I joined the club! My 1st pin!

There are a few things I want to work on right away;

1) Display issue. One of the numeric displays broke during transport.
2) There are a few places where screws are missing or seem out of place that I'd like to replace.
3) White beacon is yellow aged. Anyone try Retrobrite on these before?
4) Pop bumper isn't very sensitive so I'd like to investigate it.

I can't wait to start tinkering on this game!

F-14.jpg

Hi guys, hoping you can help me out. I wasn't sure where to put this so I'm just adding it into the club area. I'm still a rookie in the forums and I find it a bit hard finding my way still.

I've been going over my F-14. Things look good, but there are a few tiny bits I'd like to fix before my OCD overtakes me. I need some hardware. I wasn't sure how to measure these without one of those caliper micrometer gauges. I need to know the sizes for the following as they are missing on my pin;

missingscrews.png

Thanks LongJohns. Any idea what the length of the #6 screw is on the shooter lane? I can't use a screw size gauge as I don't have another screw for comparison in this area. It looks like a torx screw. Is it?

For the jet bumper, I can get the length from the remaining screw and look at the #4's.

The slingshot needs the nylon acorn nut. #6-32 you say? Thanks. I'll hit Home Depot tonight and see what they have.

================================================================

One last question for everyone in this thread; Are the PF plastics supposed to move? For example, the plastics covering my slingshots move. Not a lot, but I didn't expect them to move at all. What is the norm?

That's what I thought. Mind are overly loose. I'll be tightening them up.

Kewl! What did you use to make it spin?

Thank you. I would really appreciate it.

I'm the same. I'm leaving the mylar on the playfield for now. I have plans to polish and that's it. Mylar removal will come next year once I'm a bit more comfortable with game. I'm just replacing rubbers, bulbs, and cleaning up all the mech. dust. Man, that crap gets everywhere.

Just to clarify, it is a #6-32 x 1/2"? Is it a screw or bolt?

Thank you sir! I'm off to Lowe's.

I thought a few of you might be interested in this. My white beacon was pretty dirty. I guess all the years of smoke and florescent lighting took their toll on it. Like most of the white beacons out there mine was yellowed. So being the internet savvy guy I am I took a look on YouTube for a solution. I ended up finding "Salon Care 40" and decided to give this a try.

Here are the before and after photos. I think you can figure out which is the before and which is the after. This is after one treatment with Salon Care 40 and sitting in the bright sun for about 8 hours. I tried a second treatment, but I didn't find it helped any further. The difference was definitely noticeable, but less impressive than I had hoped. High expectations I guess.

sidebyside.png

Please ignore the Spider-man colouring book. It was the only white paper I could find for contrast.

Yep. I guess it's from people slamming the backbox up without checking the clearance.

Hydrogen Peroxide is usually rated around 3%. This Salon Care 40 stuff is about 12% hydrogen peroxide. If you want to try it it's about 9 bucks for a 32oz. bottle.

You guys would laugh at my high scores. I blame the jet bumper for not being sensitive enough for my liking.

That was just my lame excuse for sucking.

Does anyone know how many blue star posts are on an F-14 PF? I'm placing an order through pinballlife and I figure I'll order the posts at the same time (to justify shipping costs to Canada).

Has anyone done a full audit of the star posts on F-14?

How many blue?
How many red mini posts?
How many narrow posts?
Blah, blah, blah… ?

Thanks to you both!

I saw a thread a few weeks ago about a guy that flattened them using a heatgun, and some pieces of metal with a clamp. The idea was to remove the insert, place it inbetween the metal and then heat the metal with the heatgun while tightening up the clamp. I wish I could find that damn thread. The results were quite good.

I'm thinking it was a high speed restoration, but I can't find it!

[EDIT] Double post.

_{Post edited by FiftyQuid: double post}

I'm not able to bank the ball into the launch with the right flipper like you can in this video. I'm aiming at the same spot, but the white rescue target on my machine sticks out further. So I either clip the right side of the rescue target or just slide past it but the angle is then wrong. I didn't realise the target was so out of place. It looks fine, but maybe it needs to be pushed towards the middle a bit?

Thanks for the pics guys. My right target isn't that far over. It seems both of mine are bent slightly over to the right. I'll have to take a closer look. It's a little to dark in the room to check under the PF.

