Messing around with some different led lights and pop bumper lights...

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Looking good good bud !!!

What brand/type of bumper light is that?

Very SciFi looking with the green. Pretty cool

Thought I'd better join the club. Had my tomcat for a little while. I got hooked on pinball because of the tomcat at the local deli so it was always one I would get. It was my third pin. Got it as a project with the playfield half stripped. Cab was pretty rough but it had a nos playfield. The beacons were missing. The whole set up. It was my first restoration so the playfield was a terrifying thought.
Started with the cabinet first. Couldn't decide between decals or stencils. Ended up just painting it black and starting on the playfield while I decided.
Now the playfield was a mission! I got a car spray painter to 2k the playfield as I had no experience with it. The p/f wasn't dimpled and being an early production it had individual sockets for every insert. I used my kids battleship pins to mark every individual hole. That took a while!
Once I'd looked at nearly every picture of one that was on the internet to work out what went where, it was all back together. Luckily when I plugged everything back in it fired up straight away. Couple of little tweaks here and there but basically a working pin.
Ended up deciding on decals. I've since replaced the lock down bar and player three display. It now resides as my favourite and will never leave my collection.

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Can one of you subject matter experts tell me how to achieve a "Launch Bonus"? I should know this by now.

I believe it's hitting the left inlane followed by a shot up the right launch Lane to the vuk.

BOOF-ED, you did an amazing job bringing that pinball back from the brink of a landfill! Great job! I thought about selling mine, but then finally got on the leader board of my own game at 3,860,000 and don't want to let it go! Haven't yet gotten the number one spot of over 4 million, but I'm trying!

Jason

Just got my F-14 recently! I was a casual pinball fan, really wanted an aviation-themed one for my game room (spouse and I both pilots). Honestly thought I'd tire of it after a few days, but I am an even bigger fan now, kind of obsessed over it actually! Machine is in great shape, very clean. Sometimes a flipper sticks, but no other real problems. I realize I'm going to have to learn a lot about maintaining them because getting it in my basement was a major pain- don't want to do that again anytime soon!

Anyone else have the kicker causing the ball to hit the glass near the drain? I don't know if this could actually crack the glass, but it sure is loud!

Watch out they multiply like rabbits.

I don't know about the kicker hitting the glass, but bouncing off other items has made the ball hit the glass, but its tempered so it should be fine. I have even had the ball jump OVER the flippers after rebounding from the targets right in from of them and go down the drain!

Very fast game as you know.

Yep. The kicker usually hits my left flipper then bounces up and hits the glass

Can someone please tell me the values, or Williams part numbers, for the resistor and the axial capacitor on the pop bumper switch please?
Currently away from my game, and want to order these.
Can't find any reference to them in the manual.

Thanks!

Maybe getting a different flipper rubber would help? I just have the "normal" rubber ones (not the silicone) and the ball does not bounce up to the glass, and can't remember it ever doing that. Make sure the rubbers are positioned in the center of the flipper vertically too and raise/lower the flipper from the play field so that the impact of the ball will not hit the top of the rubber. Just a suggestion to try ...

Yagov is evil. I've had the (common) right sling plastic breakage from the kickback. Once in awhile the ball would fly all the way into the shooter lane from the impact off the left flipper.

I got it threw marco.
Can't remember the make.. I had two different styles .. didn't like the outer ring ones.

In the adjustments there is actually a setting for the kicker. In theory, it can be dialed back a bit so that it doesn't fire the ball back with as much force. (Sorry, don't have the manual in front of me, but cycle through the adjustments and you'll find it)

Also, there is an adjustment that allows "Flight Insurance", so that if the kicker sends the ball straight through the flippers, the game will kick another ball into the shooter lane for you. I like that setting; it always strikes me as BS on a game if the immediate result of nailing a shot is a drain.

Sorry, but although true... this is pure blasphemy i must say !!! Thats why tempered glass was invented...

I read on ipdb that this was the first pin ever to have that feature. Some nostalgia for you. They have quoted from Steve Ritchie:

"F-14 had a first-ever kickback device that fired the ball straight back at the flippers at very high speed, called the Jagov Kicker. F-14 was the first game with "Autosave", which meant the player could have the ball back if it drained prematurely [at the start of a ball], was shot down between the flippers by the Jagov Kicker, or drained during the onset of multiball, etc."

Weird thing is, I've only ever known it to activate flight insurance if the ball drains quickly and is the last ball of the game, or if the Yagov kicker shoots it straight through the flippers. Which is fine; it is the character of the game that it isn't just like the later-era version of a ball saver. But I've read that quote before from IPDB and been confused by it.

Meh, the kicker should be souped up to the fattest coil out there and always be set on max.

If the kicker doesnt break your left flipper each time it aint a F14.

There are on/off settings for that and you can adjust the timer for it. My wife mandates that the Yagov have a ball saver in case she does not catch it in time. She does great at it, but still wants "the flight insurance".

I didn't know you could enable flight insurance for balls one and two. Tough call though, I usually try not to enable/disable features that make the game easier.

I'm looking to restore my spinner with a spinner decal. Has anyone here ordered from Marco? What's the quality of the sticker? The ones I've seen on Ebay look nice and glossy compared to the Marco picture. Any other recommendations for a place to buy.

