

ebay.com link: itm

blockquote cite="#2798161">No those resistors will not work for the flasher boards. They need to be 5 ohm at 10 watt and 330 ohm at 7 watt.
Thanks for the info, I'll have to look for those online if I have a bad one. Do you know of a good source for those?

My knocker works fine.

From what I see, multiple flashers work off of the same fuse. Only flasher #5 is out. Yes, I replaced both bulbs for #5 flasher with new ones and they still do not work.

From reading a few other threads it looks like I need to check all the crusty resistors on the boards under the playfield.

Thanks for the help and suggestions ... much appreciated.

I think I found my problem - the crusty resistor under the playfield. Suggestions? Just solder it back on with a gob of solder? Do you know of a source for these? My ohm meter isn't that great but the resistor measures some value ... the needle on the ohm meter moved.

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Yes the center right solenoid works.

Soldering back on the old resistor did not fix it.

Will these work?

http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/R7W330

I jumped the black wire to the black/green wire on that flasher board and it still did not flash - neither of the 2 new light bulbs. I even tried it from the solder pads on the back of the board. Checking the continuity from the flasher board to the diode board for the black/green wire checks ok. What does this mean?

Dillionsdaddy - sorry for sharing you thread, but since it is common (maybe the same) issue, were are learning some good trouble-shooting steps from Grumpy for us "inexperienced" pinball fixing hobbyists.

Grumpy - I swapped bulbs with a known working bulb at one of the two locations and the bulb still does not work at that location, the one that was there worked at the other location. In Ohming the larger resistor, it appears to be dead. The wires are solid on the board, but the body of the resistor is a "little" loose compared to the others. I'm concluding this is the problem. Do you agree? I'll order enough resistors for all the flasher boards since they are only $1 and since they go bad often, I might as well have them on hand or eventually just replace them all. Attached is a pic of my shopping cart at macrospecialties. Let me know if I am on the right track.

As a side note, I recently just replaced all the bulbs that are not the 89 flashers with LEDs. No one at cointaker, pinballlife, or a couple other websites could tell me which flasher board resistor I needed to cut or do something with to replace the 89s with LEDs. Would I be cutting these resistors, just the smaller warming resistor, or something else for that? Just curious ... as an alternative. Thanks a bunch for the technical help!

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Thanks Grumpy! I put a jumper across the larger resistor and both flasher bulbs on the circuit worked.

We're just a couple miles from downtown Hell, MI - a block long gimmicky tourist point of interest with the Dam Site Inn bar that does have a small working dam behind it that produces some power to area businesses and homes. On devil's night they have a Hurst parade and people/Hursts come from out-of-state for that.

Thanks for the help and tips!

I got my LED flashers from CoinTaker but my resistors have not arrived yet - shipment has been stuck in SC for the past 5 days [Argh!]. I'm choosing to just replace the large resistor and cut the small "warming" one on this circuit (that originally fell off) just to see if the new LED flashers work first, before I starting messing with other flasher boards for the new LEDs. If this works, then all lights will the be switched over to LEDs. Can't wait. Once that is done I'll be posting a video on pinside of many upgrades/facelifts/LED comparisons performed on this F14 over the past several months [in spare time] along with problems/negatives with some of these upgrades.

We both owe you a beer!

I finally received my resistors and installed one on the flasher 5 board and it fixed the problem. I removed the smaller "warming" resistor, installed a 89 flasher LED replacement and it worked. Over Christmas I'll be changing all the other 89 flashers with LEDs now that I know what to do. Thanks Grumpy for helping with the problem and telling me what no one else could on the correct thing to do to replace the flashers with LEDs.

Yes - I was one landing away from the 3rd landing vs. my son right after I replaced the 1 LED flasher (testing it out of course). The LEDs are much more brilliant and rich in color. With dim lighting in the room there were a lot of really bright light shows. We will need to play it with a little more light in the room - especially when I change all the other flashers. After my 6 million + game (on 3 balls per game), I told my son that I have to set it to be a little harder. My son said "NOOOOOO!" Later my wife and daughter said "NOOOOOO!" I guess they just need more practice ... and more play time vs. our newer WOZ machine. I had to do all the facelift upgrades on the F14 as it was looking like a poor neglected stepchild next to the newer machine. Now it is a little more "flashy" [pun intended].

