Ok so had my first "blunder" today. I rebuilt the diverter with new coils and did the service as it looked like it was only half done before. cut some zip ties and there was a cut wire in the bundle. before thinking about it I grabbed the wire to see where it went to/from. my tags decided they were then going to fall off and bundles come apart. Im pretty sure I have it figured out but want to double check. The purple yellow wire is just a daisy chain between the coils. So line in to lower diverter then chain to upper diverter to ball popper to (looks like yagov kicker). Order should not matter as long as they are all daisy chained correct? Then the thinner wire connected to coil is the signal wire which in most cases looks like it goes to a snubber board (not the diverters though)?

Awesome glad I figured it out correctly. And Im excited to do that pop bumper hack...very easy to do. Thanks again Grumpy

Um wow that looks awfully familiar but not near as bad on the board that came with my pin. Im pretty sure, but ill have to look in the morning, that is the same transistor and resistor that I suspected were bad on my original board. Error 7 which is a u54 error. Also out of all the coils those were the ones that were definitely on their way out

Ok so trying to figure out how to make posting pictures easier. Got me a new toy for birthday hope this works . Did some flipper rebuilding today. Normally if I look at something hard enough I can figure out exactly what is going on. Not sure I understand how the flippers work. I understand the principle of 2 coils in 1 with one being strong and one being weak, but I don’t understand how the switches work. I’m attaching a couple pictures of today’s work and a couple questions.

1. The EOS switch (one with beefy contacts) is connected to the capacitor and two of the lugs. Does it matter which of the wires that go from switch to lug.

2. The lane change switch has a diode on it, but as far as I can tell it’s only connected to 1 of the switch wires.

(Sorry couldn’t figure out how to delete the “almost”duplicate photo)

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Ok that makes a lot of sense. So flippers 1 and 2 rebuilt will do 3 and 4 tomorrow. Everything does look correct though? Only thing I changed was the red wire for the EOS. I didn't like all the blue wires and wanted something a little more distinguishable (18awg high temp tinned copper).

Finishing up with the last flipper rebuild. These were supposed to be the easy ones, then I found out one of them was being held in with 3 screws with 5 stripped holes. To make matters slightly worse 2 of the screws that were there wer too long and were up through playfield (barely noticeable but if you look you can see the tiny hole where screw started to come through). Got some filler and got that all patched up. Was going to try and finish the diverter up today. Attaching some images of what I believe you told me to do. Just want to double check before I change up wiring. On a side note when I put the diverter back together everything was super tight and binding. If I changed the direction of the sleeve everything works great but I don’t think it is correct how I have it now. But not sure (it is the ONLY way everything fits and works properly) if I put the flange between brackets nothing fits

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I had that wire there because I was going to start the chain at the diverters and replace the wire that that feeds the pop bumper and shoot it over to the diverters first. I think it will look a little cleaner and will prevent a splice (as a general rule I hate splices, Just another potential failure point). Or are you just saying hook the pop bumper up like it was then just add a 3rd wire and shoot over to diverters? Basically the thought process was to have 1 big daisy chain. So starting at play field fuse go to top diverter then bottom diverter then over to pop bumper.

Did my diverter wiring today. Very happy with how it came out putting it into the harness. Was going to do the pop bumper next. Got the spoon replaced, but there is a cut component I’m not sure what it is. Found another one on the kicker that wasn’t connected as well but it didn’t look cut per say. One on pop bumper looks like it was cut. Do I need it? How to test it? Oh and 2 switches or rather 1 big stack. I’m assuming one is for actuation and other is scoring like kicker?

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So in theory I can leave it disconnected for now with no issues and sometime in the future purchase a replacement. A quick google search says I can set meter to read ohms, cap should start at 0 and increase indefinetly. Is this the proper method to use to test?

That is very pretty, I don’t think I’m going to that extent. Let me fall in love with the machine and decide I wanna do a playfield swap, then a new translight might be in the cards. First up I have finally got all the coils and flippers rebuilt. Final tally 3 of 4 flippers coils were toast (replaced all 4) and 2 playfield ( pop bumper and outhole kicker) were in iffy shape. Started working on the warming boards. First board was missing a couple of the resistors. So pulled the board desoldered everything cleaned everything up and put 4 new resistors in. Easy enough although I did have a good laugh when I realized I was using a pair of tweezers (for the springy action) and q-tips to help remove old and space the new. The other warming board I’m immediately concerned with has the final loose wire and some “hack”. Pretty sure I got thing figured out but want to run it by you guys to make sure.

