Question regarding 200mm f4 lens and teleconverter

I just tried an experiment. I took a 200mm f4 ai lens and attached a Nikon 1.4 AF-1 Teleconverter TC-14E to it. This is a TC that I've only previously used with my 400mm 3.5 years ago. The odd thing I noticed is that I can't focus on anything past 17 feet. I can't figure out exactly why? I will say that the test shots I took were very sharp, but the limitation of how far I can focus limits the use of this combination. Is this converter compatible with longer lenses only? Please shed some light on this if you can.