Red White and Blue flasher lamps. Finally!

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those are flex led's, hard to tell in the pic, but they are angled towards the pop bumper

Aren't they hard on the eyes? just curious. Going to put some in mine, assumed I'd use the standard coin taker frosted...

thoughts?

I used Cointaker premiums (non-ghosting) in my F-14 and have no problems with inserts ghosting. When I used the CT regulars/supers in Taxi's inserts - very bad ghosting. I could have bought premiums, but instead I decided to just put regular incandescent bulbs back in that game. The premiums are a brighter, for sure.

That's why I used Flex LED's, so I could angle them away from my eyes.

Shopping my F-14 now. Looking for a couple of plastics.
1. 554-22 LITES FLYBY------down by flippers
2. 554-12-----has 3 cutouts for red-white-and blue flashers
If you have some of the various clear ones that are not yellowed too bad available, let me know the plastic # and price.

PM me with what you have and price including shipping to 55973

I have for sale a nice F-14 TOMCAT pinball machine.
It is actually listed in the Pinside Market:
https://pinside.com/pinball/market/ad/17719

Robert

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Pro Tip: When you have your F14 playfield on the rotisserie and stripped down, replace your GI bulbs...

Being an imbecile, I waited until the playfield was reassembled and back in the cabinet to start my LED upgrade. Only then did I notice that most of the GI is stapled down.

Now I get to take the thing apart again. So much for putting it on the market this weekend.

I'm beginning to think that Yagov is right about winning.

It's tricky...I did mine back in November, but the single LED bulbs I used were pretty inadequate to the task. I'm gradually phasing out the G.I. bulbs in favor of LED strips on the underside of the plastics. Especially in the upper playfield, since the plastics cover areas that are open on either side, the strips can provide nice, even illumination over the playfield.

It's all really subjective. Some people are sticklers for keeping things original; myself, I'm pretty into tweaking the lighting design - it's all reversible, after all. But yeah, anything you can do while the game is on the rotisserie should probably be done then...live and learn...

Hope to see some after pics of the LED strips for GI.

This is interesting, and I may do it to eliminate the 'cold' spots.

Oh no!!!! Flipper broke in 1/2. Kind of funny except we can't play pinball the rest of the weekend!

So, it's time to make my first parts order. Funny enough I was just asking my son if he would be cool with some flipper rebuild kits for his birthday then SNAP...There goes the flippe (not that its related to a rebuild). Anyway, I've noticed after literally 100's of games since getting his / my first machine that the flipper action has been getting weaker. I've read the rebuild guides and all but I'm still not sure what causes this "weakness". It's not too bad but noticeable to me that when the ball is coming down with some momentum and I "bat" the ball it just doesn't have the same pop it did a few hundred games ago (yet enough to snap a flipper!?!?). So I'm thinking I'll just do a rebuild while I replace the flipper anyway. Questions:

- Is there a preferred vendor / anyone sponsor this great site? Seems like pinball life is popular.
- Is there a full replacement all inclusive prebuilt upgrade option for F-14 flipper mechanisms? I know I can get the simple rebuild kit but I need to flip my diodes which are on the wrong side and all and if I'm doing it all anyway I'm thinking it might just be easier to replace all in one assembly.
- What specifically would cause the lack of "pop"? They return fine and shoot fine when the ball is rolling down the slot gently.

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Has anyone decoded how the fighter jackpot is calculated. Played 1000's of games on this, probably 100 fighter jackpots and most are between 700 and 800 thousand.

Just hit one that was just over 1 million. NEVER seen this.

That could be any number of things or any combination of those things. Here are a few of the power robbers that I have seen.
1. Damaged and worn out plungers with mushroomed out ends rubbing in the coil sleeves. Also the coil stops get that way to the point of being hard to get out of the coil.
2. Burnt EOS switches and flipper cabinet switches as well. This resistance can cause a voltage loss and reduce the performance of the flippers.
3. Conical return springs (if you rig still has them) can be weak, broken, or just damaging the flipper link because they are a lousy design.
4. Flipper bushings can be worn (egg shaped bore) even very slightly, causing poor performance.
5. Coils can be breaking down internally and causing weakness.

Everything here is covered very well in vid1900's flipper rebuild thread. Esp. the first several pages. Read and re-read it. Then give it a try. It's not too hard to do with that info. If you run into trouble, just post it to the thread, and you will get help from pinsiders..Good luck

I get most of my Sys 11 parts from Marco Specialties.

These are the bats:
http://www.marcospecialties.com/control/keywordsearch?SEARCH_STRING=tomcat&S_CAT1=PLFD-FLIP-BAT

These are the flipper kits:
http://www.marcospecialties.com/control/keywordsearch?SEARCH_STRING=tomcat&S_CAT1=PLFD-FLIP-KIT

Kits do not come with cabinet switches or bushings, so I would strongly recommend ordering those:
http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/SW-1010A-13
http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/03-7568

Replace all that, and you'll likely solve all your flipper "pop" problems.