Pic 1 picture of the new wiring and fuse holders
Pic 2 and Pic 3 old warming board and rebuilt board
Pic 4 2nd warming board and loose wire

So basically I traced the loose wire over to the 3 flashers under the big round insert. Which doesn’t really make sense as the white/grey goes to that cluster as well. This tells me loose wire goes to warming board as I suspected. Maybe there was a current issue and the wires got hot I don’t know. I still don’t understand why the jumper wire is there either. I have not check with a multimeter but all the traces look fine. My first instinct it to replace the wire with something a bit bigger and clean up the wiring there or maybe even dump the third flasher and just have 2 and remove the extra wire. Thoughts? Suggestions? There is also something similar going on with the flashers at the back of the playfield where there is 2 wires (1 to each flasher). I know there was a service bulletin for these ones

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That is what I had figured but hadn’t looked at it close enough to determain that it was 2 separate circuits. Went ahead and rebuilt the board with the missing resistors and rebuilt the board with the loose wire. For the time being I just hooked it up like normal and removed that jumper wire. Will figure out a better solution in the future (at some point I’m going to replace those flasher sockets as they are pretty mangled) and will rewire it. Went ahead and installed rectifier board. Pretty straightforward install. Also started working at getting the rest of the Mylar glue off. None of it was too bad but the Mylar b/t tomcat on upper playfield the glue seems different. It’s like 3 times as thick and almost silicony. Taking a break for now as I’m getting a blister (dam glue). Prolly try to get the inserts pushed back in next and do general playfield cleaning. Also went ahead and ordered a playfield protector. I do think I might want to try and do a full playfield resto one day and don’t want to damage it further so I think that’s the best option till I get brave enough to try and learn to clear coat.

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Busy couple days. Fingers hate me but finally got all the Mylar glue off up by the top tomcat targets. Good news is after spending a good few hours getting that glue off I realized that the planking I thought I had is the thin clear coat cracking. Could still cause planking, but the test area I did with magic eraser and alcohol got smooth and the ripples disappeared. Not going to do the playfield this way right now (don’t like the idea of basically sanding the playfield without putting the protection back on) but I think the playfield protector should prevent further damage for now. Maybe sometime in the near future I can see about the equipment I would need to properly clear coat. Went through 90% of the switches today. Couple questions. First the Yagov would not register (would by hand) when I had the game up doing testing a month ago. Looking at it, it has a reinforcing plate in the switch but it was literally reinforcing nothing. I took the switch apart and swapped the plate around so it’s actually reinforcing the leaf. Now I get good contact and when I test with a multimeter but it makes contact shortly after the ball would hit the switch. Do I need to try and back the switch back a bit or is that fine? Also found these 2 little gems. First one is easy wire looks good so some quick desoldering and some shrink wrap all should be good. What do you think I should do about the back flasher board. It has all new sockets on it but whoever did the work doesn’t look too good. First look I see sanding, cold solder joints, improper bridge wires (looks like the used a leg from a diode) prolly from bad solder job. I feel like I should clean everything up (even the ones that seem fine, they were all replaced at some point) and use some jumper wires but not trying to dick with the traces and running them up to the connector (the bad ones). It’s delicate soldering but going to a trace if anything ever catches the wire good chance you rip the trace up anyways so going up to the connector sounds better in theory. Is this the proper thing to do or is there something else I should be considering?

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Ok I went with my gut and this is what I came up with. Had 3 sockets with no continuity to connector. So yellow is the ground starting at the first bad connector and running to end of string. Then did jumpers for the hot side all the way to connector. Also whoever rep,aced the sockets managed to put 2 in backwards. As this board would never be removed with the game on I left it alone. This should be ok yes? In other exciting news finally took the plunge and bought a 3D printer. Going to make a shroud to cover the back of the flasher board and protect the newly added jumpers

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no im keeping the flashers stock for now. Ive also read somewhere that led flashers are even more obnoxious than the normal ones. My current plan for the lighting is to do the backbox with led and maybe the general gi. leave most everything else stock for now. Im thinking of going up to TPF next weekend so that might change once I get to see how all the led's look. Eventually would do the controlled lamps

And looking at that board closer its 4 sockets that are the wrong way not 2 ><

So I have got everything put back together and a few games played. Still have a few issues some old some new. First issue was I was still not getting any switches down the grn/yel line. Pulled out the multimeter and traced the problem back to a bad pin I missed when I was doing the connectors and now all switches register. Currently none of the red cheveron inserts lite up have not traced anything yet hoping its just another bad pin (or something similar). The main issue Im concerned with is nothing that is connected to the 34v (red/wht) is working intermittent. I had this problem before I did anything with the kickers and I never got the pop bumper to work prior to doing work. When they are working the kickers will shoot off several times in rapid sucession (assuming this can be fixed by adjusting the switch) and the pop bumper seems weak (although im not really sure how strong they are supposed to be to start with). When they die everything on the string dies so no kickers pop bumper yagov kicker rescue kicker ect. The first time I noticed that the kickers were dead I checked the playfield fuse over by yagov kicker and replaced it. Everything worked fine for a few minutes then went dead again checked the new fuse and it was fine. Cycled the machine off and on and checked power at the power supply connector. Got 31v at the connector on power supply

Any suggestions on how to test this problem and find the issue? All the coils have power right? So with the machine on I can goto the end of the line and test for voltage by touching the red/wht and a ground on the cabinet and work my way up to find the problem? Kinda like how ive been doing the switch problems.

well with that said my gut feeling is the connector at the power board or the connector that connects to playfield harness. All the coils have been gone over so thats the only 2 places it could be other than possibly a bad fuse holder (unlikely). Ill bust out the multi meter in the morning and see what i can come up with.

