I'm really excited to be joining this club today. I'll be picking up the machine later this afternoon. From what I understand it's in pretty rough shape as it's been sitting in a basement for the better part of 20 years. It's a friend of a friends machine and I can't really argue with free if you can get it out of my house . It apparently does power on but throws an error. I'll find out what that error is tonight after I check it over really well. Hopefully it's something easy to repair.

This is my first williams system 11 machine so I'm sure I'll be needing some help getting it up and running. I know to test out the fuses and make sure they are the right values before powering on. Also to take a good look at all the capacitors to make sure they are not bulging. Hopefully it has not been stored with the batteries in it. What else should I be on the lookout for before powering it on to see what the error is?

Excellent, thanks so much. I'll start looking at that site now Will post some pics later once I get it into the house and start taking a look at it.

We were able to get the machine back to my house yesterday. Took more work getting it out of the dudes basement than into mine luckily. It looks like there were some interesting mods done to this machine. It looks like it was originally for France on the 220v power but has been converted to 110v. There were no batteries in the holder but a remote hookup was done. The really strange duracel battery that was hooked up to the remote wires was really corroded but was taped to the bottom of the head so no damage to circuit boards. Some of the fuses were bypassed with a wire and solder. I'll need to replace those and see if they pop again.

The error was the adjustment failure and after setting the machine to free play it did fire up and I was able to play a game. The bottom left display is not functional but the other three are perfect. I'll need to figure that out. Most of the playfield and backglass bulbs are working and the rotating beacons do rotate so bonus there. Nearly every single insert is raised and the mylar is coming up so that will need to be addressed as well. All of the kicker solenoids are working and so is the diverter. The rescue kicker even works. A number of the circle targets are not registering and it does not register when a ball drains so will need to figure that out. Overall though I was able to play a game on it last night which I was not expecting.

With all that said what would you all tackle first? I want to get some new legs for it as they are really badly rusted and the leg levellers are completely fused. I think I also need to either get some new mylar but I was also thinking about just getting this for it and not putting mylar back on after cleaning it up

https://www.playfield-protectors.com/Home/Details/pfzd0mjPa0meWlo3yG-HmQ?categoryid=22&category=Playfield%20Protectors&name=F-14%20Tomcat%20%7C%201987

What is the best way to get those inserts levelled? I've seen the hammer and block of wood method as well as the large clamp method but for those that have fixed it I'd love to know what you did.

Looks like I scored a mostly working machine. I'm really excited to get started cleaning it up.

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A couple of pics of the circuit boards and some playfield shots.

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Which remote holder do you recommend? Since it's already wired for a remote holder I'd like to go that route. I'll take another look at the legs. There is also some cabinet work that needs to be done to stop it from deteriorating but it looks in pretty good shape.

apart from the bypassed fuses I found another questionable repair on the main board to the right of the battery box. For some reason a jumper wire was added from a resistor to one of the pins on a chip. There are also a few component replacements that don't look very well done. Most right under that jumper. The last image is on the far left side of the board. I don't see any more "mods" apart from these on the main board at least.

I was able to fix the drain switch. It just needed adjustment.
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It does look like there have been some interesting things done to it. Both bottom displays have been replaced and it looks like the person just cut the old one off and solder the new one to the old pins. I'm most concerned about that jumper that was added. It's the only really strange thing I've found so far. I'm guessing a trace blew somewhere and that was used to get power to the chip but that's just a guess.
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Another interesting find. Those fuses that are bypassed with wire are not blown. I wonder if the guy didn't have the right fuse and made his own. About to head to the store to see if I can find some replacement fuses and just replace them all to start with.

I spent a good bit of the day stripping all of the plastics off the playfield, adjusting switches, and inspecting the boards. I think I may be incredibly lucky. After adjustment every single switch is functioning now. I still need to adjust sensitivity a bit but they all work. Other than the bottom left display not working it looks like this is going to be a mostly cosmetic repair. (knock on wood). It appears the flippers were recently rebuilt as there is 0 play in them and they are all very strong. Only two lights appear to be out as well. And this thing has been sitting unplugged for many years.

I already have a fuse kit on order for it as I could not find all of the right fuses near me. That should be here next week so I won't be firing it back up until then.

