I use the ultimate molex kit (push/hammer! style) and love them. Easy to use, they match the original factory ones, and will last forever in a home environment. The original ones have lasted 20-30 years in a commercial arcade!

Crimp style ones, pain in the ass. IMO.

If you have a heap to do, the Ultimate kit is a good investment.

However, if you just need to do a few, buy a couple of connectors and the tool from pinball life, would be much cheaper.

But the kit was invaluable for me, being at the ass end of the world I need to have them on hand. I use them all the time. Did 4 last night for example. I now buy the connectors from PBL in bulk to keep the kit filled up.

Don't forget the little plastic "blocker tab" things that fill up the blank slots in the molex, I always put one of those in so the molex matches the original one.

And yes, WPC and SYS11 are 0.156 size. The small molexes (as used in the SS Bally games) are 0.100.

rd

I use the crimp style but that is just what I am used to. rd is right they do stand out and do not match the others but they work. If you are fooling with system 11 just be prepared to become a pro at changing connectors and replacing pins on the interconnect board. I have had to replace some connectors on every system 11 game I have gotten. Just picked up a riverboat gambler and already know of three that will be swapped. Might be more upon further inspection.

Spot on, there are always Molexes need doing on 20 year old machines, usually the GI ones are burnt out. Even if they look ok, pull them off (cough cough) and inspect them, quite often one pin will be brown.

Almost every early 90s WPC needs the GI molexes done as well.

The push style molexes are just so easy .. You can diagnose, remove, replace a bad molex in 5 mins all up.

rd

It makes sense to me that if they lasted 28 years so far, a new set will last another 20 or more in a home environment.

Do you actually hammer? I have a cat5 insertion tool, will that work for setting the wires?

I pulled my GI connector and it is a bit toasty. on the list for replacement along with some of the connectors feed ing the interconnect board feeding the insert .

The long connector on the top of the power board looks like it gets heavy use. Those wires are larger, do they fit the same connectors

i wouldn't think so. Cat 5 cables are 1/5th the gauge of a GI wire.

Yes, I lightly tap the molex tool with a small hammer. You can hit it with your hand but after a while that gets tiresome.

rd

I too remolex using idc connectors. Easier and they match.

Crimping is a pain and really isnt necessary in home use.

Okay, but would you make an exception for the GI connector? Seems like an IDC replacement would burn, same as the original.

I've done both. Even with gi I think idc is fine. Especially in home use and with LEDs.

I was about to say, if you use LED's, then the current draw is quite a bit less, and will extend the life of the connector

Also remember these machines were on for 16 hours a days for years on end. This is why those connectors burned or ended up with cold solder joints.

In the home environment the amount of hours put on the machine are probably an 1/8 of their former life. I.E. Less wear.

That seems like the cart leading the horse. I'd rather make the pin robust enough for any kind of lighting (I don't like LEDs). But I know, different strokes...

I learned something recently about the system 11 "special solenoids", the hard way. The switch on one of my pop bumpers got stuck closed, and the coil locked on. Instead of blowing a fuse, the coil's transister (Q77) actually caught fire. This fried U10 and some adjacent components. I repaired everything, but it was a huge pain in the ass.

I've added 1A fuses to all of the pop bumpers in Space Station. It's a lot of work, but I don't want to have to go through the pain of board-level repair again. I'll do the same to Whirlwind when I get back to it. Pics when I get home tonight...

Be sure to check the two 24v relays under the playfield as they to have weak molex pins and will probably have some damage at the connection. One is for your PF lights and one is for the Green lights. I replaced those two relays and molex connections with new from marco spec. There is also one in the head but that one on mine was not to bad. Will probably replace soon, just to do it! I will be getting me a kit from PBL today though.

Agree 100%.

If you think about it, 16 hours a day (and 24 hours a day in truck stops around Europe) x 7 days a week = 112 hours a week

The Taxi pin came out in 1988. So that's 27 years old now, and the GI molex is toast. Let's just say it lasted half its life before it started deteriorating ... 13 years.

