My guess is if you unplug J14 you will lose the lighting you have. It seems like the entire line that is associated with J7 is down. Can you snap a pic of what you have at J7 on your interconnect?

First thing is check the connectors nearest the transformer in the cabinet bottom.
These get toasted. Take them apart, clean the contacts (I use DeOxit).
If burnt then they need replacing.

It was these connectors on my WW that killed the backbox and rear playfield GI.

Then move along to the next connections in the backbox.

cabinet bottom (resized).JPG

There are connectors on the interconnect board in the backbox that carry the GI power from the transformer to the game. The interconnect board is the one on the very bottom in the backbox. The GI wiring and fuses are all on the right side of that board. It's labeled showing the input from the transformer, fuses and outputs to the backbox and playfield. Those .156" headers and connectors for the GI get burned and will need replacing.

Also, under the playfield and behind the backbox light panel is a GI relay. These relays are used to flash the GI and the .156" connectors on those get burned too causing the same lighting issues.

Most of the problems with GI can be attributed to bad IDC connectors. Use a meter to determine if the GI voltage is making it off a connector. For example, you'll have an IDC connector that you can check for voltage on the top at the little pinch pins, but you can't really tell if it is making it through the insulation and to the stranded conductor inside. From there you need to measure voltage at that wires end destination.

The AC GI circuits come off the interconnect in pairs of a solid color and a striped wire of that solid color for each branch on this series of games. For example, measuring across solid violet wire to the white/violet striped wire should reveal the GI supply voltage.

deleted was incorrect

Do you see that connector to the right yellow wires with white traces, how does that connector look? Is it burned at all?

You can also use page 98 in the manual to verify that you have the correct connectors plugged in. It will give you the connector location and where it goes to for each board.

https://www.arcade-museum.com/manuals-pinball/W/Whirlwind_OPS.pdf

Correct.

I guess test at the sockets themselves. It seems like everything on/going off board is A-OK

I am on the road today and unfortunately I can only go by that manual which is giving me diff info. Maybe someone more familiar with the machine can come on and chime in.

This is why that lamp matrix table is so important as it tells you how and if the lamp are connected and what pins/connectors they correspond to.

J14 is the connector for your playfield lamps. If they are running in attract mode, unplugging J14 will kill the lamps. J3 is the input side for this circuit, coming from the CPU board. If you unplug J3, same thing - it will kill all the lamps. If you have no lamps in the first place, follow the procedure in the link below to test lamp rows and columns at the CPU connectors 1J6 and 1J7. If it is not working there, it will never get through the interconnect board. The purpose of the interconnect board is to break out the controlled lamp circuits to feed some to the playfield and some to the insert board (backbox)
http://techniek.flipperwinkel.nl/wms11/index2.htm#lamp

If none of the controlled lamps are working, start with checking power at the controlled lamp power supply, see if you have +18VDC at the large cap for the bridge located lower right corner of the backbox, I think. If you have controlled lamp supply power, then test the lamp matrix connectors at the CPU board.

Check the power coming out of the bridge for +18VDC (about 16-20VDC). If it is there, everything is good up to that point including the bridge rectifier.

Testing the bridge itself doesn't do any good unless confirming a suspected failure of that part.

Your welcome, glad you found it!