Help needed! I have an F-14 Tomcat project on my workbench, and the big project element is that a previous owner hacked up the flasher boards and cut some flasher wiring entirely, so I have loose, cut wires all over the place and don't know where they go. It would help me greatly if someone could post or PM me detailed pictures of the underside of the playfield, especially the wiring related to the flasher boards and the snubber relays. Any help is appreciated!

Thanks, vid1900! Wow--there's a lot there to absorb there, but I'll study up this weekend. What a great resource. I know there are plenty of pix in the link provided above, but if anyone has pix of the playfield underside in small sections I can still use them in general.

Superb, vid1900. These will get me there for sure. Just what I need. Thank you!

And now, looking at the service bulletin you provided in the other link along with your pix, I can see that my machine is one of those where the operator cut the wires and removed the bulbs (by the number on my backbox at least, my game may have been #33 in production). This will make it much easier to fathom what happened to my wiring and to decide how to remedy it. Again, thanks a million. Now the "mess o' wires" is starting to make sense!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks SUPERBEE and wayout440 for the replies. A shorted cap would make sense, and this gives me something to go on--I really appreciate it. I think I'll have to get tech help for board soldering and schematics reading on this one, in that it's likely well beyond my skills. I'll let you know if I solve it with the help of a tech.

Thanks, I've got some spares, so I'll try swapping one in just in case.

Interesting--following up on the sound problem described above, I also just got a "U10 PIA Failure" message upon booting. The message went away and the game plays, but perhaps that error is related as well. It doesn't happen every time I boot, but it did at least once. Looks like I have some work to do. Again, any advice appreciated. I've never done CPU board work.

Tried swapping in the ribbon from another machine connecting the CPU to the sound board, with no change. Thanks for the idea though.

Appreciate the advice and confirmation. I don't suspect the power supply given the other game behaviors, and indeed I had turned the machine off and on quickly. I'll stop doing that!

Following up on the above discussion and advice--thanks very much to koen12344 and wayout 440--I discussed the issues I'm having with my F-14 with a few techs and decided to send the CPU and power supply both out for repair and upgrades. Decided it was worth it to me since I'll be routing the machine. After that board work, I expect the machine will be 100% in a few weeks. Thanks again to all those who replied.