the pinsound guys told me more than a year ago that sys11a&b compatible boards were close to being released. will it be amazing when we get them? absolutely. am i holding my breath that it'll be any time soon? nope.

Can somebody explain to me how the snubber board system works? I am not getting any coils, and maybe no flashers as well, on the coils that are tied to the various snubber boards. I have 35V on the 28V and DRV tabs on the snubber boards, but 0V on the coils and the flashers. I don’t know if that’s normal, as I do have voltage on coils like slings.

When I start a game the ball kicks into the shooter lane and a plunge triggers the diverter, it goes to the right center kickout/lock, and then it awards bonus and goes to ball 2. If I take a ball and roll it up into the upper right upkicker it doesn’t fire. With the sound all the way off I can hear the relay activate each time it tries, and it then awards me a switch hit to that shot and alternates that.

I'm not totally sure how they work to be honest, but i have had to replace them before on my last machine. I've also replaced the resistors on many of them as I could see they were badly burned.

I believe www.bigdaddy-enterprises.com has these available.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/f14-snubber-board-resistor-value#post-1197492

The transistor on the CPU is not powerful enough to drive a 50 volt 23/800 coil. It will smoke! So Williams had the transistor turn on a snubber board which turns on the 50 volt coil.

A snubber board has a relay and a resistor/cap to suppress the spikes that happen when a coil fires.

Flashers are not tied to the snubber boards, they are tied to the A/C relay and resistor boards. You have no power on the orange flasher wire because the A/C relay is in the A side for coils and not in the C side for flashers.

You have a burnt fuse in the back box, this fuse powers all 50 volt coils.

Here is what I’ve tracked down at this point. The area circled in red is a 2.5A fuse just off of the flipper power supply board. I have 70V on both sides and the fuse tests good when removed. We see the circuit goes to 8P4 which I can’t find listed as a board so I’m guessing that’s a connector that can be undone to remove the playfield. Moving onto the green circle the wire goes to the shooter lane feeder, which is working. Moving to the white circle these are the items that are not working. Since I have power at the fuse and the shooter lane coil works but seems to have it’s own ground I am guessing I am looking for a loose wire in the daisy chain of the items circled in white? I looked at them and everything looks ok, but I won’t be able to dig around until later.

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You either have a break on the 50 volt violet/yellow wire or you have a break on the 24 volt red/white wire on the snubber relays. Easy way to tell which is to put in coil test for one of the non working coils, then see if the relay is clicking.

Thanks to my buddy JAR23 I joined the F-14 club. This one is dirty but is in pretty good shape overall. This is a great game, my dad owned one several years ago and I always enjoyed it. I am looking for the sticker kit for the upper clear plastics that Dreg604 was selling. I sent him a PM but he hasn't been on since Nov 9th. Does anyone have an extra set for sale?

Also my right sling shot plastic is broke and I am looking for one of those, but I may just end up getting a whole new set of plastics. How well does the CPR plastics set match the playfield? Some of CPR's stuff is really good and some doesn't match.

f-14 stickers (resized).png

ebay.com link: itm

Thanks, I sent him a message on Ebay asking if he will be listing any more.

The upper loop shots on my F-14 feel bad, really hard to hit. Anyone have tips for how to tune this game to play well? Going to shop it soon and want to dial it in.

Make sure metal is clean and straight with no bumps.

Man, this was super annoying, but I think I have it figured out. The purple-yellow wire comes in from the head through a bundle and starts at the coils at the bottom left with the playfield lifted. Then it travels along the back of the playfield to the bottom right which is the popper and continues on its counter-clockwise path. Well between the coil at the bottom right (there are two tucked there) and the popper I lose continuity with the fuse.

What I think is there is a break in the wire between the popper and the previous coil. The wire is in the lugs just as a daisy chain would be, so I think the wire is broken inside the insulator. How fun does that sound? To test I did a jumper from one of the good coils to the first bad one and the game plays perfectly. Man, that was nuts, but thanks for the sanity check and keeping me from chasing issues in the snubbers that wouldn’t have existed. Now time to replace the wire and confirm the issue.