Hey Grumpy - Can you do me another favor? Take a look at the back of the translight where your LED flashers are and compare it with my attached pic. When I removed the warming resistors on the translight and installed the LEDs, one circuit of the LEDs is on all the time. If I take out the LED and put in the 89 flasher blub, the 89 stays off. I remembered you saying that I may have to switch some polarities. If I do that, I may have problems as all the grounds are tied together with the other circuit. Let me know what is different on yours that got you to make them work correctly. Thanks!

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I switched all wires and now the right two flasher lights stay on. Not sure what flasher numbers they should be but both right flashers blink on flasher 9. Neither of the LH flashers do anything running through all the flashers. Note that nothing is connected to one of the ground terminals on the dual flasher board. Any suggestions from here?

Ok - I saw that a wire was crossed. Now flasher #9 works - top LH and bottom RH. The other 2 stay off all the time through all the flasher tests. This is the same side of the board as where nothing is connected to the "ground" terminal near R1. ???

ok, I figured it out that the bottom left and top right are flasher 10. The 89 flashers work. The LEDs stay on now. Weird. I can get it to work with the flasher 9s as being LEDs and flashers 10 as 89s. But putting the flasher 10s in also as LEDs and they stay constant on. ???

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See the pic above your post - back side of it, so this would be the top left and bottom right in the back side pic orientation. Just checked again and the 89s work.

ok - I didn't get to that board yet. I did not realize that multiple flasher boards were connected. I removed that warming resistor and still get the same thing. Is the bulb from the playfield board wire backwards possibly?

Both brown/black wires disappear on that playfield board disappear in the harness but go toward the back of the machine. Any idea which bulb that could be? I haven't found it yet.

Ah, both secondary warming resistors! Pulled the brown/violet playfield warming resistor and it solved the problem. Good deal. If I'm replacing all of the 89 flashers with LEDs, should I just remove all of the warming resistors on all flasher boards I can find? Any reason not to? Asking if those are used in some other capacity? That might be the "easier" way to go ... agree?

Ok - thanks. That "should" avoid some more confusion on my part. Another night for those.

Ok Grumpy ... you got me thinking with the under cabinet LED thought ... does that "unused" flasher #7 actually work with the F14 code? I'm guessing that use to be for the "original design" flashers behind the targets on the upper T-O-M C-A-T targets. If flasher #7 does actually work, can I hypothetically hook that up to an LED strip under the cabinet?

Hmmm. I think it would really be cool to hook up blue under cabinet LED strip(s) to the flasher #7 circuit for a flash that would usually occur during MBs and the small flash for the locks. Then hook into the "kill flash" at the center target to flash a yellow LED strip under the cabinet to make it look like that kill flash is going right through the cabinet from the player's point of view. (I have yellow LED flashers for the target kill flashes - white is too bright, and yellow fits the back glass theme a little better.)

In theory, what would that take? Could I hook up a LED strip directly to the circuit? Or would it be more difficult with relays and such? I see that CoinTaker has 12v LED strips that can plug in directly to Stern machines. Could those work, or would I need to hunt for some special "other" voltage LED strips? This is interesting and could be pretty cool.

I like easy. One blue strip and one yellow (or amber) strip sounds the easiest. I see that cointaker and pinballlife changed over to just RGB strips now. Any suggestions for good bright single color ones? Or maybe two strips each color if not real bright? I also saw a post suggesting a fused power strip off of some main power connection.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/i-need-12v-for-an-led-strip-on-my-f-14#post-1212619

Is this fused power strip the way to go? Needed?

Sounds like a good plan. I'll do some internet searches for some LED strips and try it out. Sounds like yours is pretty tripped out for the light shows. Maybe worthy of a welding helmet. It will be a while (waiting for the LED strips) before I can report some results or bug you more. Thanks for the help!

Grumpy - I'm taking it to the max. I attached blue LED strips to the back of the translite box so that one corner (two blue LED strips) will light up for the #9 flasher and the other top corner will light up with the #10 flasher. This hopefully will give the illusion that explosion flashes in the translite will light up the sky in the background. I like it a lot. Those were the easiest to route and wire, so I did those first. Question for the others ... can I (should I) just connect bottom LED strips for flashers 1-6 to the board connections at the back of the playfield? If so, do you have a suggestion? A pic of that board is below (took the pic from a EBay post).