I keep on hitting preview instead of post . So tracked down 95% of the issues past couple days. Everything so far had been poor connections at the playfield harness. I have basically popped the pins out tightened them up a bit. Next time the playfield comes out Im going to replace all the connectors down there. Got about 100 games in and the only issue I see is the yagov kicker getting stuck on. I had a pretty decent game going and was set up for multiball hit the kicker a couple of times and nothing. So I looked down in the cubby and saw the arm was extended. It appears to just be binding as it stays extended when the machine is off and pushing it back in wasnt smooth. Anything in particular I should look for (like maybe i tightened something too much ect..) when I pull the diverter top back off?

Ya I spoke a bit too soon. I saw it was yagov and thought about all the shit that had to be removed to get to it... Once I started taking it apart its not that bad now I know how everything fits together. Turned out it was the end stop screw was too long. Sad thing is I bought short screws just for that and guess I forgot to swap them out on yagov. Everythign is working and functional. Plays fast and brutal still working at replacing the default high score. Only pending non-issue is there is alot of ball hop, especially off of the stand up targets. Thinking it might just be some minor adjustments on their angle and hop will go away.

So decided to go to the Texas pinball festival this past Saturday. Was a ton of fun. Found 3 f-14 through the day. 2 were playable and 1 was off. Man oh man how much of a difference my machine plays compared to the ones at the show (pretty sure they were both routed machines from arcades). Festival machines slow and sloppy. Pops didn’t work raised inserts the whole 9 yards. The one machine that was off looked fairly decent. Kinda gives me that sense of accomplishment that I did good repairs. I can actually see why it isn’t the most popular machine as if you play one that’s not working good there is nothing fun about it, but if you get to play a nice one it’s a blast.

So browsing around the show found me some goodies for her. Picked up a new sheet of glass, new beacons and some flipper buttons. When I was installing the new stuff ran into a couple new issues. First I noticed that The gi lights by the left kicker weren’t very bright. Pulled up the playfield to look at the wiring and bingo bango bongo popped a fuse. Going to try and trace line back to fuse tomorrow already found 2 bad connections on the string (1 of which will not solder have tried everything) 2nd issue is I got a tiny bit of sparking on my right flipper cab switch. Replaced both caps and it’s still there so new cab switches in the near future.

On a side note my siste, mom and myself all really enjoyed jjp potc and now mom is on the hunt for one. Figure if that pans out sometime in the near future I can try to give Cletus (just ran across your thread beautiful machine) a run for his money and do a full resto. Oh an got my flasher plate cover done. Really happy with the results. V2 I’m going to try and round the corners and maybe make the red part a bit bigger. Throw a MIG decal on the red and some tomcat decals on either side. Just because.....

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not a lot of work today but what i did started frustrating me. So started testing down the line and went something like this bad bad bad bad bad, then i realized well duh I have to take out the lamps to test socket. Got the 10 out that I knew of and was still getting continuity and looked a little deeper and found at least 4 more sockets on the string with 2 under the diverter. I dont want to pull the diverter again just so I can pull 2 bulbs and test some sockets but they also arnt serviceable sockets (IE they are stapled in). I am prepared to swap out all the gi that is stapled in and do some wiring work. Will these sockets work to replace the gi to something that can easily be serviced. https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/077-5031-00 . As far as wireing them I should be able to just redo them as a daisy chain and then tap into the braid in a couple spots and hook in the power ?

I do plan on running insulated grounding wire for the chain and then tapping into the braid probly at the start and end of then chain to make the swap as easy as possible. I dont want to use the flat mounting sockets because i do not plan to put staples back in. Id rather have a screw I can take out and pull the whole socket if I have problems in the future. If I ever get around to the playfield resto all the ground braid will effectivly dissappear for insulated wire.

Oh and on a lighter note. Didnt think mom was serious, but evidently she had waaay more fun playing potc than I thought....Her new machine should be delivered next week sometime. Which means give me 6 months and ill have her convinced to let me take the f-14 back apart to do a playfield resto.

Any of you guys have a pic of the playfield with only the GI wired. There is no reference to how the gi is supposed to be wired in the manual that I can tell. Basically in the backbox we have 4 fuses that are for the gi. Assuming one is for the backbox gi. One is the gi string I'm about to update wht/yel (includes almost all of the gi im about to update) and have found 2 other sockets on the wht/vio. Does this seem right? where are the other wires feeding power? I guess what I'm really asking is there a quick dirty version to how the 4 strings are wired?

That helps. So thinking I just need to find the other wht/vio ones. Then ill split them between the 2 strings. Perfect