I was into the retrogaming (still am) scene. The same stuff is used to get old Nintendo's and Famicom's back to their original white.

SPeD66 are you hitting the no. 5 target here to bank the Launch shot? I am by no means a pinball wizard, but I'd like to consider myself above novice. I repeatedly attempted this shot tonight. Out of 30 attempts I made it up the Launch once.

I think I'm hitting the ricochet area you are, but when the ball bounces off the no. 5 target and heads over to the Launch ramp it just hits the far right side wall and then bounces off the back of the upper right flipper. The one shot where the ball made it all the way didn't have any of the velocity that your shots having off the bounce. Mine just trickled up the Launch and barely landed in the up kicker. Any tips for a above novice player? Please don't say practise. I just want to make this shot.

Ah... yes. Target foam. I had forgotten all about that. My foam is practically non-existent. Glad you mentioned it because I was racking my brain out and getting frustrated.

Thank you for the link(s), but I've actually already ordered some replacement foam. My order from Pinball Life should be arriving this week.

Once I have the foam installed I'll report back.

Home Depot up here in Canada is limited. I've lucked out a few times, but many times I strike out.

I needed to order some stuff from Pinball Life so I added the foam when I did. I'm paying $40 for shipping so I wanted to get as much into the box as I could.

Does anyone have any cool jet bumper mods? I've seen the multi-led bumper mod, but I was wondering if there were any other ideas out there. I like the old 70's style pins that had the stars on the bumper caps. Like this;

Flicker_Cap_Set.jpg

I was thinking of having a decal made up for it. Maybe a hammer and sicle or the Mig star;

630px-URSS-Russian_aviation_red_star.svg.png

Close? It looks like it's putting the moves on it. I'm surprised it hasn't shorted out already.

I have a question for all the F-14 owners. Occasionally a second ball will launch out of one of the ball locks, essentially creating a 2 ball multiball. This happens very rarely, but often enough that I thought I would bring it up. Is this part of the gameplay or is it a malfunction?

Unfortunately it happens so rarely that I don't have many details. I don't know which of the ball locks it fires out of or what is triggering it. When it finally happens I'm usually in the middle of the game and I'm focused on the main ball and don't see the 2nd fire onto the PF.

Anyone else?

How do I take all the balls out? [EDIT] - Figured it out

FYI...My player 4 display is broken. I'm also a newbie when it comes to putting a pinball machine into any test mode. It took 10 minutes of fiddling around with the machine before I figured out how to reset it to factory default.

[EDIT] I fiddled with this some more. I managed to get the lamp tests going, but my kids were asleep so I didn't go any further. I will try this again tomorrow.

I should have a new PinScore early next week. Maybe this will help me figure out the menu for tests?

So I take it this is not normal? I'd say out of 50 games this has happened maybe 3 times.

I'm trying to understand what you are saying so bear with me. The center rails are both secure. The posts are snug and neither rail moves. I don't see how the rails could sit in the ball lock, but mine are not. Please excuse the mess of this area as I have not shopped it yet. Broken jet bumper cap, non-existant foam on targets and the homemade left/right roll under gates are all gifts from a previous owners. Please notice the piece of metal on the top left launch which has been bent upwards. Why? I have no idea.

20140616_001735.jpg
20140616_001819-2.jpg
20140616_001803.jpg

Since I'm posting issues… I shopped this area tonight. After comparing photos with others on the internet there are a few clear problems here;

20140616_001945.jpg
20140616_001958.jpg

1) Broken plastic
2) There are two many screws.
3) The screws are all incorrect. The screw furthest to the left is seized in the post.
4) There should only be one full size post on each end of the plastic. The middle one I have no idea what it's supposed to be. Full post? Half post?

I want to get this pin back into original factory default condition. If you have pictures of this area could you please post them to help me out? I know many of you have torn down playfields. Thank you!

Yes, this is what my pin is doing. Sounds more and more like a diode issue.

Thank you for the photos. This is perfect. So it's just two standard bumper posts. The F-14 manual lists them as 02-4008 posts. I see them on BayArea here; http://bayareaamusements.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=baa&Screen=PROD&Product_Code=MP-02-4008

I'll try to get them through my local supplier. Worst case I could dremel the top of the screw head off the seized bumper post and use that one in the middle.

Now I just have to find a replacement plastic.

