I’ve been doing a ton of reading on replacing the line cord on an EM. On my World Fair, someone added this switch years ago. Does this look even remotely safe? There are 2 separate line cords going to this switch. One coming in from the wall, then one going out to the primary fuse. There’s line voltage here with no switch cover.
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No, it works perfectly fine. It’s just I’m wondering how safe it is after everything I’ve read. Why would they use pigtails with wire nuts instead of soldering direct. There’s no way to get a cover on there.

Spray paint lid. Love it! I think I’m going to redo this with a SPST switch and a new cord. I like Pinwiki’s idea with taking the wires off the hold relay. Not sure if I want to go 2 prong or 3.

Is a DPST the better way to go because it opens up the hot and the neutral? I’m confused now. Maybe I should leave well enough alone.

Hot wire to fuse first then switch, or switch first then fuse? Very confusing info on this.

Do you have a link to the type of switch you use?

Thanks.

Thanks for that. That helps a lot. So Pinwiki or Mopar’s method is the easiest way to do this.

My cord has wire nuts at the other end also. It works but I’ve never liked it.

I’m assuming this is the bounce switch.

Here’s a picture of the existing line cords wire with the wire nuts.
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Schematic

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So are you just basically replacing the bounce switch with an on off switch? Are you unsoldering those 2 wires and extending them over to the new switch?

By doing it this way, does this keep the anti cheat and hold relay in the circuit?

The only other playfield switch I see is this one.

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Ok good enough. I’ll tie into the bounce switch since it’s closer to the front.

One last question if you don’t mind. I’ve read some posts against using a 3 prong. Some people say that using a 3 prong and grounding all the metal, it puts the person working on a live machine at risk if they touch the side rails. Why would that be?

Thanks guys.

I did order the same switch through Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Gardner-Bender-GSW-25-Insulated-Electrical/dp/B000HEFDMY/ref=mp_s_a_1_4

Guys I’ve done some digging. Please correct me if I’m wrong. I believe the switch toward the front of my game is not the bounce switch. It is actually the shut off switch. Or kick off switch as it’s sometimes called. It is missing the round nylon piece that goes under it. Somebody removed it. I can see the screw holes in the plywood where the nylon piece used to be. The switch on the side near the score motor is the bounce switch.

So does it really matter which switch I tap into for the new SPST switch?

Thanks Mopar. It is kind of strange. A kick switch? What were they thinking.

Almost done with this. Just have to solder up the new cord and the new switch. Spent the weekend installing new leg brackets ( major pain, had to shim everyone of them) and installed a ground braid to all the legs, coin door, lock down receiver which grounds the lock down bar. The side rails are ground only if the lock down bar is in place through contact with the lockdown bar. So when the playfield is up, the side rails are not grounded. So this supposedly eliminates the side rail shock possibility if the game is being serviced. Is this the way to go or should I make the side rails permanently grounded?

Thanks. I had started another thread about this. Guess I didn’t need to do that. I’ve noticed that one of the side rails does not make good contact with the lock down bar anyway. So I’m better off with a permanent connection. I’m going to have carefully pull out one of the nails on the side rails and install a bolt through the rail like they do on solid state games. Otherwise there’s nothing to connect to. I do have some of those that I bought from gatecrasher for my Bally games. That’s the only way to make a permanent connection. The only thing I don’t understand is why isn’t there the same concern with solid state games? They all have the side rails grounded directly and I’ve never once read a concern about the side rails posing a risk if a live game is being serviced.

Gottlieb metal flipper buttons. Ground these also or is that overkill?

Thanks. That’s easy enough. As for the side rails, I did fix the loose lock down bar so it is making solid contact with both side rails now. So I think I can go either way with those now.

After all that something is seriously wrong. I played a few games and it was fine. Then the back box lights went out. Then the main fuse blew. Replaced it. Blew again. Now the fuse is not blown but the game won’t start. With the new switch turned on I have 120 volts AC across the hold relay. With the switch turned off, I have 5 volts AC. That does not sound right at all. Why am I getting 5 volts with the switch off? Is it possible the brand new switch is bad? I wired it to basically replace the kick off switch. I disconnected the ground braid at the transformer so it’s not that.

Thank you. A few things. I got it back on. Very loose fuse holder for the back box lights. Replaced the holder as I had some spares. Back box lights back on. Game starts now. I had also disconnected the wire going to rollover lamp #11. This is an old problem that I was trying to sort out while I had the playfield out this week. #5 and # 11 rollover lamps are somewhere shorted together. I had that problem 5 years ago and we never did find the short. Still haven’t found it. Probably never will. 5 years ago I had a tech try to find it. He couldn’t find it either. He simply disconnected the wire to # 11 lamp and ran a new wire from there to the relay bank switch. That has worked fine ever since but I figured with the playfield out I might be able to find it. Nope.

Still getting the 5 volts across the hold relay with the switch in the off position but everything seems to be working now. I think the loose fuse holder for the back box caused the main fuse to go.

Yeah I do think it was the loose fuse holder that blew the main. The first symptom was the backbox lights went out. The thing was really loose. The one end was barely making contact. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was arcing.

Are you saying you still get small voltage with the switch turned off? I took out a DPST switch and replaced it with a SPST. I guess the double pole really kills everything because I don’t think I had voltage with the switch off before I changed it out.

Edit: I discovered the tilt roll ball was stuck in the tilt position. That may have contributed to the game not turning on.

The 5 volts I’m getting has to be stray voltage between neutral and ground but I don’t know why. Zero volts between neutral and ground at the outlet itself.

It looks like the stray 5 volts has nothing to do with the ground. I temporarily disconnected the green ground lug and I still get the 5 volts with the switch off. I ordered a new switch just to see if that’s the cause.

If anyone is still interested I’ve been told that a digital multimeter can sometimes give ghost readings due to its high impedance. I was told to try an analog meter. So I bought one and it reads zero volts across the hold relay when the game is off. So there’s no issue.