Pulled the board at lunch and found another trace repair. Also verified that the rectifier is dead. One of the AC leads reads fully open when connected to the negative terminal. I ended up buying the new board from pinballpcb but I am also going to try and repair this one myself to have for a backup.

The legs on the bridge rectifier are horribly corroded. This thing must have been in a really humid environment for a long time. Luckily there is not much corrosion under the playfield.

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Theres so many of us that feel the same way Grumpy is the best.

We all owe Grumpy a few beers! Hes welcome to drink on the house at my gameroom anytime.

+1

Hope he likes crappy, poorly adjusted games if he's coming here though

Yep, Grumpy has been a awesome source of help to may of us over the years. All the Canadian beer, back bacon, and poutine he can drink and eat if he ever makes it to my place !

GRUMPY is more of a Coke guy

Put them together, Coke and Bacon on the side. Mmmmmmm!

Just like home!

My man!

One thing I've learned from multiple-machine ownership, there's always one or fifty things wrong. Almost never zero.. And if currently zero, probably 5+ by next week.

BTW Grumpy, How big is the fish you caught in your photo ? Im assuming Muskie, but maybe Pike, hard to tell.

Agreed!!

Just a pike, she was 42 inches. Right out of my back yard.

thanks again! I’m finally done. My gameroom is dark but it looks great

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I like the blue display

I've been busy replacing inserts on my game. Previous owner did a good job removing the mylar, but the inserts were pretty ragged. I've still got a ways to go.

I got the inserts (and decals) from pps and the multiplier inserts are taller than the stock inserts, which requires sanding down the lip in the insert on the playfield so it can sit flush. A bit of a pain. All the other inserts are the same height as the originals. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the result. It will never be a cq game, but should look pretty decent and I enjoy working on it

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I got lucky with only one insert thats messed up, by the spinner. I always thought the upper portion of the playfield was too dark. ( I was missing the ball coming to the left flipper) so I put in that evo pop light and I think it lit it up nice and can see the artwork much better up there.

Good luck on the inserts! I hate doing that!

Parts are in and I'll be giving a go at swapping out the components tonight. Still have not heard from pinballpcb. If I am successful at repairing this board I may try cancelling the order. If not then I have a backup plan at least.

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Back in business, Thanks again Grumpy! Replacing those parts was really easy and now it's all back together and working wonderfully. Appreciate the troubleshooting help.

Playball!!

Grumpy is a Beast!

Spinner broke off yesterday,... can’t seem to find a replacement.... don’t look like the original decal...

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Best practice is to mount the resistor boards with minipost rubber.
They act like shock absorbers in order to keep the resistors from breaking.

That is a Bally spinner.
F14 needs an industrial strength spinner made.
Try Pinball Resource
BLY-A3460+ $17.14ea

I'm on my 3rd and best one!
Clearcoated playfield!
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Or try:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.absolutepinball.com%2Fshop%2Fspinner-generic-spinning-target-black-williams-bally-data-east-stern-sega-1-1-2-x-1-1-4%2F&psig=AOvVaw20nFOkO8WydONDWJIAGUJg&ust=1590661512406000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCKCVupHq0-kCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

You can either buy new, or drill the spot welds and open it up and make a new wire for it. Or lastly you can just epoxy it back together and put on some correct stickers.

Did the guy in Canada who was making the awesome vinyl stickers drop dead? I can't seem to get hold of him anymore, and now that I have a new left plastic I need to buy the corresponding sticker for it. Is he active on pinside by chance?

Side note, finally got back around to trying to fix my flaky right gate (it hasn't ever worked in the time I've owned this) after exploding the entire stack and then losing one of the tubes... I had it left like this for weeks while I drowned at work, decided to finally tackle it today.

As per usual with this damn thing, I just couldn't get it to really work consistently right. So I went to pull the wire hook from the top and bent it. Oops. Except it fixed the issue and now it registers properly. Whatever, good enough.

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Missing Cashbox, does F-14 have the plastic suitcase style or Metal old school? Thanks.

Plastic, with a metal slide on lid.

Groan. I had this happen several times today. Never, prior to swapping the target blades. I'm not sure if the ones I bought are just too flimsy to withstand direct hits up front or what, but UGH. And there's only one small post with a small rubber on it behind there..I assume that's correct?

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Also, I don't know if it's just how F14 plays or what but compared to how my other games all play, F14 seems like the ball drops like a lead weight. I know my slope isn't super aggressive. Do your machines play similarly in this regard?

How fast can you get to Fighter Jackpot in multiball?

I did it in 1:48 but there is room for improvement.

I would love for someone else to give it a shot and take down my time! You can check it out here:

https://speedrunpinball.com/f-14-tomcat/

Hahaha how fast? More like how many games before I get to it.. maybe that's why I love this game. I cant dial in on it when theres 4 balls on the playfield.

Still no idea why the gap was so large with my new target blades. I moved the brackets inward, new outer screw hole between the original screw holes, and secured. Hopefully that doesn't screw up any of the other gameplay dynamics.

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How thick is the backing foam?

Have a question:

Looked at a guy's F14 that has a upper right loop, switch #47 error. Ran switch test and everything seemed fine, but I admit I'm not that familiar with this title other than playing a buddy's, so may not have even triggered #47 (I also haven't worked on a SYS11 in years). One diverter is not working (Assume due to switch error?). I found a set of three wires taped together under the upper left pf (Two orange, one white wires), anyone know where those go? I'm not working on the machine, I was only there to grab two EM's and offered to try and fix it for him. Figured I'd ask here, and pass on any solutions to him.
Thanks

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Moved from my Office after finishing it to the basement! Lit up now
Ps. Anybody thinking about doing a new Playfield swap ...do it, it's worth every dollar

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I think those wires are for the proto flashers above the bumper that got removed according to a service bulletin

Thanks

BladeFury very nice!!! I have two F-14's just waiting for a hardtop to come out. And one nos pf being clear coated.

Anybody have an old pair of slingshot plastics they would sell me? My machine is missing both and I’d rather not buy a whole plastic set.

hello whats the best for g.i....comet 2SMD Bulbs cool white(natural) or sunlight,warm white?frosted?how many bulb i need? thanks!

I went with Comet 2SMD Warm white for the GI and Sunlight for the most of inserts. I used Ice Blue for the blue inserts I think that has a better tone than regular blue also.

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Just joined the club! Picked up a project and finally got it mostly completely working and clean, just need a spinner!

Is PBR's white a-3460 the correct replacement? It's the only one I can find in stock.

This game flipping rocks!

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A-7861 is the spinner I ended up ordering from action pinball. Their wire looks thicker than Marcos A-7861 and looks closer to stock than PBRs A-3460. Both spinners have same plate dimensions.

Anyone know what kind of backbox lock to buy for the machine? Mine had a strange lock on it when I got it and I lost the parts for it. Didn't really work either. I don't see a part number in the manual. I remember reading somewhere that f-14 had some different requirement then the standard Williams/Bally 5/8" black lock with 1" cam. I think there were a few machines with it like space station which claim 20-6542-TB was the williams part number but that seems to be hard to find. That appears to be a 7/8-inch length barrel (threaded portion of lock) with 1-7/16 inch lock tab according to action pinball.

Marcos is lighter...rips hard and never stops!