I have an early production machine, and i'm new to this generation of games. Is updating the code on the chip something worthwhile to look in to?

As far as I could see/find, there were no code updates. Someone correct me if I am wrong.

I like the one from pinballlife.com that has the light up LED cap and that also illuminates the area playfield. There are some adjustments for brightness for your specific tastes. It comes in various colors too if you don't like the red cap. Go to the 35:22 mark in my video link below and I have some close ups of it.

Comet Pinball LED Rings. Add one and add some light to the dark upper flipper area.

This is what I did with mine...

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/terminator-2-chrome-cap-decals-helps-with-led-caps/page/4#post-1832556

Oh nos! Is it official now?

Yep. She's gone. I'm still enjoying this thread and still have it marked as a favourite.

New Evo bumper led with red on outside and blue in the middle from Pinball Life. Hard to get a good pic to show off the blue. Can be lit blue all the time in the middle or only when bumper activated. Can also control brightness of LEDs on it.

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I second the Evo caps; the light undeneath has the nicest spread of any caps i've toyed with, and the effect on f-14 is just what the upper PF needs!

I've got my mods ready to install. Nothing more patriotic then red, white, blue, and chrome.

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Looking at an F14 tomorrow night. The guy got it as payment for a job and now he is looking to cash out. He clearly knows little about the machine. What do I need to look for when i go check out this particular machine. Clearly I know to look for obvious hacks and burnt connectors, but other information is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

IMO the big things to look for on this game:
Battery corrosion on the MPU.
Raised inserts on the playfield.
Topper beacons present and motor works.

Thank you

...with the caveat that raised arrow inserts are more likely than not. Wouldn't be a deal-breaker for me if the game looks otherwise clean!

The beacon motor can be replaced fairly easily too - if that is the only problem with the beacons not working and it is not a board issue. But deduct for that anyhow if it is not working.

Arrow inserts could be cracked too.

If truly in stock...
http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=PP&Screen=PROD&Category_Code=GS-804&Product_Code=PPS-F14-INSERTSET

Wow! That's a great price. Especially when compared to all the FeeBay scam artists.

Is this one of the games that Mylar is easier or harder to remove on. I removed Mylar on lower playfield of whirlwind so I have some experience.

Came off no problem for me but did lift the insert art off

Picked it up for $850 in rather poor shape, but figured that was an okay project price. Inserts look good, but Mylar needs to go. Playfield is a wreck where there is no Mylar, and Mylar is very cloudy and pulled away from a few inserts. I figure I'll get on the list for a new playfield if I screw it up.

With a lot of work and patience F-14 can look like this again. Keep the faith!

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Very nice. I sealed the cabinet to try and prevent any more flaking of cracked paint. I have nice players condition in mind, but I also put my order in for a playfield, so who knows. It all depends on what happens as the Mylar comes off.

Didn't have a restore in mind since the list price was $1500 before I checked it out. I need work to stop getting in the way of pinball to get this done.

Has anyone used these F14 cabinet decals? My cabinet could use a facelift and I'm thinking about restoring it a bit more with these. Experienced input/reviews with these would be helpful. Thanks!
http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=PP&Screen=PROD&Category_Code=GS-804&Product_Code=PPA-F14-CABSETNG

They should work. Important is a good preliminary work for a smooth surface to get the best result at the end.
But I promise, every halfhearted work will take revenge, every day you play and this can be annoying.

Hey all, just a heads up on something that only just came to my attention.
My F-14 just blew itself up in an identical way to how it blew itself up about a year and a half ago. Diverter coil overheats, smokes itself before you realize what is happening, which fries the diode, which then lets the current shoot up to the CPU board and fry the transistor, resulting in a board repair job that I'm afraid to do and a replacement coil.

I asked my board guy what the hell is going on, and he dug up this service bulletin from Williams, which was on the IPDB page the whole time:

http://mirror2.ipdb.org/files/804/Williams_1987_F_14_Tomcat_Service_Bulletin_no_number_undated_to_resolve_binding_diverter_gate_assembly.pdf

Turns out the plungers can fail to get pulled into the coil, resulting in rapid overheating. All you really need to do to address the problem is readjust the diverter arms so that they're swung just slightly out when at rest. I wish my guy had known about this a year ago, seems probable that this is what went wrong on mine twice. It's an easy fix, and one that every F-14 owner should take the 20 minutes to make.

Thanks for the info. I will definitely make sure mine is set ok and put this bulletin with my manual.

Thanks for the tip. Good to know!

I recently purchased my first pin... F-14 Tomcat. I pumped countless quarters into the one at my local bowling alley growing up, and am excited to have one at home! The playfield is in surprisingly good shape, with one wear spot, the inserts' colors having faded and a few are raised.

I've just found this thread, and am looking forward to going back through it and checking out your experiences, mods and advice!

KILLER GAME

.

I did mine with them.

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Someone might just get them a hell of a good deal right here....Starting bid: $100.00 especially if you live in or around Elk Grove Village, Illinois!
They will even throw in a dart board game

ebay.com link: 711 53200 19255 0

Holy crap ! I wish i lived closer !!

