Lots of reasons:

1) Someone attempted to cut a tie wrap and managed to cut into the wire, as well. Especially if they tried to cut a tie wrap with a razor knife.

2) Are you sure some of this "wear" is not soldering iron burns?

3) Frayed near the connectors could be someone did some re-pin work and did not get the wire located into the pin far enough for the insulation captured by connector when it was being crimped.

Man, if the insulation is worn thru to the wire you will need to cut the connector pin off, slide on some shrink tube and crimp a replacement pin on.

My Seawitch had been a heavily routed pin. There is a lot of shaking going on during game play. Remember how you learned you could take a piece of wire and keep bending until it broke? Yes. Well, with almost all of my lamp wiring, from all the years of shaking, the wire strands started breaking. Most of my lamp wires were all hanging by one wire strand only. I discovered this after I fixed one broken wire. And then another broken wire. When the third one broke I started looking around.

Mice

Best way to describe this is to show pics. I have tidied up some of this stuff but still have much more work ahead of me.

I don't think mice as no wires are "chewed" through. Just insulation wear.

20190201_102827 (resized).jpg

20190201_102854 (resized).jpg

20190201_102907 (resized).jpg

20190201_102917 (resized).jpg

20190201_102957 (resized).jpg

20190201_103029 (resized).jpg

I think dasvis is correct. Mice. Eating the insulation but leaving the wire alone.

I trick I learned recently for striped wiring: Acrylic paint and a small paint brush. Say you to need a white wire with orange stripes. Get the correct white wire and some orange acrylic paint and make your own striped wire. Cut the bad out, solder in the new, shrink wrap it.

Ahh ok that does make sense. Thanks for the tip! Time to stock up on shrink tube!

What are these two middle post supposed to look like?
I can’t get a nut to fit on either one of mine so they just flop about loose under the plastic right now.
I assume my setup is not factory.
So any part numbers I may need for new post screws if needed are appreciated.

40B55975-103F-4A1A-A11C-728C4310B7C7 (resized).jpeg

My two middle ones were Phillips wood screws. The same ones that are used throughout the Playfield on other star posts.

Thanks. Got it fixed.
The two posts are nice and tight now.
Someone had just put hand cut machine screw shafts in the holes in my game.
I fully expected to remove T-nuts under the playfield but they were just screwed into the holes from the top. Very weird.
Anyway all good and stock now.
EE151B10-AA68-43FF-A87C-8640B5968302 (resized).jpeg

Next question.
My Flipper button leaf switches are shot.
What is a good plug and play part number on these?

29434811-31A5-45B7-A02B-EEF9068CB5BD (resized).jpeg

Seems to me a Seawitch is best as a Seawitch. Lots of work here to change what is a classic game, warts and all. No disrespect, but I like it as built. And will keep mine as such.

Just so you know, those blue posts you have are not Stern style posts. You have finned posts. Stern used facetted posts. The part number you need if you decide to go that route is: C11562CB transparent dark blue.

http://www.pbresource.com/posts.html

Oh, yeah, you can tell Steve at Pinball resource you want flipper switches for your Seawitch.

http://www.pbresource.com/buttswit.html

Actually, you want GTB-B17838+ High Current Switch.

Did not even notice. When I ordered them I just requested Blue posts for Seawitch and that is what was sent to me. lol
Oh well, they work and look great.

Thanks for the part #

I don't know how far you want to go with repair and replacement, but you can make your own switches for lots of dollar savings. I have not gone as far as Frunch, yet, but I did order a selection of contacts. When the time comes I'll just replace the contacts for about 10 cents each.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/building-re-building-leaf-switches

For your info last Thursday Mirco from Mirco playfields tried to shut down my Classic Stern Parts business. Post here that I was no longer selling product to the world. Many legal threats & he was caught! I continue to get ready to mass produce new Seawitch & more Star Gazer playfields this year. Be aware of his tactics & personal practices. I produce like 1/20 of 1% of product for Classic Stern the last 8 years.