This is an easy thing to check so I'll take a look at it tonight. I think it may be the angle of the photo, but we'll see. If there is a gap, how the heck am I supposed to slide it to the left? The post holding it in place already looks like it's as far over as possible.

Turns out there was a significant gap between the rail and the ball lock. I loosened the screw and managed to move it down and left quite a bit. Enough that I don't think it will be a problem, if that was the problem. Unfortunately I didn't test it yet as I was so disgusted with the mess in this area that I started tearing it down. All 3 rails came out, a set of clear plastics, both ball locks, and the jet bumper.

I really hope my parts come in this week.

Will do once re-assembled.

Thanks. Switch test it is. It's been driven into my head enough.

[EDIT] Found my answer back a few posts. Thank you.

Me again, this time I'm replacing some plunger parts. I took the plunger apart. Now I'm putting it back together. There is a plunger sleeve that came with the new parts. Mine didn't have one. How is this installed?

That made the most sense, but I wanted to double-check. Thank you!

That looks pretty badass! I have to get one of those LED bumper caps. PinballLife is sold out right now.

Is that installed on the under side of the cap? I really like the idea. Transparent print looks good and subtle. I think I like the look of it better with the center light/LED unlit. The middle bulb sort of wrecks it. Maybe the lighting could be softened?

All in all, I think it looks very good. Nice work!

Hi guys, I've started shopping the upper PF. I'm replacing my flippers due to the build up of crud on them. They won't come clean. Anyway, I went to change the upper left flipper and noticed it has a clear piece of plastic on top of it. Is this normal? Seems weird to me. I don't know what purpose it would serve.

20140628_205720.jpg

Thanks guys. Asthetically it looks like crap, even though I didn't notice it until now. Odd thing is, it doesn't have the Williams logo on it like the other 3 flippers. I'll remove it and toss the plastic into my parts bin.

*Double post*

Same flipper. I've removed it. There was a washer installed under it. This is the only flipper on the PF that had a washer under it. Are they supposed to have washers under them, or is this flipper the anomaly again?

103700

Maybe. I haven't noticed anything else out of the ordinary.

Sick! That looks sweet! I cannot wait until I'm done shopping my F-14 so I can get to this fun stuff! How did you mount the jets? Where did you buy those jets from? They look very clean. Do the wings open on the F-14?

I'm hoping to buy an F-14 and hook it up to a motor. I want the wings to be open during normal play. When the Release light is triggered I want the wings to close. Basically I want closed wings as long as the beacons are spinning.

I'm almost there. The entire PF is cleaned and waxed now. I just have to reassemble everything. I'm wondering if I should wait and place an order for a few things first though. I want to make a lighting modification to the Yagov Kicker which requires swapping out some wiring under the black plastic. Since I'm doing that, I'm wondering if I should do the wiring to put back the two original flashers that were service recalled at the same time.

If I wait, then I can't reassemble anything as the black plastic (by the divertor) pretty much holds everything together. One thing leads to another in the world of pinball.

Do you have a pic of this?

Looks pretty clean. Nice install.

Mind sharing your eBay link? I wouldn't mind knowing which models you purchased as these are more to my liking.

Thank you!

Guys, F-14 has a ton of stand up target switches. The target faces on some of mine are warped. The one side sticks out further than the other. Do any of you have a trick to get them flat again?

No suggestions?

Okay, how about this one... Anyone have a ball eject 'Cliffy' protector on their F-14?

Mylar... Nice one. I wouldn't have though of that.

Blow dryer huh? I didn't think enough heat would be produced but I'll give it a try. Thanks!

I have completed shopping the top, and some of the bottom, of the playfield. I could not believe the amount of dirt, wood, and solder flux crap all over it. It is sparkling now. It is soooooo rewarding putting everything back together (and not having any spare parts leftover) and seeing the GI light up. I replaced #44 bulbs in places I didn't know there were #44 bulbs! It looks awesome! Then I hit the start button and played a game. The playfield was freshly waxed. Holy shit the ball was moving! It was crazy! The ball was moving fast! I was making shots that I would not have dreamt possible before, getting crazy bounces, and extra distance on weak shots. Man it was exhilarating! I've had this pin for about 2 months now. My scores have been garbage. At first I wasn't even hitting the replay at the factory settings of 900,000. Tonight I still didn't make the leaderboard, but I had my best game! 3,048,000. So close! It would have been awesome putting up my initials on the new PinScore!