As far as replacement things to order:
- I think I'm going to order that playfield protector and start working on removing the mylar. Once removed I'll work on levelling the inserts.
- Two of the plastics are broken so I'm looking for some replacements now.
- Two of the stickers are incredibly faded and it looks like Marco has them in stock for cheap
- I also need to try and salvage these legs so I can adjust the playfield angle. It's near 6 degrees right now and the game plays slow.
- Since the game was free to me I'm thinking of buying the LED upgrade kit.
- I need to find a battery holder.

I have no idea where to start on the non working display. I suppose I could cut it out and test it to see if it works. Since it's completely non functional I'm guessing it's dead.

I'm trying to figure out what this repair is on the board. I found the chip in u45 is a Quad 2-Input NOR Gates

https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/308/7402-1190061.pdf

The trace was cut intentionally and the wire ran to the resistor the trace went to. I'm not sure why as that path doesn't look damaged at all while the other ones do look damaged and repaired. Maybe this was done to make it more reliable?

Found the schematic on page 55 in the top right corner of the manual https://www.ipdb.org/files/804/Williams_1987_F_14_Tomcat_Full_Manual.pdf

I'm still going thru the schematic but I think this path might be display related. Anyone know anything about these boards and what that section is doing?

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Thanks. According to the manual that solenoid is unused. I don't think I'll worry about that repair since things all seem to be working. Now to figure out the display issue. I suppose I could just be ok with #3 not working as it's not used that much in the game.

The last 5 days I've been basically cleaning up the playfield and stripping the machine. I decided that the insert graphics needed to be replaced so I've been removing them with a plastic razor blade. Glad I have a box of 100 as I'm using one blade per insert. It's working quickly and not hurting the playfield or inserts. I've also been playing with some LED replacement bulbs from amazon. I want to keep the gi lights incandescent but have the insert lights colored led. So far it looks pretty darn good. In the pic I've only replaced the red and blue arrows going up. In person the red is lit even with the blue. These are the led's

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XHYP228

Today the playfield protector arrived from Germany. It was pricey but I think it will be worth it as the playfield is pretty beat up. Almost have the playfield stripped enough to put it on. Next up continued graphic removal from the rest of the inserts and then hopefully by the early next week the new graphics will be here from planetary pinball.

A question for you all. In cleaning the playfiled some of the paint came up near the left sling. It's in the blue and black dotted area. I know the guides on here say to use airbrush paints but for such a small area is that the best option? I don't plan to fix up any other areas than this one since I made this oopsie.

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thanks for that. The paint job looks nice on yours. Maybe if I can be very accurate with a toothpick I can get some blue paint in there to minimize it some. If I was clear coating I'd probably grab the air brush and just paint that area solid blue but we'll see. I'm struggling to figure how far I want to go in a restoration. I've already spent about $350 and not sure how much more I want to spend fixing up this "free" machine. Still have that bottom left display out as well that I'm not sure how to start diagnosing.

I've seen them on eBay

ebay.com link: Williams F 14 Tomcat Pinball Decals Mod Yagov and Lift Off Stickers set

Really nice looking machine Averell.

Quick question for you all. How do you change the bulbs on those 5 red flashers at the back of the playfield? One of mine is out and I can't figure it out or see back there well enough to see how the bulbs are hooked in there. Looked in the manual and did't see anything

Ah thanks for that. Mine is one of the later ones with the circuit board. I took my phone camera and took a look back there and it looks like there are two wing nuts on either end that allow you to remove the board and change the bulbs. Going to give it a try in a few. Thanks

Question for you all. I have the playfield stripped, all of the inserts are cleaned and levelled, and I'm nearly ready to install the graphics from Planetary Pinball. I got the non-laminated version. I'm planning to clean up the inserts as best as I can by wet sanding 600-1000 to get them as polished as possible. Is there any thing else that should be done to them before installing these graphics? In vid's restoration post he talks about waterslide decals and I think these are peel and stick so very different. Has anyone installed these and have any suggestions?

One interesting thing I found was that someone installed a center post on this pin and removed the original rebound bars and replaced them with smaller ones. I'm planning to put it back to original so does anyone know what type of wire would be needed to fabricate two rebound bars? I found them at bay area amusements but it's $6.50 to ship $2.50 parts.