I've been side tracked a bit with beta testing new software on my WOZ and got hooked over there. I should pick back up on the f14 mods next weekend. (SQUIRREL!)

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??? Is that on the flasher boards or someplace else? Or would that be one main power wire to the said terminal to the under-side with a split under there to the multiple LED strips?

Thanks! I will go that route.

I already have some LEDs in my beacons. I bought some "direct replacements" that were for the correct voltage at cointaker and they work real good. I had to replace the motor and re-wire it as previous owners cut that connection. Do you have a way to make something else work with those?

My beacon bulbs are just white - that's all they had. My other 89 flasher LED replacements match their mini dome color so I know what you mean. Did you do the blue lit up LED star posts? I did mine and they look pretty good.

About $4 each.

I'm doing a progressive video of the transformation that I will have to piece together. I compared about 15 or so LEDs, playfield protector problems, adding the post LEDs and the popper top LED, the popular f-14 decals for the clear plastics that the dude from Canada sells on EBay, and a few other things. I have a F14 "toy" that others have used, but haven't figured out how to attach it yet. I'll post the video once I finally complete all these LED strips.

Grumpy ... Where is the decoder ring for the negative wires on the flasher boards so that I don't have pull things apart to see what wires are attached to bulbs? Do you have that handy? If not, I can trace them down.

Flasher 1 = white/brown
Flasher 2 = white/red
Flasher 3 = white/orange
Flasher 4 = ?
Flasher 5 = ?
Flasher 6 = ?
Flasher 7 = Not used
Flasher 8 = white/gray
Flasher 9 = solid white
Flasher 10 = white/black

I found the AC relay (snubber relay board) right next to the diode board at the top of the playfield underside and found two orange wires on the "coil" solder pad that I will attach to. I looked online for a nice power distribution block to make it a nice clean setup for future trouble-shooting and ran across a 10 port fused distribution for about the same price that makes it "seem" better anyway. Waiting for that to arrive for the power side.
http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00QMULSUI
I also ordered a barrier screw block terminal strip for the negative side. Over-kill, but hey, I'm an engineer and that's what we do even with hobbies. This way I can easily disconnect one LED strip if it is giving me problems. I purchased a package of 10 different colors of wire 25 foot long for the negative so that I can trace things back to the boards more easily in the future - prepping those wires now.

Ok - Thanks!

Flasher 7 - when would that phantom one typically trigger? After #6 that is in the back row? Or is there a special function like a kill for that to go off? Or is that kind of random? I have a extra LED strip that I can use for that.

Flashers 9 & 10 - I'll just go directly to the bulb and flasher board behind the translate for those. Those added blue LED strips will be mounted behind the translate box anyway for the sky flash effect.

It does say "Relay" ... I went backed and checked.

Ohhhh ... maybe I'll use one of my yellow LED strips and put that one on the back with the blues also. Interesting. I'll have to see which will look best before I permanently mount (stick) it.

EVERYTHING "in" the machine is done and has been for a while - looks brilliant and great. The last updates of adding LED bling wall and floor reflections from the machine (unseen) are underway. Wires for those "extras" are soldered/connected to the grounds on all the flasher boards and #10 flasher LED strips are completed (great effect on the back wall). I just received my power distribution block (positive side) for flashers 1-8 a couple of days ago. Had some delays with fixes on my WOZ machine, but will likely work more on the f14 this weekend. This will be awesome once completed.

Unfortunately it is lately just a weekend hobby for me when I'm not dragged off to do something that makes me roll my eyes.
I've really gotten hooked again on this kind of fun.

I'm even thinking of adding a projected color image from a LED of the machine logo from the machine on the floor just in front of where you stand. I have a source that I can customize to any machine custom logo. If it's cool ... maybe have batches made and sell them. But that's a future endeavor.

Grumpy - I looked for the Flasher #7 board (unused on my machine) with the white/purple wire. I could not find it. There is a board with a purple/brown wire to the driver connection with no lamp wire connected. Is that it? On the other side of that board is a white/black lamp wire. In my pic, that board is right below my yellow spool of wire. Or do I need to also run a wire from the diode board #7 (that isn't connected)to a empty board driver connection? The rest I have figured out.