During one game I had that two ball multiball thing happen on me again. I mentioned it back a few posts. The second ball fired out of the ball lock on the right. I had not hit the release, it just fired prematurely. I think it fired as I spelled T-O-M-C-A-T the second time.

For reference, I reset the pin to factory settings back in May.

Sorry, but what is the "lower habitrail"?

I have my defective PinScore installed so I'm able to put the pin in switch test mode now. I tried this very quickly last night, but there seem to be a few different switch test modes. I'm still getting familiar with going through the menus. Is there a specific switch test I should be in?

Habitrail. I was just calling it the lower wire guide. I learned something new.

Switch 'edge' test it is. I will check this out tonight. This makes sense though. When the two ball multiball started I had one ball in the right lock. The second ball I had just plunged. I remember the second ball starting to head down the second (or middle) habitrail to the center lock. I think it was just about to drop when the ball in the right lock fired out. Then the second ball fired out of the center lock. It happens pretty fast when it happens. It's difficult to remember. I need to try to reproduce it.

@Nate - That wasn't meant to be a burn. I was being serious. I wouldn't have thought of it.

Okay, switch edge tests pass. I manually pressed each switch a few times and they all registered. Then I pounded on the PF a few times and nothing registered. Finally I gave the pin a good push tilt shove and still nothing.

When I originally posted this issue there were two other possible solutions. One was the habitrail not touching the center ball lock properly and the ball falling out. I have checked this and adjusted it. There is no possibility of it happening, besides it seems the culprit is the right lock, not the center.

The other was a diode issue I believe. This is a little deeper than my skill set right now. I think I need to play a few games without the glass and try to duplicate the issue to narrow down what exactly is happening.

[EDIT] I didn't do the switch test with actual balls. Will redo all tests now…
[EDIT2] Passed.

Hmmm… Now what?

I've followed Vid's in the past for many things I'm doing, but not for bulletproofing. I didn't think Sys11's really needed any board bulletproofing. I've read about older Bally (Xenon) and Gottlieb needing work, but nothing specific for F-14 or even High Speed.

Added the 'sticker mod' to the lock/landing clear piece of plexi-glass tonight. I can't decide if I like it or not. I would say I'm 50/50 as of right now. Don't get me wrong, this is a quality sticker that is very much worth the price. The colours match up to the PF very very well. The overall look of the sticker I would say is a little more modern. I am not sure if it is a seamless blend, at less not to me (yet). Personally I was never a fan of the "L" shaped cover over the black area to begin with. I'm not really sure why Williams ever bothered covering it.

f-14sticker.jpg
^^^ This is only an example, this is not my pin.

Has anyone ever thought of painting it another colour? Red perhaps?

This is great to know. Thanks guys, I had no idea. I honestly haven't looked under the hood much except to look under the playfield. Having two kids, and this being my first machine, I want to protect both. Adding this to my life of "to do's".

I just followed the instructions to install it. It basically goes on like a water slide decal. Wet the plastic, throw the sticker on top, slide it around into position, squeegee out the water with a credit card, allow to dry. Viola! Then trim after it is dry. I find the sticker blocks my view of the "Mach 3" bulb due to the angle. I also don't like how "Mach 3" is where the screw hole is and interrupts the lettering. I think it was short sighted of the designer not to align the "Mach" and "Landing" lettering to the right instead of the left. I could have just not cut out the hole, but I cut it out from the back and didn't realise it until I went to install the black post.

Back to my two ball multiball misfiring… I had to play quite a few games before it happened. It happens on the 2nd multiball. Ball 1 is in the right lock. Ball 2 is plunged and drops into the center lock (right side). It ejects and hits the T in T-O-M-C-A-T to complete the word and all the flashers go off to alert the player that she/he can lock another ball. This is when Ball 1 launches prematurely.

I "think" this is what is happening. Again it's hard to catch and it happens infrequently and I am not able to replicate it manually with my fingers or using the balls. It's an odd one. I'm going to try and see how many games inbetween instances it actually happens. Unfortunately I don't set off a 2nd multiball often so my results may be skewed.