Also I'm looking for the bottom graphic plastic of the attached. I can only find it in a complete kit and this is the only plastic I need to replace so would like to find a used one in better shape than this one if I can.
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I have the inserts all levelled, all of the graphics applied, all the led's are in, the topper is fixed, the fuses are correct and the bridge rectifier 8amp fuses added. Tonight I'll be putting on the playfield protector, installing new rubbers and flippers, and putting it all back together. Wish me luck that I didn't break anything in the process of cleaning it up. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I didn't quite get it done but I made good progress tonight. The playfield protector is on and I've started installing the ramps and other plastics. I still need to install the flippers and get the flipper rubbers on. They are just sitting on the playfield right now. I also swapped the legs from my VPIN as they are new and clean. The operator of this machine must have either glued or painted the locking bolts on the leg levellers as I have not been able to budge them at all. So just swapped them out.

Has anyone else bought the rubber kit from Marcos? it comes with a 1 1/4 inch rubber that does not have a placement on the sheet. Not sure what that one is for if anything.

Tomorrow I need to head to home depot and pick up some foam insulation for a few of the circle targets. Once I can replace that I'll be able to button everything up and test it out. Getting close
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I got it all back together and have been playing some games. It's a ton of fun for sure. Very fast and smooth with the playfield protector on. I have run into an issue. Before moving it there were no errors on power up. I stuck some moving men under the feet and moved it into place next to my other pin and when I power it on I get two errors with the knockers now. The game plays fine as far as I can tell. Can anyone tell me what these errors are? The bottom left display is dead. Hopefully there is no needed info there.

Thanks. Can't believe it's erroring after I moved it 20 feet.

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Thanks for the info. It's really helpful to know that it wasn't the move Freaked me out just the coincidence.

It appears that I have a part missing on the right flipper. Must have broken off at some point as I am unable to trigger the right eos at all. The left one works fine.

In testing it doesn't look like the upper flippers have an EOS switch. They look completely different from the bottom flippers. Both of them are creating a pretty bright flash when they open up. I'm guessing those need to be cleaned well as they both look a bit corroded. All 4 flippers are using the same coil 11630.

The sling switch must be the one on the bottom of the playfield as both trigger switches above the playfield are working fine. I have not been able to trigger the one under the playfield so I'm guessing it's dead. Will take a deeper look at that one.

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So I've been trying to figure out what to order and I'm starting to understand this flipper mech. It looks like the part that is broken is not the EOS switch but a lane change switch used for entering your initials on a high score. I don't see anything wrong with the EOS switch so I'm guessing that capacitor is bad? With both bits there I'm not sure what else could go.

All that said I need to do some work on both upper flippers and fix this eos switch on the bottom right. It appears a single flipper rebuild kit will have all the parts I need to fix all three so gonna order one of those tomorrow. I've been ordering a lot form Marco's but a few other places look cheaper like pinballLife. Anyone have a preference on shops to order from?

Also on the other error with the left sling. Reading up it looks like the switch under the playfield is the scoring switch and not the one indicated by the error. What I don't understand is that error states the switch is not working but I tested both firing switches with a poker and each one is firing the sling. Apparently they are wired together and they are firing so I'm not sure what to look for to fix there. Is there a 4th switch I'm not seeing for the sling?

Thank you for the info. I'll take a look again today and see if I can figure out the sling and get the parts ordered for the flippers.

just want to verify that all of the diodes used on the switches for the switch matrix are 1n4001 diodes. I don't see a diagram or parts list for the slings in the manual. Is there a diagram for the sling assembly somewhere? Looking at the other switches though it appears to be the correct one. I already have a ton of these diodes from another project.

And a question about the coils. As I mentioned all of the flipper coils on my machine are FL-11630. Would you leave it like that or swap out the upper ones with the FL-11722?

Thanks

Thank you. I have the parts on order so will hopefully have all this cleaned up soon. Still playable as is and even managed a 4 million game yesterday. Next bit I need to tweak is the spinner. It keeps going flat so the ball can't hit it.

