Let me try to explain my issue one more time to see if someone can help. On my mousin around, the line cord comes into the game, goes to the junction box where the black, white and green wires split off. White, green and black go to the small square box inside the larger junction box which I think is the varistor? They further go to the line fuse and service outlet. They then go to the on/off switch.

If I check continuity from the wall.plug prongs to the white, black and green wires, everything checks correctly - when the on/off switch is OFF.

However, when I turn the on/off switch ON, my meter shows continuity between all black and white wires! That cant be correct?

When I leave the switch off, but jumper the black and white wires across it, again I show continuity between black and white at all places inside the game - service outlet, varistor input and output. Both sides of on/off switch, etc. Thoughts??

You can get continuity through incandescent light bulbs. Are you getting the same result at the service outlet? Never mind, I see you are.

The end result of all this is I have 60v ac between any metal surface on mousin and any other nearby pinball. If you touch both - ouch!

Still desperate for help or suggestions!! I got to thinking about why the black and white wires show continuity only after the on/off switch is turned on. Seems to me that the ac wires going into the transformer might show continuity? Since they go through a transformer winding?

Tested that theory with the transformer input plug unplugged and sure enough, the white and black wires show continuity going into the transformer.

So if this is normal, why am I getting ac voltage between my game and its neighbors?? The black wire is connected to the little plug prong, the white wire is connected to the larger prong, the green is connected as it is supposed to and the line outlets show no fault. Somebody help me think this through. Please!

I believe the live voltage, (black wire coming from the wall outlet) should run to the service outlet first. The machine's power switch should not need to be on to plug something into the service jack. I don't have a schematic in front of me but I'm sure that's how they are wired.

I'll check that and report back. Normally when I get ac voltage between two games' metal surfaces it's because someone before me installed a replacement plug incorrectly with the black and white wires reversed. Or has cut the ground prong off. I dont see that in this case.

I think I finally found the problem after chatting with Ray over at Wide Area Repair and bouncing a few ideas around. His thought was that most times he has that problem, its a missing ground, rather than switched hot and neutral wires. So, with that in mind, I again traced all wires from the wall plug back to the junction box inside the game and found all wires had continuity. As I looked at the game, I saw the ground braid which travels all throughout the game grounding various pieces of metal trim and got to wondering where the braid got its ground from. The line cord provided ground to the junction box, but NO ground wire came out of the junction box! I looked at a neighboring Secret Service pinball and saw that the metal ground braid which runs around the cabinet and carries the ground throughout the game was looped under the metal junction box on Secret Service.

I looked back at the ground braid on Mousin' and saw the ground braid ran along the cabinet NEAR the junction box but was not actually connected to it in any way. The staples holding the braid looked factory to me, but I pulled one out and ran the braid under the junction box housing as it was on Secret Service and screwed the junction box back to the cabinet. Voila! Ground now carries from green wire on wall plug, through the junction box, and onto the ground braid. Stray AC voltage is finally gone!! Thanks to all who provided suggestions and helped me focus my thinking towards a final solution.

The voltage is still there and you still don't know where it's coming from but at least it's being safely routed to ground. That's a step in the right direction.

@Vid1900, this thread was very useful, thank you so much! Put together a junction box for WPC-89 (WH2O). What do you think?

More info on it, here: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/white-water-wh2o-scratch-build/page/4#post-7853563

Thank you for taking the time to take a look

Notes

Thank you so much! It helps to be working with only new parts

Thanks VID, I put a new plug on the end of my Space Station cord this morning. This thread was a good reference!

More thanks VID, I put new cords from The Pinball Resource on my Gottlieb El Dorado and Bally Fireball EMs! Long overdue.

Hey Vid, I scanned through this guide to try and make sense of what I have on my game, but couldn’t find the exact situation. I have a Continental Cafe (currently in the finishing stages of being converted to a Whoa Nellie! Big Juicy Melons EM), and I’m about to install a three-prong cord as per your instructions, but want to be clear on how to tie it in with the power switch that was added in. Based on the previous posts, I am assuming it had been done incorrectly.

I found the switch currently containing both hot and neutral attached, with neutral going to the transformer lug, and hot twisted onto to the hot wire of the power cord. The neutral wire of the power cord, however, is attached to the FUSE. (I’d already desoldered it in the picture.)

Based on your info, hot from the plug should go to the switch first, and then to the fuse. Neutral from the plug goes to the transformer. Where, then does neutral from the switch go? I also want to be sure I connect the switch properly, and am unsure if the lug connecting the switch to the outlet plug then goes to the fuse via the same lug or an adjacent one (as pictured except connected to the transformer instead).

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Yep, I have a new cord to replace the old with. Just could use a visual for exactly how the switch gets wired up. Is that somewhere in the thread? Which lug on the switch gets the hot, and does the same lug on the switch go back the transformer or is that a different lug?

Oh and do both the hot and neutral then both end up on the same transformer lug?

No, that would short circuit the line voltage.

It should end up on the other lug of the primary winding.

I knew that didn’t sound right. I think I just need to look up a picture, or check out a similar EM when I get to work.

Thank you, Vid! That makes perfect sense now. I just couldn't visualize it in my head before. I will give it a shot this afternoon.

Clean up that mech board. Do not leave those broken wire strands floating around inside the cabinet.

Quality is perfect, sometimes a simple napkin sketch is exactly what you need. I'm an electrical novice at best, so it never hurts to hear a basic function explained again like I'm a kid. Easy to get lost in the weeds of detailed instructions without a clear understanding of what you're actually trying to accomplish.

Let's see if I got this right.

Power comes in, attaches to fuse (black), transformer lug (white), and transformer bolt (green). Other side of fuse, we have brown wire going to switch (as well as black wire going to the rest of the game), and then back down to the OTHER transformer lug.

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According to the schematic, the other black wire on the fuse (the end that also has the switch wire) goes to the coin chute relays and 115v hold relay. There are no coin mechs in this machine — it’s a custom-built wooden door. I don’t think there should be any problem with plugging it in, but I want to wait for confirmation before I accidentally wreck something.

Gotcha. I might just make a separate thread for this game so I don’t clog this one up. Thanks for your help so far! As far as the rest of it goes, does it look right, or should I try to take a better picture?

It works! I actually moved that black wire from the fuse to the transformer lug that the switch ultimately leads to. My assumption is that (assuming there were going to be coin mechs installed), you would only want them active if the game was powered on, so I moved the connection to be AFTER the switch.

Redoing what is from a classic Stern Meteor. Looks like the white/black are backwards.

Post #14 is from a Bally and shows Blue wire goes to White, Brown wire to Black. Also schematic seems to agree but checking before I switch it. Thanks

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Does the filter care which side they're on? Ultimately you have the neutral and hot on the correct sides it looks like. Genuinely asking here!

Yeah, that’s what I suspected. They’re not straight thru the way they were.

Thanks for confirming. I’ll change it.

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https://www.amazon.com/Leviton-GFWT2-W-SmartlockPro-Weather-Resistant-Tamper-Resistant/dp/B013OVCTBO/ref=sr_1_7

Would this device work for an old house that only has the 2 prong outlet?

I assumed the wire on the bottom left was the ribbed / neutral because it looks bigger. Kinda hard to discern otherwise.

It looks larger because it has the empty green wire jacket attached.