Played another 10 games tonight. No misfire. The mystery deepens…

In other news. I took the two KILL stand up targets out. The left was shifting left every time the ball hit it. Pulled it out with the intention of using vice grips to crimp down the rivet. I look closer and I see the point of a nail sticking out of it. I peel back the tape and find an ancient nail. I guess the rivet broke sometime in the past and the repairman decided to quick fix it with a nail and electrical tape. I removed the nail and put in a proper rivet.

I love (and hate) finding things like this. I think it's cool to find a piece of history like this. Some point in the past someone worked on this exact same target and this was the fix she/he decided on to get the game running again.

Has anyone added mirror blades to their F-14? If so, I would like to see it. Thank you.

So if I buy a set of blades from Cointaker I can transfer them onto another Williams/Bally game down the road right? Sys11 isn't a specific cut or anything?

Would you mind sharing a photo of how it looks?

Awesome! Thanks for the photos. I think it looks pretty good! It's not Fish Tales, or WPT, but I still think it adds to the look and is worth the price. Especially if you can move them out and into another machine later.

Thanks again!

F-14 is like a drug. Well, pinball is the drug, but F-14 is like your re-up.

Does anyone else have a bitch of a time getting the landings during multiball? I've had the game for 6 months, and I don't consider myself a novice, but I have yet to put my name on the high scores. I have failed…

Yeah, I'm still having problems with that banked shot off the 5. Maybe 1 out of 10 I hit it properly. That use to be 1 out of 20 or 30 before I waxed the playfield. My "5" target is warped so it doesn't deflect properly. I'm waiting to place an order for a few new ones.

This is on my larger "to do" list. I just haven't gotten there yet.

Lowering the high score defaults sounds like a great idea.

While I have everyone talking, what do you guys think I should do to fix this;

20140730_152744.jpg

After 27 years of pinballs hitting it the metal guide that leads to the flipper has been flattened. There is actually a bit of a dip and then just before the flipper bat you can see the corner is flattened. I've actually gotten a ball stuck between the post side of the flipper and the bracket. Nothing a tiny nudge didn't fix, but this piece of metal is affecting gameplay as it slows the ball sometimes when it comes down the inner lane. Not always, but sometimes.

Any ideas to fix this? I can't hammer it flat.

Sourcing the sheet metal (proper thickness) and getting it cut are the two main blocking factors for me. Then I have to ensure it's polished sheet metal as well.

It's not a game breaker, so I'll file this in my back pocket as something I'm looking for casually, not hardcore.

Thanks.

Yeah, mine is the original mylar as well. I would like to remove it and fix some of the inserts. I'm not going to attempt this until I'm a year or two in.

I tried adjusting the high score defaults this evening. I managed to lower all of them, but then I wasn't sure what to do. I closed the coin door, but the game didn't go into any sort of playable mode. So then I flipped the power switch on the belly, but this lost all the values I had put in. How do I save the new lower high scores?

The start button allows you to move the value up and down depending on if you have the coin door button in auto or manual mode. I figured that out by myself. I'll try running all the way up to adjustment 70 tonight and see if that does the trick.

I don't understand how this would help. Maybe I'm not understanding what you are saying.

Thanks for the link! Email sent for pricing.

This didn't work. Well, it kinda did. Now when I look at the values in the menu it shows the high scores I inputted, but when I close the coin door or turn on/off the machine it still shows the defaults on the display? What the?

It's odd, because I tried turning off high scores using the same method and was able to turn them off.

Duh. Right that makes sense. Let me try it…

Yep! Worked! Thank you!

Where is all the F-14 love?

I reverse modded the service bulletin tonight and added back in the two missing red flashers. Simple to do as long as you use some patience. Took me about an hour. I love the look of it. Playing in the dark is killer on the eyes, but now it's even worse/better. This might very well be the only Williams game you need to wear sunglasses to play.

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Yep, eBay. Very high quality decal. It's a water soluble decal. You need to use soapy water to apply and move it around then squeegee out the water with a credit card. I was in contact with the eBay seller and artist for this and asked him if he ever thought about designing side or rear decals for F-14. He had not, but is now considering it. However, he is currently working on similar decals for the clear plastics on the right (over the plunger lane.)

Thank you! For my first mod, this is a good one. I would recommend this mod to anyone that has modding in their blood and is itching to do something with their F-14 pin. It was a lot of fun.

So I triggered a two-ball multiball last night. I am pretty sure I yelled out "shit" because I was on a good run and this meant my score was bogus with two balls now rolling around on the PF.