Interesting issue, the ball lock on my left center locks ball one, then the second ball will fire in there when usually it will kick the first ball out (heads up!), It doesn't. Two balls end up locked, and don't fire out until the third ball search.

Hope that makes sense, switches seem to work, and coils fire. Any suggestions?

Edit:. Nevermind. Today I learned the value of the switch edges vs switch levels test.

Awesome!

I'm sadly having to contemplate trading out my F-14 - for the second time in a year and a half, the lower diverter coil scorched itself and a shock went up the board. I don't know what happened in what order and would be happy to get into it more technically with someone who understands these things, but the bottom line is, my board repair guy can tell me what went bad but he can't tell me why. The Williams service bulletin adjustments to the diverter had been followed already. The diverter arms themselves might do with a good cleaning (they don't travel as easily as a flipper), and I suppose if the plunger somehow wasn't getting pulled into the coil, that could account for it, but that's just a theory. (Unfortunately, a friend had dropped in on his own to play, so I wasn't there when it went up.)

I'm tempted to just trade her for another nice sys11 game, but wonder if the history hurts my trade potential. Advice?

Ok thanks.

Has anyone had an F-14 have issues when starting play? Mine worked fine a few days ago, today when I start a game it only does all of the kick outs on the playfield and won't kick a ball out for shooting. It's like it thinks that one of the balls is missing. I checked to make sure there are 4 balls were there and the correct size. I checked to make sure all 4 micros switches were activating when the bills are on them. I jumped a wire across each switch to see if one was bad. I tested the coil that kicks the ball out for shooting. Any thoughts are appreciated?

Hmmm, so when you run coil test in diagnostics, both the solenoids #01A outhole kicker and #02A shooter lane feeder fire, is that correct? ...and when you do the switch edge test using balls #10 outhole, #11-#14 trough switches and #16 shooter lane switches pass test with a ball present? You press the start game with credits or freeplay and player one score shows "00" but no balls kick out and you don't hear the shooter lane feeder kick?

Just trying to cover all the basics thoroughly.

My 16 year old son picked one up from brizz here in VA. Second pin he's bought from brizz...awesome seller!
We are having a blast with F-14.

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Thanks for responding. Yes, the coils pass the test in diagnostics. I did a continuity test on all of the microswitches that register balls in place ready to play. All tested fine, reading "0.00" when closed and "O.L" on the meter when open, except one, which read .671 closed. I thought continuity was all or nothing. So then I took a small piece of wire with alligator clips and clipped it on to both sides of each switch (one at a time) to close any switch that may have failed. When I push start it still just tries to eject a ball from the playfield. Won't start and won't kick a ball into the shooting lane. The coil for the shooter lane feed doesn't activate. I'm pretty decent at mechanical issues, but just learning electrical. I'm not sure I'm even on the right path with diagnosing this.

I saw Marco has a kind of milk white plastic to replace the clear plastic for 1 of the 3 topper plastics. Do they have this option because the clear can be too bright/annoying? If you have the white.... do you like it?

I need to order a blue & may get a white also. Thanks

Stuck with the clear and modded them out with the popular vinyl decals. He sells them for all the clear plastics.
ebay.com link: F 14 TOMCAT WILLIAMS PINBALL MACHINE YAGOV STICKER DECAL MOD

Wayout, I did the switch edge test you mentioned & none of the switches are working for detecting the ball. Tested the resistance in all of the diodes & the one for the shooter lane switch reads 0.0 not 1.4. Could that be it?

Yes, that very well could be your problem. It's in the same column as all the trough switches, and a flaky diode there will cause errors in the interpretation of which switches are open or closed. Reading 0.0 instead of a proper 1.4V diode voltage drop indicates a shorted diode.

Tech help needed. I disassembled my project F-14 and did a bunch of fixes. Before disassembly the sound was working fine, but since reassembly half the sounds are gone (the group 00-07 in the sound test, which represents the voice callouts) but the rest of the sounds (the music) all work. I believe that all connectors are correctly placed, including the ribbon connector.

I actually have two sound boards, both with these chips: U-19 1-1 and U-4 1-1. In one of those boards I put in new chips, and in the other board I left the chips alone. I've swapped both sound boards in, but with no change in sound behavior. Therefore, I think I can eliminate the sound board as the culprit. Yes?

In the CPU, I've already tried replacing chips U21 1-1 and U22 1-1, with no change.

My other marked chips on the CPU are U26 Rev 1 and U27 Rev 1. I have not touched those.

Should I replace U26 and U27? If so, where do I find those? Any other ideas?

Please help! I miss hearing "You D-D-D-Die!"

Maybe check the legs on the rom you changed. Sometimes you can bend a leg and not seat it correctly. It happens. I would start from there.

Sorry, sounds like my last post is not the culprit. Should have read closer.

Sounds like it could be a connection somewhere. Let us know what exactly you did with everything. Might shed some light.