IMG_0001 (resized).JPG

IMG_0002 (resized).JPG

Interesting read. $9.00 a switch is pretty expensive for simple switches.
So I can see where making your own if skilled enough could be cheaper.

So I found a source for the yellow opaque arrow. Will be ordering minimum 1000, lead time is 4+ weeks. So there should be a flood of new playfields this spring.

at this point, you might as well hold off producing any more seawitch playfields until you receive the yellow arrow inserts. given that you are ordering them, I'm guessing that everyone on the list is going to want them, I know that I do (and based on how long we've already waited, 1 more month isn't going to make that much of a difference

4 more tests will not matter. 20 + 40 cnc playfields cut end of this month & March will wait for the yellow arrows.

Where does one get one of these?
Still available?

You are talking about the small piece of plastic above the left upper flipper that stops the ball from climbing on top of the plastic.

Usually everyone just makes their own.

I'm interested in your old playfield. I'm in Modesto California

It's really not worth salvaging - lots of raw wood exposed in high detail areas. I'm planning on using it as a cool wall piece in my office. I recommend getting on John Greatwich's unpaid waitlist for a new playfield. He seems to be genuinely close to production.

How much is a new playfield going for??

$600 US + $50 US shipping to USA.

And rails are now available. Taylor made a template from my set. He can make them to order now.

2DD986E0-E705-46A4-9A4D-E82A84A842A0 (resized).jpeg

93FCD3AD-59C2-45F4-8A77-AB81DAC6BED3 (resized).jpeg

Sexy!

Anyone have a paint code mix number or general paint color name for the blue frame around the backglass?

I found this Seawitch for sale in Tampa for $2300 on Craigslist Incase anyone is looking for one
tampa.craigslist.org link

Best you can do is go to Home Depot or Lowes and pull a bunch of paint chips and start matching.

Krylon has some colors that are a good match for both the light blue and the dark blue.

Wow that's a good deal

Finally stopped my ball jams over the left Flipper using a part on hand.
I had an old comet populated playfield that I use for parts and it just happend to have this nice metal part that was used to prevent ball jams under the plastic ramp. Works nicely to guide any errant fly balls right back down to the Seawitch playfield.

1A1B9E52-1F40-4F3E-BECC-B7F0C7E54828 (resized).jpeg

755F8C23-F181-42ED-AADA-1D54073C77A5 (resized).jpeg

DD41315C-2729-409C-94F3-0D25F054369F (resized).jpeg

In case this helps anyone else I went to Lowe’s to find the best match paint I could for whatever color my head around the backglass had faded to. For me it is the color on the top of the photo on Sherwin Williams card #233A “Oceanside Blue”
I know the true color will never show in a photo but here is the card anyway.

00A7405B-BAAB-435F-B76F-F62285D9DAEB (resized).jpeg

Nice! I have to find/make something myself still!

There is a fella earlier in this thread -- who made a special plastic for seawitch for this purpose.

9006c47c9f85e9a4d2acbb4bafbd717a536f853d.jpeg (resized).jpg


.

The chips I have scanned are a little too light, but these are the closest match to my cab. I have found a good match for both at the store in the Krylon rack.

These chips are from Lowes. The dark blue is Jay Blue Sherwin Williams SW6797. the light blue is Rapture Blue SW 6773

I'm going to go out to Lowes and get the chips you show. They maybe be a better match that what I have. But then again, with rattle cans off the shelf there are not going to be very many choices.

witch chips_3 (resized).jpg

Without re-reading the entire thread, has anyone ever sanded down their Seawitch Cab, only to find that it was originally an ALI cab? I'd bet $ my Seawitch was factory Stern Paint job... Sanded through today to do new paint/stencil job & found it was originally painted as an ALI. ALI Production ended 5/2/80, Seawitch began 5/2/80.... Guessing they had some leftover ALI cabs....