The first two-ball multiball triggered with ball one locked. Ball two had just rolled past the switch in the second habitrail when I heard "Fire!" and ball one launched out of the lock.

I am starting to think one of the switched located in the habitrail is sticking. I am leaning to the defective one being in the lowest habitrail.

Woot! Finally put up a decent high score! 4,099,650!!! I knocked out 3,000,000 points on Ball 1 alone! Me and the pin were in complete sync. What an awesome feeling! Added my score to the leaderboard, and I will add a photo later! Ha!

Did you try contacting this guy?
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/f-14-machine-parted-out

I know the banana plastic is gone, but I didn't think the slings were yet.

I had a couple more instances of the 2 ball multiball last night. I really think it is the switch in the lower habitrail misbehaving.

When I send the ball to the upkicker the ball gets shot upwards towards the divertor. Sometimes the upkicker hits the ball perfectly and it rolls quickly over to the divertor. Sometimes the upkicker hits the ball less that perfectly resulting in the ball rolling more slowly towards the divertor. When the upkicker really connects I notice the switch trigger in the lower habit moves. I'm thinking this is my issue. It shouldn't move unless something comes in contact with it. This switch is the only thing that sets off the kicker in the right side lock.

I am going to try replacing all 3 habitrail switches and see if this corrects the problem.

(mods please delete)

Woohoo!!! Just broke my high score! 4,688,910! I set off multiball, got 1 landing. Then I got the extra ball, then I set off multiball again, no landings. Then I had the extra ball lit, and 1 ball locked with the lock lite for the second ball and I drained!!! F-E-C-K!!!

Man, I'm drained! No pun intended!

Man is multiball a pain to trigger the 2nd time. Spell T-O-M-C-A-T for every ball lock and then again to light Release? Holy crap. I guess it's best to get the Fighter Jackpot on the first multiball, but I like how the Landings carry over from one multiball to the next. I don't get many Landings so this was the first time I noticed this. *blush*

I need to order the switches first!

I discovered the wire gate in my ball trough is broken tonight. I think it's been this way all along. Whenever a ball drains I can hear the trough shuffling the balls around a few times and then it stops.

Does anyone have a picture of the ball trough and/or know what the gate is supposed to look like? I can't find a part number in the manual. Maybe it's not a gate? I just have the broken part to go on.

[EDIT] Is this it?
http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/12-6542

Yep, that's what it looks like. I still have part of the old one and it matches up to your picture.

Damn, I wish they showed the lengths of each side. I have wire and a bender from Marco so I could just make the gate myself but I don't know how long the wire should be before each bend. I could wing it, but if I screw up I don't have a lot of wire.

Pretty nice. I just order a Comet red/white bumper ring for my F-14. I'll see how that turns out and then maybe look at making my own decal.

Ha! I wish!

Yeah, I think I have a long way to go before I roll the display. I can dream though!

A couple things corrected on my F-14 tonight! First, my Cliffy return lane guides arrived! They are stunning and a perfect fit! Here are a few photos of my old ones. Please note the straight lines - not! Check out the flattened edges on these babies. The last photo is the new ones installed.

Don't cut yourself on those raised edges!

Bends where there should be straight lines.

New Cliffy's INSTALLED!!!

Built my first ball gate from scratch tonight too! It came out pretty nice. This was my second attempt, my first was a complete mess because I was trying to get the measurements right (and didn't). It fits and moves around just like it is supposed to. No ball hang ups and no shuffling sounds in the trough. Perfect!

Shiny! Please ignore my old man hands.

Snug as a bug.

That looks better!

Avec pinballs.

Installed a new rollover switch in the plunger lane last night. It's the one halfway up the habitrail. What a pain in the ass! I had to disassemble half of the PF just to get at it. Clear plastics came off, ramp habitrail came off, PF plastic came off... Ugh! The wire form had broken on it so I thought maybe, just maybe this could possibly be a malfunctioning switch that might be causing my two-ball multiball problem.

It was late by the time I got everything back on the PF so I'll be testing out the new switch while playing tonight! Wish me luck!

