Space Shuttle GI Short problem ... Please Help.

Sounds good, I will bust it up and try to track the problem down. I heard GI short is possibly one of the most frustrating problems you can have and I am tending to agree with it. I got the rest of the parts in the mail and I am ready to install after I fix the lights.

Thanks for the boost in confidence!

I work around 14 hours a day so I don't have a lot of time to spend on this game everyday (which is why this is taking me 6 months now.) I plan on unsoldering a section every night and checking for bad sockets. It has to be this. I cannot find a pinched wire, all the bulbs are good, boards have a good connect on the power supply board.

Good news bad news

Good: I found the bad socket. It was the middle one behind SHU of SHUTTLE. I am no longer blowing a fuse.

Bad: Lights still don't work.

I unsoldered the socket but the series is still complete incase that helps.

I've determined it HAS to be the 6 wire molex connection in between board and GI. Unless the cord is cut somewhere in the middle which I can't find. Is the only way to test this to cut it? My mm has proven my theory correct but I have to try it out somehow. I do not want to cut it because I have never rebuilt this type connection.

Pinside...I give to you a completed GI. (minus the shorted one)

After replacing a toasty molex I had to find the short. It was a bad light socket. That fixed the fuse blowing problem but that didn't turn the lights on.
The 6 pin connection had the white/yellow wire was loose. I made sure the wire was snug in both connectors, got electrocuted (bad ground) and BAM. I got my two new switches in mail but I am playing a game tomorrow! I gotta fix the ground first....that kinda hurt.

20131103_010324.jpg

Haha you learn something everday.

We're back to having problems. I broke down the playfield again and pulled all the bulbs. I was getting the correct reading on the multimeter. So I thought maybe a bad bulb. I replaced them all again and it was working fine. I went in again yesterday and the fuse was blown again. The only thing I can think of is that loose wire in the connection. It has to be positioned right or the bulbs will go out. Could that cause a fuse to blow? I want to replace the whole 9? pin connections but I do not know how to replace those and I am assuming that it takes an expensive tool.

Mid saturday bump

Actually both. Sometimes I will adjust the connection and it will be working fine and then pop. Othertimes I turn it on and it pops immediately. Mostly the first though.

I am going to buy a 100 pack of fuses haha.

Yes, I really do...

Do you think it could be that connection that I was talking about that is causing the fuse to blow. It is not a shorted socket and it would be a 1,000,000,000 chance that it is bad bulbs (I keep replacing all of the bulbs when they blow.) It was similar to this...

ebay.com link » Like

How do you replace something like that.

Still fighting this. I replaced the molex which was a 6 pin .062? size. All of the lights are now doing a slow fade/brighten until the left side finally pops the fuse. I know for a fact there is not a single wire/socket touching metal. I have combed over it so many times I could draw it in my sleep. I have unsolder each section individually and with the exception of the first round, I have not found a single shorted socket.

It is about to go in the line up as is because I am burned out on this project and need to move to one of the others. Suggestions?