I'm going to label all these flasher boards so that I don't have to figure it all out again later for future trouble-shooting. I'll add that info in my video that I'll post as reference for others.

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Here is a pic of the board under my yellow spool of wire in the previous pic with the brown/purple driver wire. Also is the other board I would likely use if I have to run a wire from the #7 diode. That board has flasher #1 on the other side of it. (I left the warming resistor hanging on that one to show which resistor to cut off to transition the flashers to LED in my upcoming video and would cut that the rest of the way of.)

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Ok - thanks again for the help!

Grumpy - what did you use to help keep the LED strips stuck to the bottom of the particle board on the bottom? I'm having difficulty keeping them stuck to the back black painted wood, so the particle board is probably even worse. But ... Blue LED strips wired up to flashers #9 and #10 on the back reflecting off of the wall while both the translate flashers flash looks really awesome!

I added some pics for anyone that may look through this thread a try to figure out which flasher board is which. I put labels on them for my future video. Flasher #7 should likely be with the Flasher #6 board but I wired that "unused" flasher on my machine to the Flasher #1 board "partner". I also included a photo of my barrier terminal strip that will connect to the LED strips for Flashers #1-8. From the machine, I used the same color wires as the stripes on the white wire for the "lamp" connection except for Flasher #8 - I didn't have a gray wire so I used a pink wire. Currently adding the lead wires on the remaining LED strips.

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LED strips are all installed and working properly (first try -woohoo!). Thanks for the help Grumpy! The next problem is I must have bumped something as my switch that registers the first ball lock is not working. After a few seconds it just kicks out. After I solve that, then I can complete my video of the transformation of this machine.

My review of these LED strips installed (a self review): The red LED strips that I put under the cabinet for flashers #1-6 are ok, but in the "player" position, they don't add too much as the "player's" attention is mostly drawn to the playfield LED flashers. As a "bystander", they are pretty cool, especially when they go through the scan from #1-6 then back to #1 again during a "Your locked on" call out. I used two blue LED strips each (4 total) for flashers #9 & 10 at the top corners on the back of the top box. These compliment the flashers that are inside the translate to give a depth effect to those flashers as if the sky was lighting up from those explosions. I also added a yellow and red LED strip on the back top box for flasher #7. Still not sure about that set yet as I have not acquired a good light show mode with my switch problem. The back box lights show the reflection the brightest as those are closer to the wall than the under cabinet ones are to the floor. The one I like best is that I have 3 yellow LED strips under the cabinet in a great position and orientation that work with flasher #8. I also used yellow LED flashers under the playfield for the flasher #8 "target" location and under the center ship. When those all go off for the "kills", they are usually the only flashers lighting up and it gives depth to that effect as if that explosion effect goes right through the machine and is noticeable as they stay on/flash a little longer.

Great fun doing it and very happy with those additions. More to post once I trouble-shoot and get the first lock roll over recognition switch to work this weekend.

Just an update ... all of my LED strips fell off the bottom of the machine. The hot glue stuck to the particle board but not to the sticky side of the LED strips. I re-glued them using the "gorilla glue" and then added some 200mph duct tape strips (that NASCAR uses) to hold them in place while the glue sets up. It's held for the last day, so it should be good now. The LED strips held with hot glue on the back of the translite box black painted surface.

I played some games (after fixing the first lock roll over switch too) and got some good light shows out of it. LED strips for (the previously unused) flasher #7 on the back of the translite box is a good place for them. They work well with the LED strips for flashers #9-10 on the back also. I really like all these LED strip additions. Next is to piece together all of the videos of various upgrades. I learned a lot.

Ok, finally got the video for you Grumpy! I had issues with Windows Movie Maker and Windows 10 (finally had to just reinstall it to get things to work). There are 44 segments that I had to piece together with a few title pages to keep things understandable and flowing. It took 6 hours to upload and about another hour to "process". It is around 52 minutes long and goes into some details. When you get bored, skip ahead to the 48 minute mark for the "after" light shows. I had to shoot those shots in dim room light in order for the flasher strips to show up decently in the recordings, so it does appear to be some pretty bright flashing, but not "too" bad in a normally lit room. Check it out and let me know what you think about my "basement hobbyist" skills and the outcome. Not all is good, I know, but I had fun over-all. Thanks for the help - I gave you a call out for some credit in helping me.