So it's been 72 games since I installed a new rollover switch in the shooter lane. The one under the wire ball guide, not the one in front of the plunger rod. I am happy to report that so far I have not experienced the two-ball multiball issue that I have reported on a few times in this thread. Out of those 72 games I've played, many have been intense ones. Multiple multiball games, multiple extra ball games, ball flying all over the place, and multiple people playing multiple styles. My initials are now all over the high scores in spots 1, 2, 3, and 4.

I don't want to jinx it, but so far so good. I am keeping track of how many games I've played so I'll report back after I hit another 100-200 games. *fingers crossed*

All you F-14 owners, how do you increase the bonus? I understand how to increase the multiplier BONUS X (red chevrons), but how do you increase the bonus (blue chevrons)? I can't figure it out.

This is why I'm trying to figure it out. Sometimes I'll have a great ball where it's hitting everything on the playfield and then I'll drain and get 6x 14,000. Other times I'll hardly hit a thing and get a 3x 90,000 bonus. WTF? Where are these magical spots on the playfield to hit?

This was my assumption too, but any idea how it adds up?

I could do this, but i was hoping someone already went to the trouble of doing this and could just share the info.

Outlanes? Well I won't be aiming for those. Thanks very much for checking! I just got home and was going to give this a try. Instead I found a package at my door. New COMET LEDs!!!!!!!!! Check out this new pop bumper ring! The upper PF is much brighter now!

I replaced 3 of the blue chevron lights with LEDs, 3 of the red chevron's and some of the white KILL lights with LEDs. The blue is like night and day. The red is not as noticeable as I had hoped, but they really weren't bad to begin with. The white is crazy bright. I might have to rethink them.

Sorry for the quality of the photos. Anyone that has tried to photograph LEDs knows how difficult it is to capture the truthiness of them.

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I just used regular old 1 SMD under the entire PF with the exception of the Green LED for the 'radar' I use a 1 SMD flexi for that one. Cheapest bulbs they had. Clear dome for all.

http://www.cometpinball.com/product-p/1smd5050.htm
http://www.cometpinball.com/product-p/1smdflex.htm

I haven't had the chance to play as I just finished LED'ing under the entire PF last night. I'll let you know if the LED's bug me in any way. F-14 is just so incredibly bright and laced with inserts that I thought 2 SMD would be too much.

Red had the least impact. Blue and White had the most. The only colour I am disappointed with is the Orange. I find it too dark. I guess it really shouldn't be Orange, it should be Amber. Comet lists Orange and Amber as the same colour, but I still think it looks off. I tried White under the orange inserts but it was too much - almost washed out. I am going to order some Yellow next time and see if that brings it back to looking the way I like.

I don't plan on converting the GI to LED, except for maybe the blue bulbs in the divertor as the blue condoms let too much of the white incandescent light through. I'm considering doing the translite (but not the flashers).

I also ordered spare 1 SMD flexi LEDs so that I can light up the flipper buttons and spare Orange for the coin slots which brightened them up quite a bit. I might try Yellow LEDs in those too though.

I will take more pictures tonight.

Finished LED'ing my F-14 last night. Holy crap it is bright! Fire up my first LED game and ended up getting my 2nd ever Fighter Jackpot. End score was 3.6M which was good enough for 3rd on the high score list at my house.

Overall, I find the 1 SMD incredibly bright. I cannot imagine using anything brighter. When I walked away from the machine my eyes were wide open. I didn't have a headache or anything, but I felt... uh, off. I'm guessing that it is the flicker of the LED's bothering my eyes. My wife has better vision than I do so I brought her down to take a look. She's able to read the thoughts in my head so seeing flicker isn't a problem for her. She says it's flickering.

I really like the look of the LEDs so I'm keeping them. I've decided to go ahead and purchase a LCD OCD board. There's supposed to be a batch of Sys11 released in Sept so hopefully I'll end up with one.

Oh, and my bumper ring broke. Part of the soldered connection came right off the board and it went dead. Art is going to replace it at no charge. Lastly, I still haven't warmed up to the new orange LEDs. I need to change them out for yellow or try another companies version of orange.

Photos to come I promise!

How do I test the power supply? I'm getting power therefore it is good?

Are these the ones you bought?

http://shop.cointaker.com/category.sc;jsessionid=82ECA9E4413AB8D5F09610E027234BAB.m1plqscsfapp04?categoryId=184

These are more than twice the price I paid. I know I went cheap though. I think my entire order with the bumper ring was under $80 shipped to Canada. The money I saved on bulbs I can put towards the LED OCD PCB.