I was able to fix the sling. It was so corroded that it could not make contact. The right one was also only registering every few hits. Cleaned that one up as well and both are firing consistently now. Thanks for the help with that

The right flipper eos cleaning did not resolve. My guess is the cap is bad. Hopefully get the kit to repair it by the weekend.

Do the upper flippers register in the switch test generally? They are not for me. Only the lower left one does. Just wondering if I need 3 eos switches and not 1

Oh ok, so it probably is that broken switch that is causing the eos error on the right flipper.

Sounds like the Tungsten switches may be ok. How do you know when they go bad?

Thanks for taking the time to answer my newbie is questions.

I would be interested as well. How much are they usually? Looks like a lot of work but would love to have the artwork refreshed on mine

The parts arrived today and I spent some time tonight trying to fix the right eos switch error. I replaced the switch but that did not resolve the problem. It's wired up exactly as the old one was. I've looked at the switch matrix table and all of the switches next to it in the column and row are functional. What is the next thing to look at for a non-functional switch? The CPU Board?

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It may not look like it in the picture but it is open with the flipper at rest but maybe not enough. I adjusted it so that the contacts are closed at the same point as they are on the left flipper. That one might not be adjusted right either tho but it does work.

I did the board test by removing the 1j8 and 1j10 connectors and then jumpering the pins and the Right EOS switch did trigger so the board is fine.

The diode was pre-installed from Marco and I have not checked it. I will do that in the morning. Spent more time on this switch tonight than I was expecting.

I think I have another switch that is not functional but I have not had a warning yet. The tilt switch with that heavy weight on it that is on the playfield is not registering when I manually trigger it in the settings. I'm not sure which tilt that is on the switch matrix. I wonder if that could have something to do with the right eos not working. I did test the diode with my multimeter and it is working.

Ok great, thank you I will follow that wire. I know the trough, outhole, and ball shooter lanes are all working from testing them this morning. I'll see what I can find.

Thanks so much for the help. I traced that wire and was able to find the issue. Whoever replaced one of the switches for the trough didn't connect the green wires together and soldered it to the diode. Now that the chain is complete the right eos, playfield tilt, and the ball tilt in the cab are working. I guess they were the last switches on that chain.

Also finished up the flipper rebuild following VID's guide for the upper flippers. They are working smoothly now. Only outstanding issue is that dead bottom left display. I'm not sure where to even begin looking for that.

Thanks, I have been looking at one of those replacements. It looks like the display was replaced already so my worry is that there is something else causing the display to not work I'm just not sure what to check. Maybe I could unsolder one of the working ones and stickmit in that location or something. If there was a way to test it to make sure that all I need is the new setup then I would just do that right away.

Awesome I will give it a go. Thank you again

I hate to ask but I've been looking all night and I can't find it. Which pin on the display is the ground to test voltage? I can't find a schematic for the display boards and from the williams schematic it looks like 9 and 13 are the common? I've never tested a display like this so not entirely sure which pins to check. I don't want to fry the good one for sure. As best I can tell it looks like display 3 and 4 share a common power source from u9 with u6 driving the display of 3 and u2 driving 4. I don't see anything out of the ordinary on u6 but looks can be deceiving.

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I'm glad I asked. Thanks for the info.

I tested the pins and apart from two pins on display 4 that showed 0 voltage and 3 showing 2 volts all other pins were quite close in value. Looks like I have a dead display. Maybe I can ask for a new led display for christmas

Thanks for helping me figure this out. I've learned a lot! Now to go enjoy playing some games on it.

I'm not seeing +90 and -100 on pins 6 and 7. I'm seeing +58.8 and -65 on 4 and +67 and -85 on 3. I tested all of the pins but only wrote down 1 - 16. I did test with the number locked at 8. The second group of pins were very similar numbers.

I'll let you know if I choose to replace with LED. While the pin was free to me it's already cost me $500 and I'm not sure it's worth another $200 to fix that one display. Gonna have to convince the wife or put the money into the next pin pot.
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Thanks for the offer. I'll let you know what I decide to do. Where can you find the display's at? I didn't see any on the major supplier sites and ebay wasn't that helpful. I suck at searching on ebay tho.