Does anyone have a replacement spinner?

Thanks.

I bought the spinner from Marco and forgot to order the sticker. I ended up with one from Bay Area Amusements. It's a little dull but looks ok.

If you send me an email, I can send you a new artwork (Corel) for the spinner-decal.
On this decals you will see the entire MIG and a better explosion in higher Resolution.
I remember, that all decals in stock are done unkind - they look terrible.
I also redesigned the ramp decals in right dimensions.

Please feel free to mail to: [email protected]

Kind regards
Averell

I don't think you actually can have flight insurance on balls 1&2.
I like being able to select features like that, as players vary. If I'm having friends over and most of them are only occasional players, I like to make the games friendlier for them (so they aren't just watching more experienced players all night). So on a night of casual friendly play I always have the "RESCUE" lit at the beginning of every ball, but if I'm playing against serious players, I like to turn it off so that you have to take the risk in order to activate it. What's fun and challenging for me can be merely frustrating for others. I say, the more setting control, the better.

I'm all for it, personally.

On my game, the ball will usually ricochet off the left flipper and bounce back up to the upper playfield. I keep the flight insurance option on, though, for those times when it shoots SDTM. IMHO, the player shouldn't be penalized for making a key shot!

You CAN have "insurance" on any ball that gets kicked back from Yagov hole. Is in the settings.

What I meant was that you can't have flight insurance on the ball time, such as DMD era games have, except on the last ball of the game. Unless I'm missing something.

If you want to have Yagov more evil you can increase the coil strenghts using a capacitor. The flippers have more power and the game runs faster, but be careful not to destroy plastics, targets or fingers.
How to do that - take a look here on page 27.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/f14-tomcat-owners-club-fans-also-welcome/page/27#post-2453329

Looking for a project to stick my new repro playfield in. Any condition. Please PM me!!

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I just order 25 packs from comet.. for color match under the playfeild.. and brights for gi.

I don't remeber the list it I used comet 1 smd frosteds. Natural for the GI, white, yellow and orange inserts. Blue and red for inserts. 8 smd flashers for the backbox, center target and back row of reds. Standard color matched flashers for the rest. Only took a few minutes to make the list.

I had a lot of fun LEDing my F-14 translite last night.

Before:

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After:

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I used Comet's 1 and 2 LED frosted bulbs (warm white, though the 2-LEDs are more blue-y) with two 2-SMD frosted bulbs (sunlight) at the F-14's nose.

The photo may not do it justice, but by layering the bulbs of varying brightness, it looks like the foreground plane is about to fly off of the translite!

You need to tell us what boards you have underneath and which bulbs. Williams changed the way they lit up the inserts from early production to mid production. There is not a set kit for F14.

I picked up an F-14 tomcat recently. I actually traded a problematic LW3 for it. The tomcat worked completely, it did need some love just like they'll do but overall it was in good shape and even came with a brand-new set of plastics not put on yet. Since I got it a couple weeks ago I put on LEDs in the playfield and in the back box, rebuilt the flippers, shopped it out and also added a powered 8" sub woofer. Such an underrated system 11.

I don't think that it is under rated. It's rated in the high 7's on Ipdb and I don't think anyone who has played one has if not loved it for what it is, then at least liked it. I think the only reason you can still get them for a decent system 11 price is the fact that they are fairly easy to find as Williams made about a bazzilion of them!

It's the most underrated 11 of all, but in fact it's the best!

Officially in da club: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/fire-14-tomcat-learn-to-fly#post-3601068

My trough switches stopped working so games won't start anymore. I've checked the switches in diagnostic mode and they aren't registering. All the coils are firing fine. I've traced and checked continuity on switches as well. The lower part of my display is out so I can't see the 3rd and fourth player on the there so I am at a disadvantage. I've seen this problem posted before but never saw what they found out. Has anyone encountered the trough switches not working all of a sudden? And what was your solution.
Thank you in advance.

My first question is if all the trough switches stopped working, what about the other switches in that column? (playfield tilt, outhole, etc...) whether or not these switches work can help determine if this is a playfield or board problem. Ideally, you should manually test the switch row and columns with the playfield connectors disconnected to be certain that the boards switch matrix column drive is working in the first place.

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The whole row isn't working at this point. The right flipper still flips though.

"right flipper EOS" doesn't control the flipper. It is a switch matrix switch stacked on the hv eos switch. It is used to enter initials and it also triggers some of the lighting effects when the ball hasn't been launched yet.

I've never manually tested switches before, but if for some reason they don't work at that point we know it's Q49 that is not working ? To test the switch manually do you just touch it to the pin and the ground with the connector off?

That would make sense about the right flipper EOS. So the right flipper EOS just controls the lighting when you press the flipper while you're waiting to shoot the ball, or entering initials if I understand what you're saying.

I disconnected cables and made a jumper to connect the green/reds to the various ones on J10. I am getting the same results as before. Since Q49 comes next is that the direction I should go?

Question in the club:
Anybody ever heard from a proto or earlie F-14 with the additionel 4 bulbs on the display pcb CONNECTED ?!
Many machines have this display like in Millionaire ... but so far no one ever had it connected to the PDB ..

Thanks for looking