This happened on my kings and queens I had my connectors in the back flip flopped. Double check those first.

This should be stuck open when you start a game and release once you start scoring points.

It sounds like you are on the right track and things are working except the reset isn’t quite completing.

For fun try moving the large arm on the relay banks in the cabinet and under the playfield. If you are able to trigger the relays individually I believe they mounted the reset under the playfield on this particular game. It sounds like you are missing a contact somewhere along the reset sequence.

Have you been out to Marvin3m site recently? He documented the proper reset procedure and you can pinpoint what’s not happening for you.

Starting a game will be via the start button that looks like a coin reject except it has a shorted path to travel inward and hangs a little lower than the coin reject buttons.