Ah a new site to look through. Awesome I'll take a look. Never heard of that one. A lot of the stuff like fuses and stuff are so much cheaper there. Glad I now know

I'm seriously considering the led replacement board for the display. I've seen two different versions out there.

https://www.thepinballwizard.net/rottendog-circuit-boards/williams/data-east-4-player-7-digit-led-display-board-classic-orange-dis200/

and

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/PS-11610

I have found more info on the pinscore version. Has anyone tried the other one? It's $50 cheaper.

So this is a strange one. Looks like the bottom half of my GI just stopped working. Did the lamp check and all of the playfield lamps are working and all of the flasher are working just nothing below the pink line on the GI. Are all of the GI bulbs connected together? Picture is of the GI test. I don't see any wires broken or anything on first glance. I also don't see anything in the manual on the GI wiring. It doesn't look like it's on the lamp matrix.

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From what I can tell so far the gi is all wired together. I guess that would have me hunting for a bad diode somewhere or broken wire. I wish there was some sort of diagram of how these lights are chained together but I'm not finding it so will just have to trace one after another.

Ah you are right. I was looking at the wrong light. Will be on the hunt tonight

I'll check both tomorrow. I was looking through the wiring tonight and couldn't find any that were obviously broken. I know visual is not enough but my meter is not here today. Will have it back tomorrow. My guess is the wiring starts in the right middle and goes counter clockwise up and then to the middle. Once it goes into the bundles it's hard to trace. The last light in the GI that looks lit to me is the one in the pop bumper.

I would have thought that a blown fuse would cause all of it to go out and not just half. I don't see two fuses in the diagrams for GI.

Everything else with the machine appears to be normal.

As always thank you. Will take a look.

There is a lot of corrosion on fuse 3 and 4 so I think I need to replace this fuse block. I now have the bottom GI playfield and bottom GI backglass non functional but I think the latter is due to the corrosion and not being able to get a good contact with the connector. On the playfield I have a short somewhere and there appears to be some char on the fuse block. I put a new fuse in and watched it glow when I turned on the power. Any tips on how to find a short would be helpful.

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I've had one particularly problematic socket and it could be the issue here as well. Was taking a closer look at it and it looks like it could be shorting on the casing. Anyone know what part number it is for the lamp socket? Might as well replace the whole thing. It's the left pop bumper bottom light.

This looks close but not sure https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/077-5010-00

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I did that but it did not seem to resolve the issue. Still no lights on the bottom playfield or bottom backbox. Since I've had issues with this specific socket I'd like to replace it. Always flickered even when it worked

Yeah it's quite bad. Marcos has this one that looks like it would work

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/FHSM4

Going to order that and a bunch of fuses.

Thanks for the help on this Grumpy. I replaced the fuse holder and all worked. I guess the short was that socket and the corrosion didn't help anything. Working great now and I replaced 85% of the lights with LED's now. Happy with how it's looking.

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I replaced most from the under side. Some are easier from the top but most are easier underneath if you are not looking to remove everything.

If yours is one of the later models the flashers in the back are on a pcb that is connected with two thumb screws on either end. I had one dead flasher and it ended up being a blown trace on the circuit board. Had to bypass with wire but now working great. Pretty easy to pull that if it's the later model.

Nvermind

I had a heck of a time finding reference pics of these when trying to figure mine out. Some operator some point earlier in this pins life put gates from another machine on and they were not right at all. Instead of bending I just bought some new ones from Marcos when I was doing another order. Wasn't too much. Here they are installed and I'm not even 100% sure I'm right lol. but it works
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I've been having one strange issue I have not been able to track down. Every so often the left ball lock won't detect a ball inside it. Sometimes a nudge will work and it will lock and sometimes it does not. I've checked the switch in switch test and I have not been able to get a failure. It also seems like a power cycle will also resolve it. Strange thing is that is the only switch that seems to have the issue. I'm not even sure where to start looking for that.

The only other thing I've noticed, but I don't conclusively know if it is related or not yet, is that when the switch is having the issue the normal bong sound that the machine makes on startup is higher pitched and shorter.

Anyway, hoping my description sounds like something someone else has seen.

