So you have the wire bundle going into the head but without connectors?

These should be similar across all early sterns so different manual scans might get you close.

I would start at solenoids by finding the 18G wires of the correct colors. Test continuity from the coil to the end of the wire to make sure you have the correct wire and crimp it and put it into the connector.

Move on to switches and go from the first one in each column and test continuity to the 22G wire of the matching color. Then do the same for the rows.

This should leave you with a lot of 22G. From here you have to go to each lamp socket and work your way through. You have a lot of work here but for a QS it should be worth it.

Someone who needs something "chopped off"!

My Quicksilver is currently being restored by Keith. He has a thread on Pinside: "Pirates Life Pinball/ Quicksilver restoration". He is documenting the restoration and has numerous pictures on his thread. Including this one. Have a look.

Mark Salas

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Might make sense to splice it to this: ebay.com link: BALLY NIGHT RIDER PINBALL MACHINE LOWER CABINET WIRE HARNESS CONNECTORS

Ballys are probably 80% identical and much more common. They made more playboys than all MPU100s combined (almost)

That lower harness won't get you what you need. It connects the coin door, tilt panel, flipper buttons, power in and service outlet, speaker and knocker to the power rectifier board. Also, the Bally power supply was in the head, yours is in the lower cab. Do you have enough wire to make it to the boards if you got the plugs on the end? Because looking at your picture I am pretty certain it was cut a ways back from the plugs. And there should be two sets. One that went from the play field almost straight down to the power board with around 6 wires and one that runs up to the head with 50-60 wires.

Shawn

Not fun, but not impossible either. I can walk you through most of it. It would not be hard to write out a key to convert the different wires from one game to another. Several people on here have run a game with a non matching harness. The trick is knowing what you are getting was also not cut short. I could make you up a set of plugs with say 3' of wire in the right colors that you could then join to the existing wires. (Preferably soldered wire to wire and then covered with shrink wrap.) It would be less work than replacing the whole deal but might cost more than a used harness and there is the possibility of future problems with that many connections. One of my first machines was a "Duotron" with all of the wires cut at the head. The plugs and tails were still there, though and I was able to join them all back together. A PIA for sure, but I got it up and running.

Shawn

So I looked at mine Quicksilver which is currently stored. I took out the bundle coming from the playfield cabinet for the connectors in the back box. See attached picture. To smileymatthew, if pictures like this can be of help to you please send me a PM.

Quicksilver sample (resized).jpg

I'm just now seeing this post. Everything you need is on the page for Play field wiring. Finding an old Stern play field harness is your best bet for getting the right color of wires. The challenge you will have, for example, is that the wire R-G wire on a Meteor play field that hooks up to connector J1, pin 14 might be a W-B wire on the Quicksilver at the same pin number on the MPU.

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Or, find someone who can make you a custom set of pigtails in the proper color combos.

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Those look nice.

Where can we go to find some body who does that kind of work?

If I had the correct wire colors I could do something like that but I don't

Last time I had to do something similar I bought a partial harness from a same brand\era machine and made it out of that

You found him.

Are you going to make Quicksilver and Star Gazer wiring harnesses?

I could. Planning on doing Star Gazer and EBD play field harnesses anyways. Have to do a little more studying. Stern's early schematics really suck!

Shawn

Them shore are purty!
I wish finding those 28 pin plugs (in quantities of thousands) was a bit easier.

That’s where that playfield went damn, I almost bought that awhile back with the same idea and I even had a spare Seawitch cabinet ready to go for it. Good luck on the project.

Thanks! And agreed. I think I have ten 28 pin connectors left from a bag I bought from you several years ago. Meanwhile, a 25 plus a 3 plus two drops of super glue will have to do.

Shawn

Just a cursory glance but it appears the coil in pic 1 has been worked on. The soldering job isn't as neat and the diode is different. The bottom picture looks factory. And a continuity check would show them all connected - by the daisy-chained yellow wire. If you disconnect it in the bottom pictured coil it shouldn't happen again. Taking some stabs here. Anyone else?

Shawn

Mine has the black/blue wire on the center bank going to J1-5 and the black/orange wire on the right bank going to J5-10.

Interestingly, the schematics show the right bank going to J5-12 on the playfield sheet and J5-10 on the SDB page.

Right DT coilSDB J5 connectorCenter DT coilSDB J1 connector

"Interestingly." Yeah, that's one way to put it! I've seen a couple of discrepancies here and there but that one is pretty bad. Thanks for the input.

If you disconnect the single yellow you can check continuity again to know which black/orange wire is which and then attach them to the appropriate wire on the pigtails. No need to run new wire. And then reattach the yellow and it should all be good.

Shawn

I stopped questioning (I am sure you have seen your share of hacks) why people do some of the things they do on pinball machines. Glad you were able to diagnose and fix. Great game. Mine is in the middle of a restore.

It was probably that day the black/blue reel on the line ran out and someone was too lazy to go get a fresh reel.

A newhire way to solve the problem.