13 years x 112 hours a week = 75,700 hours of use before it started deteriorating.

If you turned on your Taxi a hour every day (I doubt many home pin owners would turn it on an hour a week..) and multiply that by 75,700 hours ....

Lots of assumptions there, but I think you should be pretty safe.

rd

Have you ever had the problem of the green lights always staying on? Mine do, the relays seem to be ok but do you think it might be the green lights relay anyway?

I believe the relay switches the white and green PF gi. Its a possibility that the relay is bad somehow. If you unplug the relay do you have any PF lights?
http://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/C-11998-1
I will look at mine tonight, after work.I just bought the cube and rebuilt the board with new molex too, since it was hacked by previous owner!
Take some pics of the 24v relay's under PF esp the molex connections. Would like to see them.

Dave, to complete your calculation, If the machine is on 1 hour a day those connectors won't see 75,000 hours for over 200 years, I don't think I'll still be playing then

Thanks folks for the input on connectors. I like Swampfires attention to the most robust repairs possible. I considered doing crimps on the heavy use connectors, but having only one pin I don't want to stock too many different parts, my spares kit is all ready growing. I plan to just go with the IDC's

How often do you all end up replacing the male pin connectors on the board? Can they often just be reflowed with solder?

do you guys use contact cleaner on your connectors? I notice lots of the pins look oxidized. I bought a 5 ounce can of DeoxIT gold G5 on clearance at Radioshack for $8 yesterday

Found these two screws along with a few decades of dirt and debris inside the cabinet of a Jokerz.

Anybody have an idea what they are for and where they go? They are about a 1/4" long and the thread is maybe 3/32" with a slot for a flat head driver.

20151111_130916.jpg

those are the screws that fit your quarter mech and lock it into the coin door

This one is relay for PF Gi,white and green only. I rebuilt it with 24v cube and net molex pins and connectors. Never had a prob since. image.jpeg
This one is in head for those GI's. Bought from Marco full ass. image.jpeg

Pulling the interconnect board pretty much squashing any debates about needing to replace the pin side.

20151111_170204.jpg20151111_170221.jpg

So this is amount of burnt connector is considered 'normal' for a system 11 GI? I just need to replace the 7 pin and the 10 pin and crimp new molex connectors on the other side and it should be good as new?

Pretty much normal for any 20+ year old pinball. I did a WPC one the other day that was faaaaarrrr worse than that. Like, hardly any connector left worse. Lol

Obviously, you want to replace both male and female connectors on those suckers. Do it once, do it right ...

rd

Good to go...then if not already done, convert to LED's for the GI and reduce draw.

I would avoid contact cleaner in general, and replace both pin and plug... I've gone the half assed route and found my new idc connector turning brown a couple months later.

Hi Guys

Have a question that may be an easy one but would really appreciate some clarification if possible

The 24v flasher board on the bottom side of Jokerz is a C-11998-1. Marco has these available but they do not have the 0 ohm resistors in w1 and w2 slots. I talked to them today and they could not 100% say that this board will work in my Jokerz as a replacement but rather it should be ok as it has the same part number as the original. The very patient woman I spoke to said that the guy who makes these boards for them must have used a different relay that no longer necessitates the 0 ohm resistors.

Can anyone help with this and provide anything definitive?

Thank you

George

My new board was also missing those resistors and diode but works fine. Granted it is a different machine. image.jpeg

Hello Heni

It looks like you have two green wires into Brown wires on the right side connector on the relay board. I have two yellow into Brown that are currently twisted together with wire nuts. My question is how do I discern which yellow in which Brown go to which terminal

Does it matter which color goes where. Terminal location will be the same I think but of the two yellows, which yellow goes to which terminal and of the two browns which Brown goes to which terminal. Hope this makes sense

George

This is on a space station, I believe you are talking about a Jokerz

Hello George,
Which relay are we discussing here, and for which machine? I am looking up a Jokerz schematic to see what relays there are. Are you talking about the PF lights or the back box lighting?