I did read earlier a post about some Seawitch backboxes with Black front trim instead of Blue... mine had black trim... & sure as heck looked factory, identical job in every way to my factory Dracula front trim that was Black. I really don't think this was done by a vendor... I think it was done at Stern. I think I'm going to do it in Blue instead just as personal preference.

Cool find on the Ali cabinet.
I did just repaint the inside of mine.
Looks so much better now.
Now I need to see about toning down my Flipper power a bit.
Both of my lower flippers are way to strong and I know something will break if I leave them alone.
What coil should be on the lower flippers?
Maybe someone used what they had.
If they turn out to be correct is there a way to soften them with the end of stroke switch maybe?

622EC115-136F-417A-93EC-15FE340433EE (resized).jpeg

Check the wiring on the transformer. If it's set for 115 change it to 120.

Lower flippers J-25-475/34-4500

you can also gap the EOS switch bigger

I finally finished my Beatles ramp for the shooter lane. As mentioned sometime back, this set up does not help with getting any more loop shots. So the time and money spent for that reason was a bust. However, as a preference for using the flap gate or going with this shooter set up, I do not miss the flap gate. It is not 100% perfect. Every once in a while I get a crappy shot but 9 times out of 10 I get nice smooth shots from the shooter lane.

I had to make 2 deflectors to keep the ball from jumping up and going over the arch plastic. Deflector #1 is an aluminum strip that travels from the rail and arcs around on top of the arch plastic. Deflector #2 ( does not show up in the pics) is a piece of plastic that is located on top of the drop target plastic. This plastic deflector is the first contact the ball has as it leaves the shooter ramp. The ball brushes it lightly on launch and does not crash into the play field glass. I am very satisfied the way it has turned out.

IMG_0220 (resized).JPG

I also modified my strip of aluminum that replaced the flap gate. My prototype extended from the loop and went all the way down to just above the upper right flipper. This eliminated the two post and the rubber that located above the flipper. I have shortened the strip and replaced to two posts and rubber ring.

To do this I had to:

1) Make an undercut in the rail for proper location of the ramp. You can see the white wood in the rail where I did some grinding.

2) I had to drill two holes to locate the ramp.

3) I had to drill one hole to attach the flap gate replacement strip. The upper part of this strip is just pinched between the rail and the loop ball guide.

4) I drilled one new hole to relocate the outside edge of the spinner. With the factory install of the flap gate, the spinner sort of sat at an angle inside the loop lane. With the flap gate removed I was able to move the outside spinner post farther up the play field. The spinner performance is still the same and it is still a bitch to target but I think it looks better.

IMG_0223 (resized).JPG

I also used some of this nice hand-formable aluminum strip to make a new deflector for lower left hand drop targets.

IMG_0198 (resized).JPG

IMG_0224 (resized).JPG

My plan is to bring Seawich to TPF. If you are going, then check out my shooter setup. It is not going to knock you out but I think you will appreciate it.

for anyone interested in altering their seawitch as cottonm4 did above, I have one extra set of all of the stern parts required to make the change. contact me via pm for details

I played a couple of games on this game at TPF.
Nicely done sir.
Game played very well.
What I did like the most is the use of a regular skinny flipper bat for the upper right. Gives a much better shot at a spinner rip.
By playing your game I also now know that my flipper strength is way to hard for this game. Yours did not seem like it will snap any drops but played well.
I also picked up a reproduction backglass from GreatJohn at the show.
Does anyone know the size of metal lift trim I need for it and the best place to order if available?

I think I got mine from #gatecrasher.

Thanks. Was worried they were for only Bally williams but then I read where he will do custom lengths if needed.
Looks like the new glass is 1/8" but I will double check when I get home.
Thanks for the reply.

make sure it is 1/8 but Marcos has a selection:
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/P-6242-107

Thank you very much. The flipper bats are the aluminum bats that Pinball Life sells. You are looking at $50.00 worth of bats. I love the way they hit.

All 4 of my flipper coils are blueprint coils and the upper flippers also use the blueprint resistors. Other than the Beatles launch ramp this pin is all blueprint stock.