I'm struggling with a Mr & Mrs Pacman that has been worked on by previous owners, had real bad battery leakage on the mpu, etc...

While searching the net and looking around the machine, since this stuff is all fairly new to me, also learning how much I really didn't know about soldering and electronics. I was always able to.....Just hack whatever I needed to to make things work in the past instead of actually learning the right way. I have a couple of questions.......

Why aren't all the boards grounded at the mounts? Why is it run through the connector wires? Is there any reason other than fast assembly?

Can I run a ground strap from each board ground to the cabinet ground from the rectifier board up? Meaning each board would have a solid wire to the ground in the cabinet? instead of running through all the wires and connectors.

I'm still learning......... is there any reason why this shouldn't be done?

Thanks! I'll do this...

This may be a stupid question..But why isn't the rectifier board grounded? It is almost isolated/ insulated(?)... but there are grounds running from it to the cabinet,backbox, and playfield.

I guess, from working on equipment, most of our problems were caused by bad or weak grounds. But all of that stuff was DC and there wasn't a DC AC mix....I get lost when it comes to that.

Ok, I guess earlier..... I couldn't understand why that board wasn't grounded to the pan below, that is grounded to cabinet ground. It sits up on nylon spacers. I see what you guys are saying . I also see all other boards are grounded through the mounts which I did make those better a while back. I guess I was just looking for a way to make it all more solid and not running through all the connectors. I may have been looking for a problem that doesn't exist.

That's another thing! Where? does it show, or what is the standard for these block type connector pin locations, what is up or down. The rectifier board for example. I figured it out by looking at what was already there, and the wiring color codes for this board. on the print it shows everything in a straight line. J2 pin 5 for example. how are these block connectors numbered? .... If my rambling makes any sense at all....I'm horrible with wording.

I've seen connectors on other things that had a "1" or all the numbers on the connector. Looking at these? Is there a print? A standard way of numbering them etc...If it's a square 9 or 6 or whatever number connector? What if I had a connector in one hand and a bunch of wires in the other how would I know where "1" is or any other number, there has to be a standard way of numbering these block connectors, a way to identify top bottom, or something that I'm not seeing.

Just stuff I was wondering about while I was looking around and I could not find a mark or anything on the connectors to identify what the pin numbers were I figured most out by looking at the board, wire codes, and the schematic but still have no clue how to number the connector. The other boards are easy, they're in a straight row with a "1" marked on the board.

Ok, I'm using wrong words.. I can see what I'm trying to say, spitting it out is a different story!

The power module or what I'm calling rectifier board. -54. Has square type block connectors as an example. These type connectors are in other areas of these games too. I'm not sure what to call them. The largest on the power module is a 12 pin square connector 3x4, then there is 9 pin, and 6 pin blocks(?). On the schematic these wires and wire codes or sometimes in a straight line or even scattered throughout the schematic. No problem, I get that, and understand how to read those. What It doesn't show is the actual pin layout of the block connector(this is what I don't get) or where to find this info for each type of connector. If you had these type connectors in hand, one wired and one that was empty, what is the way of knowing where number "1" , top or bottom is. Is there a standard way of differentiating top or bottom and what the numbers of the pins are? for an example... read female side right to left, top to bottom, and what shows top? And which side is this done (male,female, wire side/soldered side) on to keep numbering in some kind of a system.

In the past I worked on signs, they may have had 20pin or 30 pin connector , or even more, of all shapes and sizes. If These wires were all pulled out, which happened often because of abuse? I could look at the connector, the schematic wire codes, and pin them all back with out even having a board or sign. But on those connectors "1" or all were marked on the connector wire side to show the numbering layout or at least a a starting point and maybe a couple numbers throughout to show you the direction to read them. But almost always had a "1" marked on it somewhere. If it was in the left corner? They were read left to right, if in the right corner? They were read right to left. I don't remember looking at them too much but I'm guessing the difference was male or female side. It's been a few years and I just knew after a while by looking at them, at that time, not sure if that is even the direction they were read anymore, it may have been top to bottom. Just using it as an example.....

I looked online to try to find the answer, but I don't know enough terms to find what I'm looking for.

added
Here.....You have to make a wiring harness for the power module, where in the block connector 3x4 is pin 5? And how would you know this with an empty connector in one hand and a hand full of wires in the other, and just a schematic, no board. What on the actual plastic block(?) connector tells you where to start as "1", top bottom,sides,and how do you know this ?

There has to be a way to know. I could re-pin and re-connector? ....ummm connect?........ my whole machine, and I could make it work following wire diagrams and codes, but I may not have the connector right to plug into a different machine. If I'm going to work on this stuff as a hobby, I want to make sure everything is done right, not just hacked to work. So this playfield or any harness would or could be changed out and the connectors are right. I see some hacks in this thing......and I don't want to be "that guy". If you get one of my machines at my estate sale(which is just a bunch of old junk anyhow) in the future? It would be correct old junk!!!!

Ok, i'm done rambling my nonsense, I couldn't figure this connector thing out and it was driving me insane, since I don't know the terms to find what I'm looking for.

Thank you! I have threads started, then I'm too......Computer dumb to get back to them! So, I started another the thread for the connector question. The numbers are molded on my housings. I guess I'm just blind! It took three times of looking at them to see the numbers. I was going insane trying to find the answer, and the numbers were on there the whole time, I just overlooked them.

Thanks again!