Sorry guys I'm leaving the club I sold my F-14 to make some room for a new st pro. I will stop back by at times and see what's happing I have enjoyed it

Go with this. No more crappy conical springs.

http://www.actionpinball.com/parts.php?item=FLASSY1_R

I'm going to look at one tomorrow, its looks nice but I have to try it first. If it looks good then I'm finally in two clubs, this one and the System 11 club. Long time coming.

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if your going to look at that F14 in Oshawa , let me know how the Gorgar he is selling looks

The time I got a million plus jackpot I had all 4 balls in play. I dunno if that makes a difference but it was the only thing that stood out to me.

So a kit like this would replace the conical springs with the Fliptronics style springs? I've noticed lately that my flippers are getting weak, so I guess it's time to do a rebuild.

Yeppers.

I replaced my space shuttle with these and huge difference. Planning on also doing my F24 soon. If i recall, the only thing you need to use from your old flippers are the large yellow caps.

PM sent

I'm in. What a great playing pin.

ooops. meant F14 lol

What is the yellow component in this picture? The end is broke off, and no way to solder it back on (Red Wire)... but the game and flipper plays fine.

Thoughts?

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Its a capacitor. It helps keep the switch from getting pitted prematurely. You should replace it.

Hey guys, I am looking to replace my back flasher domes, as I have an early run with the clear domes. I couldn't find the domes in the manual, so I wasn't sure which to replace them with. Will these work?

http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/03-8149-10
http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/03-8149-9

These are the wrong shape I believe. The ones in the back have a wider diameter. They would work, but you'll have a gap.

Hmm I guess I will have to keep looking. It would be a lot easier if Williams would have had the product number in the manual.

All of the flipper rebuild kits have a single EOS switch but my main flipper has this double stacked switch? What does the secondary switch do? Do I order a rebuild then also get this? Can't seem to find the same switch with the triangle on it.

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Edited for my misinformation

Hmmm. So the cabinet switches are doubles (assuming secondary are uppers) AND the flipper EOS switches are doubles to activate the uppers (?) and the uppers have a single EOS. Seems odd to me. Are there screws to stack them? Would I reuse the triangle spacer? I wouldn't think so.

After reading... I think I was definitely wrong. Apparently I don't know anything about the cabinet flipper switches. I believe the second switch on the flipper coils is for the lane change/high score initials.

Just did mine.

use these: http://pbresource.com/lampcov.html

Identical size/mount etc.

That's correct. If you are rebuilding the flippers, you can just pull the old switch stack apart and transfer over the secondary switch if it's usable.

All makes sense now. Thanks guys.

My outlane kickback is intermittently weak. Some games it shoots the balls to the upper half, and other games it will barely make it out of the gate. I probably need to realign the kicker, but the rubber tip also has some chunks taken out of it so I'm going to replace that.

Does anybody have a link for the rubber tip part on Marco, PinballLife, etc? I have searched both sites but I wasn't able to find anything.

I don't see it in the manual. This looks like the one you need though;
http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/A-6306-2

It's best to take it apart and compare. I see this one as well. It's possible Williams used a VUK kicker for the outlane;
http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/565-0029-01

FiftyQuid has it right with the first one. According to the F14 manual, the complete kickback assembly is a-11041-1. I found online a manual for something else that uses the same, and the plunger part is A-6306-2

Ah, I figured the tip would be replaceable like a rubber. Thanks for the help!

Ordered the sticker set there was one with several more than just the top left one. Here's the link, I apologize if its already in here.

ebay.com link: itm

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Looking good!. Yeah, they are nice decals. I did the left side about a year ago and the right side about 4 mnths ago. I think it really improves the look of the game.

Hey guys, I am having issues with the upper ball gate/spinner switch rods falling off the wire forms. Can I get a few people to snap some pictures of the switch rods on their upper gates and spinners. All three of mine are open ended and do not curl around in a loop to hold on to the wire form. I am not sure if mine are correct. I am considering bending them in a loop around the wireform. I am also missing the majority of my spinner washers, but I don't want to make a marco order right now and pay their shitty shipping fees.

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That's an easy fix I think..... they look like they're upside down. The end you have over the spinner wireform should be hooked into the little hole on the switch under the playfield.

This picture isn't Tomcat one, but the idea is the same....

http://funwithbonus.com/wp-content/uploads/spinner.jpg

I am psyched to get those right hand decals on my F-14, those are gorgeous. And, once you have an opaque sticker on those plastics, you can add LED strips underneath to brighten up the game a bit!

Thanks Snux. I checked the bottom of the switch it does have the loop. I guess the previous owner must have put them all together backwards

The stickers really do fit the game well. At first I was unsure, but now I can't image the pin without them. As a bonus, my right side clear plastics had yellowed slightly. No normal person would have even noticed it, but I noticed it all the time! I tried to sun bleach them back to white, but it didn't work. So covering them up made me one happy camper.

If you are concerned that you won't be able to see the ball going up the habit trails as you pull the plunger - don't. You can still see the ball plenty.