How do you find the orange?

Your blue and whites look very similar to mine. Your orange is definitely better, but I'd wager my red is deeper. It could be the photo, but your red looks more white than mine. You would think LEDs would all be the same seeing as they are all coming from China.

I don't see any ghosting on mine. Ghosting is when an insert is lite up or partially lit up when it shouldn't be - correct?

Flickering I relate to the refresh rate on an LCD monitor. Some people can see a computer monitor refreshing the screen and others cannot. A decent video camera will always capture a low refresh rate.

Strobing is the one that confuses me.

I find the biggest change is the green LED. The radar stands out now instead of hiding in the PF.

I had the two-ball multiball issue happen tonight. Actually I had quite a few oddities happen tonight.

The first weird issue, happened with the diverter. I was just playing a normal game. Ball was in play and I heard the diverter engage. I'm not sure which diverter arm was active because I have a decal mod on that clear plastic. The ball was no where near the VUK, or any of the switches that typically engage the diverter.

The second weird issue, was the two-ball. I had 3 balls locked and RELEASE was lit. The ball was in play and the next thing I know it kicked the ball out of the right lock.

Crap! It had been almost 150 games since I replaced the switch midway up the habitrail in the plunger lane with no issues until tonight.

This is definitely pointing to a diode issue. There is voltage leaking backwards somewhere. However, it could all be related the diverter, but I honestly haven't looked at the diverter in enough detail to know what could be wrong with it.

I just want to confirm something with everyone that I believe is common for F-14, but I'm not sure. When set to FREE PLAY if your games ends and there are balls locked the game will go into MATCH mode and kick out the locked balls.

If I press START before the balls kick out it will start a new game and the balls will remain in the locks. The CPU doesn't seem to care. So now I'm starting a new game and I have balls already locked. Is this just an F-14 thing?

Cool. Thanks! I'm bringing my pin to a show here in Ottawa and I was a bit concerned about this.

Guys, I need to know the proper diode number for flipper coils. I have a broken one. It's a 1N4003. I took a look at the other diodes on my coils and the numbers are all different. 1N4002, 4004… what diode is supposed to be on the coils??? The manual doesn't list the diode number, just the coil and the diode for the EOS switch which is a 4001.

4004 for the flippers it is. Thanks.

In the F-14 manual is states that the banded side of the diode should be connected to the solid blue wire and the non-banded side goes to the trace wires. On mine, none of the bands are connected to the solid blue wire.

Should they be?

Yeah, it was in the flipper assembly notes.

What do you mean it would only apply to the flippers? The coil controls the flipper action. Aren't we talking about the same thing here?

If the banded side of the diode goes to the power side, then for me that is the blue wires and my diodes are all backwards.

Sorry, maybe I'm misunderstanding something...

I'll take another look tonight to see if the blue wires to my flipper coils have a trace colour on them. I didn't see any, but I'll trace it back even further. The blue wires I'm talking about are soldered to the middle terminal on the coils.

The center contact is solid blue wire. The blue wire is coming off the EOS switch. I resoldered the diodes onto the flipper coil and matched them up to the other flipper coils. Nothing blew up, or melted or started smoking so that's good. Played about 15 games after I done with the iron. No misfires.

So I tossed another 35-40 games onto my F-14. No two-ball. Which is good. Even better, I left the pin plugged in overnight, and had it powered up and in attract mode all day. So whatever possible issues that may be lingering are definitely not being caused by heat.

Check it out, all packed up for the Ottawa Pinball & Gaming Show this weekend! Pick up is Wednesday for me!

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You have to remove the clear plastic, and black divertor plastic. Unfortunately you have to remove all of the habitrails first to get it out of there.

The screw driver needs to be the right size especially on stripped stuff. Many people think a Phillips is just a Phillips when really there are a variety of different sizes and shapes to the points. I'm not saying that's you, just saying for anyone listening.

Are you able to cut the heads off using flush cutters or a mini hand saw?

You can also get them from Comet. Comet's version has LEDs on both sides of the ring. You are only purchasing the ring, not the bumper cap from Comet.

Here is what mine looks like;

comet.jpg

It looks great Dreg! As long as the colours match I think I'm in.

If you need an F-14 to test a set on I'm in Ottawa. Canada Post lettermail is cheap.