Hello again

This would be the relay for the playfield lights that are in the back u suspect if the playfield. They are currently dangling in mid air. There are two yellow wires and two brown. This is for Jokerz. I also plan to replace the relay for the backbox lights as well which is the same C-11998-1 relay.

Hope this helps and thank you

George

Definitely helps! I will see what I can dig up. Not much on the schematic, in the manual.http://mirror2.ipdb.org/files/1308/Williams_1988_Jokerz_Operations_Manual.pdf

Heni

I will take a photo and post. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Thank you

George

Here is a picture that shows the underside of the playfield. You can see there is the one connector that should plug into the missing relay board as well as two wire nuts that have the yellow and violet wires that should also go to this board tied together. Need to know how those yellow and violet wires attach to the relay board. Don't know if there is an "in and out" position on the relay board. Also took a pic of the relay board for the backbox lighting. This is the same relay board. As you can see there are two yellow and two green. Since the ones under the playfield are tied together, I don't know which yellow and which violet should go where.
Looking closely now the ones for the backbox may be white and green not yellow and green

Hope this helps moreimage.jpgimage.jpegimage.jpeg

Sorry - I don't understand your questions. Did you order that relay board from Marco yet?

You are going to need it regardless of whether or not you need to add the 0 ohm resistors. Why are you replacing the one in the backbox? Did you test it? Does it work? Do you have the parts to remake the two pin molex? If not you might as well order that too - I don't see the point in worrying about where the wires go until you are ready to put it back together

Looks like the one in the back box has been replaced. Get some good light in there and look at those wires on the pf gi. will post a pic shortly of what I found on schematics from IPDB.

[attachment=2794312,undefined caption="image.jpeg"][attachment=2794312,undefined caption="image.jpeg"]

WTH!image.jpeg

Hello

Yes. I did order two of the relay boards from Marco and am awaiting their delivery. Just wanted to be ready to install when I get them. I did order the proper connector as well. All parts are on their way.

I suspect that MAYBE the relay board that is now in the backbox was under the playfield.

Sorry for any confusion.

George

Ok. Have been able to determine that there is a single yellow coming down from the backbox along with a single violet. Then they goto the wire but and the other yellow and violet make their way to what I believe is lighting on the bottom of the playfield. If my mindset is correct then we have a pair coming from the backbox down and then going out to the playfield through the relay board

Sound right? If there is possibly another pinside out there that has a Jokerz, confirmation should be pretty easy I would think.

Thoughts...

If you haven't got an answer by next week, send me a PM on Monday/Tuesday with your email address and I will take a picture for you. I'm just away for a few days.

rd

Rotordave is the man!

He tries.

rd

Thank you Rotor

I am grateful

George

This is the company that supplies the relay boards for Marco:

http://www.greatlakesmodular.com/

Hey DennisAZ,

Thanks very much. I have wrote GLM an email and sent it off to them asking if that board, even without the 0 ohm resistors is a direct replacement for the C-11998-1 board that Marco has coming to me. I hope that it is or at a minimum, maybe I will have to install a couple jumpers to simulate the 0 ohm resistors. Hopefully I do not find out it is incompatible, period!!

I did find out some information today courtesy of pinsider lostlumberjacks about the wiring associated with this board.

As for the wiring, I am going to shoot a post here of an intact game with a bit of a description. Hopefully it will help others in my shoes.

Thanks Todd (LLJ) for all the assistance.

George...

Hi Guys

Here is what the relay board for the gi looks like. This is from a working Jokerz

The wiring for the yellow and violet is as follows: the purple and yellow at the top end of the connector in the picture run to the backbox and the purple and yellow towards the center of the connector run to the underside of the playfield.

Hope this helps others

Gimage.jpeg

Oops. Picture orientation issue. Top would be left and towards center of the connector would be right

G

I see that you have a screw lodged under your board GPS

You might want to get that out, or risk shorting something out, (possibly).