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Anyone powder coat their wireforms? Maybe gloss black. What do you think? Ive seen red but think its too much.

Flat black or grey would go with the military theme.

Squeaky beacons… anyone know how to fix? I can’t tell what exactly squeaks.

Try a drop of CLP on each reflector shaft bushing.

My Launcher lane wire form weld is broke. Anywhere to buy another?

Mine recently broke as well. I designed a simple 3D printed part which holds it down from the top which works very well. I can share the STL if you want to go that route.

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There have been several F14 wire ramps on eBay recently

Where has this stuff been all my life? Curious what else it is good for

Cleaning and lubricating you gun of choice.

Nice, but mines broke at the bottom. Doesn’t effect the Game Play but I want it replaced! lol. EBay has every for. But this one…lol.

Do you know where I can find the metal part replacement?

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The lane guide try cliffy passion for pinball he makes a lot of them and if not for f14 yet he might be interested in doing so.

I bet it crosses over with other machines, so likely he has it.

Guides ordered. Thank you!!!!

I did mine in Red, White and Blue. Love them!

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I bought an extra set of ramps when mine were out being powdercoated. When mine came back. I the extra set powdercoated the same as mine because someone wanted them. Then the buyer flaked out on me. So I have an extra set.

What color are they? How much?

I like this mod on the backwall flasher domes (I saw it on the beginning of this threat).
Do you know the part name\number for those Blue and White domes??

f-14 back domes (resized).jpg

#03-8149-9
#03-8149-10
#03-8149-13

are what i used to redo my plastics

Thank you!!

lol those 6 on the back are the only ones on the playfield I didn't redo with NOS because getting the rivets out of the structural pieces of the playfield plastics in order to reuse them was an utter, absolute, bitch

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/312890457546373/

Decided to sell mine to free up some cash before TPF.
Clearcoated PF, comet sunlight leds, powdercoated legs and siderails, very nice cabinet.

In case anyone knows someone wanting to join the club.

Just arrived.

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How well does the CPR plastics set match the Outside Edge HardTop for F-14? Is Outside Edge going to be making plastic sets anytime soon?

I wish they would, OE has been very good to deal with. I wish they’d make future spa plastics!!!

I was wondering what is the best way to make the audio sound clearer? and which LED kit do your recommend? Thanks

Also I'm not seeing a setting for ball saves. It seems like our machine never gives you a ball save except for the flight insurance on ball three.

There is no traditional ball save on it. Flight insurance is only for yakov return or third ball if you have shitty ball time.

it's not really a ball save; you get it only on ball 3 and only if your other two balls didn't meet a minimum threshold of play time:

Screenshot 2022-02-21 120608 (resized).png

...and optionally on the Yagov kicker:

Screenshot 2022-02-21 120715 (resized).png

i was very happy with Comet's kit and service- they basically sent me a whole new kit after we realized i needed bayonet bulbs because i had sockets and not boards. their recommendation to put pink led's under the orange inserts is a great one, by the way

Gotcha. Then what is the Fly Again just below Flight Insurance? We have it on free play, but it doesn't give you the Flight Insurance. It says You are insured when your 3rd ball drains but then ends your game.

Extra ball is fly again.

If it says you are insured it should relaunch the ball if it doesn't your trough switches might not be working right.

Gotcha. It sounded like Fly Again would be a ball save. Thanks for the correction

The wireform for the upper right ball lock is broken on an F14 that I am currently working on. Im going to attempt to have it TIG welded. But if that fails does anyone have a spare they would sell?

TIA

Flash

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lookin for this set of sticker(s), cant find it anywhere.
Any suggestion will be really appreciated

Sticker (resized).jpg

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/f14-tomcat-owners-club-fans-also-welcome/page/101#post-6738724

How many of you guys would be interested in an alternate translite that was more themed with TOP GUN queues?

You’ll need to get the correct version of ROMs that has the Yagov kickback ball save (flight insurance) as well as the third ball low score flight insurance.

https://mattsbasementarcade.com/product/f-14-tomcat-pinball-cpu-rom-set-l-1-u26-u27-williams-eprom/