A few places claim to have it in stock
https://littleshopofgames.com/shop/cabinet-parts/backbox-dome-for-bally-williams-pinball-machine-beacon-clear-03-7981-13/
http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=PPS-03-7981-13

Thanks I'll take a look. I did adjust it but it was to bring it farther out. Maybe I just made it worse.

I'm having a strange issue with one of the upper flippers. It will work fine for a game or two and then it'll mostly stop working. You will see it twitch a little when the flipper button is pushed but it won't fire. It does not appear to be getting warm at all. I'm going to take this opportunity to replace the flipper coils with the proper green ones, it currently has the same coils as the main flippers, and also get some new EOS switches. These are arching quite bad when I test with the playfield up. I had already done the standard flipper rebuild so is there anything else I should be looking at?

Ok, will give that a try.

I tried that but it didn't change anything. Here is a video of what I am seeing. It will get worse then get better and even seem like it's fine for a bit then not work.

That is not a new one. I just ordered one since they are cheap but probably won't be here soon with everything going on. I tried cleaning this one with a fine metal file but that didn't change anything either. Going to go back over vids guide on flippers.

Well I think I found the problem. One of the contacts on the EOS switch is missing. Don't know how I didn't notice it last night (might have been the beer). Luckily, at some point, I had bought a few replacements. Will also replace the capacitors while I have everything taken apart. Whoever did it last time used what looks like a sandwich bag twist tie to hold it on lol.

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Vid's guide says the EOS distance should be 3.2 mm. Looking at the manual (I think as I've read it wrong before) for F-14 says it must have a gap of .062 inch or ~1.5 mm. The others look to be 1.5mm. Just want to make sure I got this right.

ok thanks, I'll need to re-gap all of the flippers then as they are all 1.5mm right now.

Game played fine through about 10 games in a row and all is working again. Flipper feels much more solid now as well. I did get a strange error on boot up after finishing the fix. It showed U10 PIA Failure but then has booted up normal ever since.

Glad I had those EOS switches on hand and Marco allowed me to cancel my order. Appreciate the help as always.

Only nagging issue I have is I can't get the spinner to settle consistently upright.

ok quick question about the gap. Is the gap between the contacts or between the metal blades because this pic from Vid's thread does not look to me like 3.2mm. Mine look like the picture and between the contacts is 1.5mm

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If you are removing the mylar it's highly likely all of the insert graphics will come up or be ripped beyond repair. This place has replica stick on ones for however far into the restore process you want to go.

http://www.planetarypinball.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=PP&Screen=PROD&Category_Code=GS-804&Product_Code=PPA-F14-INS

They have been great to me as well.

Marco is also a great source of parts
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/267

I've found ebay to be more expensive for a lot of the stuff I need for my F-14. Especially fuses and stuff.

My mylar had to be removed because the inserts were all raised which had pulled and bubbled the mylar horribly. It was hilarious watching the ball move on the playfield. It really was unplayable and after reseating a few and seeing that the mylar had stretched as well I knew I needed to remove mine. Plus the insert graphics were already pretty destroyed. Getting the mylar off wasn't too difficult. The upside down air can worked wonders but quite a few of the insert graphics did come up as well I just decided to replace all of them. The sticker sheet wasn't too expensive. I had no playfield damage due to the mylar removal though. Getting the glue off took a ton of work compared to the mylar. That was by far the worst part. Took about 2 weeks working in the evenings to get all the glue off. Took an hour to have the mylar off. I know what I never want to do again for sure and if I go to buy a machine with mylar/insert issues I won't be doing it again lol.

I looked into clearing my playfield but didn't find it to be worth the trouble. I just bought a playfield protector for it. Now it plays awesome, looks great, and I can read all the inserts

I was scared too but in the end it came right up once hit with the upside down air can. If it stuck a little much I just hit it again with the air. What I wasn't ready for was the areas where there was mylar was less faded and had less color degradation. Unless you are doing touchup, which I didn't do, you kinda learn to live with it. I figure once I sell mine it is a great candidate for someone to have a nice playfield restoration and then clear put over it. I just wanted it to be playable. Plus I did get mine for free so if I destroyed it I wasn't out much It's also really ready if they do ever make a hard top for it. Just have to sand it down really.

I took a pic after the first bit of mylar came off. I was surprised how little of it was actually attached to the wood. After I pulled that bit up I was no longer nervous and in a lot of cases the insert graphics were still intact. I ended up using some plastic razor blades to take off what was left of the lettering as it was really badly cracked and looked awful anyway. Second picture was when I had all of the mylar off and was still taking off the glue and lettering. The white stuff around some of the inserts is flower from the glue removal process. If I was doing a full restore I would replace the arrow inserts. They are all really faded and some are even cracked and warped from the heat of the insert lighting. Last picture is how it sits now with the playfield protector. It was a lot of work and it's a great start to a full restore but about as much money as I wanna put into it. I think I've got $800 into it now with most of that being the playfield protector and flipper rebuild kits/fuses/LED's/and some other repair. One thing I will caution about is do not use magic erasers on this paint. My only oops came from using a magic eraser. Everything was going smoothly until that.

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Yeah I ended up using goo gone on mine as well. A lot of people said the flower method was great but it didn't work so well for me and made a huge mess. That adhesive was really on there lol. Even the goo gone had trouble but my basement smelled like oranges

you can put it on right over top of the mylar if you want. The protector does not use adhesive and is easily removable from the playfield. Some people hate the way games play on them. I've never noticed that much of a difference especially on machines that were mylar'd originially. I took the mylar off on mine, cleaned everything up, relevelled the inserts and put the new insert graphics on. Then the protector just lays on top. Had to remove the ramps and many plastics but that didn't take too long. You have to do that anyway if you are removing the mylar.

I bought mine from this guy. Service was awesome and the latest ones are really thin.
https://www.playfield-protectors.com/

And... I'm down again. Not sure what happened. I was having a pretty good game and then the machine rebooted. When it came back up most of the solenoids are not working. Basically the only things working are the slings, pop bumper, shooter lane feeder, and drain feeder. Everything else like the rescue kick back, upper right kicker, diverters, all of the kick outs are not firing. I just hear a click when the solenoid is supposed to fire. The flashers are working as well as the backbox knocker and gi lights. Sure feels like a fuse but I don't see any that are blown.

Thanks again Grumpy, I pulled the fuse and nothing else broke so that's a good sign. I wonder if the fuse holder is corroded and dead like that 4 port one was above it that I replaced a month or two ago. Going to replace that tomorrow. I think I have a few spare fuse holders left somewhere. The fuse checks out but it doesn't appear to be the correct one. It says 40v volt on it but I can't make out any other lettering.

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I have the proper fuse in my kit so will get both replaced today. Keeping fingers crossed that is all that is needed

I didn't have a chance to work on the machine last night. Hope to do that at some point today but I did take a good look around and found a few interesting modifications by whoever had this machine before me. The most interesting is the resistor board. I'll be picking up the proper resistors for it for sure. There is also an interesting mod to one of the snubber boards. As well as this bypassed fuse. I found a lot of fuses like this and thought I had replaced them all. The other slow blo on the playfield also appears to not be correct but I will need to pick up a few more of those as I am out. Most of the fuse kits don't include the playfield ones. I'm sure there are many more field fixes on this thing I have not found yet.

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Since I'm going through things I wanted to check on the power supply. Does this look right to you all? I believe this machine was in France at some point so was likely converted from 220. There are several wires that are cut on the harness that goes to the on/off switch and the leads are soldered together. I've gone through Vid's guide a few times on power supplies and never saw anything like this.

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I replaced the fuse holder and put the correct 2.5 amp fuse in. I also replaced the 2.5 amp fuse in the cab that had a wire soldered to it. The other fuse in the cab is a 3 amp slow blo fuse and will be ordering a few more 2.5's to replace that and have more on hand. It did not fix the issue though. I hear what sounds like the relay clicks. Here is a video going through the tests of what I am seeing.

I've swapped everything but the flashers out for led. I was not planning on doing the flasher conversion as I like the look now. I have the proper resistors on order from Marco and some 150ohm 2w fireproof resistors from digikey to fix up all the snubbers. I think a few of them look burned but I'm not sure any of that explains why the solenoids are not firing

Looking around for blown fuses I found the 4a slo blow on the flipper power supply board is blowing. I replaced the 2 1/2a slo blow that was in there with the proper 4a one and it blew right away. I guess I have a coil or something that is shorted?

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Which bridge rectifier am I looking for? Is it one of these guys? I added fuses on those as per vids guide. How do you test these?

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ok, yeah I just replaced it with a 4amp slowblow and it is dead.

For giggles I checked the two rectifiers nearby and those are both reading around 488-487 both positive and negative on the ac tabs if I followed that youtube video correctly

Looks like I'm needing one of these for the power board
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/KBPC3504-W

and it appears to be recommended that the cap also be replaced. This is what looks to be on it now
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/C100M250VA

With the shipping and a couple of 4 amp slo blow fuses I'm at $30 from Marco. I wonder if just going this route would be a better use of the money?

http://pinballpcb.com/products/system-9-11-flipper-power-supply/

With shipping it's only $4 more

I've never ordered from them before. Thanks for the links! I checked mouser as well and great plains is cheaper. As always thank you. After all of the help you have given I feel like I owe you a bunch of beers or something.

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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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.

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.

Might be time to just get a flipper rebuild kit and do it up right if the plunger link is breaking. Pretty sure the one you want is this one tho

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/A-10656

Sounds like you are having a similar problem I did. Does it sound like the video in this post?

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/f14-tomcat-owners-club-fans-also-welcome/page/88#post-5656057

If so check fuses around the flipper power board in the backbox. The fuse.on the power board kept blowing and the big bridge rectifier had died.

The flippers were stress cracked like crazy on mine when I got it as well. The speed of the machine I guess. First thing I did was replace them. Looks like the playfield is in pretty good shape. Welcome to the club

Finally got around to cleaning up this junk.

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This resistor board is under the flashers on the right mid playfield. Is it the one for them? Tested everything and the machine looks to be working fine. All three flashers are going off although the blue one less often than the others.

Thanks for the tip. Had not thought of that

I bought plastic razor blades to remove the old graphics

https://www.amazon.com/BEoffer-Scrapers-Replacement-Stickers-Scratched/dp/B0818WBNVD

I used the gel goo gone and let it sit on the graphics for a bit then a lot of scraping to clean them all up. Finished up by polishing the inserts using high grit sand paper. Worked out pretty good but was a ton of work. The plastic scrapers are also great for cleaning the mylar adhesive off the playfield without scratching it. You will go through a lot of plastic razor blades but I still have probably 20 left out of the 100 that came in the kit.

I believe the medium difficulty is the default and what mine was set to when I reset it. The first lock does spot you 2 locks in that setting. If you want it set harder you can just set the difficulty to hard or extra hard. There are a lot of settings available for OPS to tweak so what you remember may not be stock settings.

I had a few of those lamp mounts go bad. One was corroded and one had worn down so no connection was being made. Have you tried swapping the lamp and the mount to a different letter to see if it's the lamp mount?

I put the F-14 Insert Decal Set - Non-LAMINATED on my F-14 from Planetary Pinball and I thought the result looked great. I'm not a stickler for accuracy though. My inserts were awful when I got the machine and removing the mylar removed what was left so I was happy to have them all readable again. Prepping the inserts is incredibly important. I even screwed up one decal and they sent a replacement right away for free.

The 3 beacons are really cool on this game and give an awesome effect when multiball is ready especially in a dark room. No one misses it. 500 seems like a steal to get that functionality back.

Raised inserts... I don't think I'll ever buy another machine with raised inserts. It was an insane amount of work to resolve that.

I actually pulled the mylar up on mine when I had it because it was bubbling so bad. Once it was off I levelled the inserts the best I could and bought the playfield protector since I didn't have the money or care to get it clear coated. Playfield wasn't in the best shape. Worked well and some inserts did start to raise again and you couldn't tell with the protector. I would recommend removing the mylar tho if you are going for the protector. It'll look a lot better. Insert text will come off with the mylar but there are decal sheets you can get that resolves that. Most were already unreadable on it anyway. I think it came out great but was a lot of work. I won't ever buy a game again that has raised inserts and messed up mylar. This one was free to me so it was worth it to learn

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if you want to see some gameplay with one that has the protector on this is the machine I had and sold to a friend.

I still miss this game. Sometimes I wish I didn't sell it but the family wasn't into it.