Control Panel Restoration

[gb_phil]

Hello All,

I have a 1987 Ghostbusters arcade that I'm trying to partially restore. The controls are pretty wonky so I was going to replace the joystick switches and the entire button with some new ones from Groovy Game Gear. No big deal there I assume. But when I went to pull one of the wires off to look at the button switch, the little lead prong broke. I started fiddling with other wires in there and noticed they are all crimped down to the switches or something. I have a MAME cabinet (I didn't build it) and on that cabinet it seems the wires were snug enough that they stayed in place but if you pulled them, they'd come off. I figured it'd be the same for this machine but I guess not? Anyways, I'm assuming I'm going to break more in the process so I'm wondering if I should just rewire this thing while I'm in there. This is a three player control panel and there are molex connectors for each set of controls. I'm very new to all this stuff so I don't know if there's a way to buy the molex connector with wires already there for this type of game or if I'm going to have to buy a new molex, and new wires, and create this setup myself. Any guidance from the seasoned vets out there?

[jennifer]

     A molex  uses a connector that crimps to the wire, and then pushes into the back of the plug, it always kinda feels loose but if its snapped into the plug its fine, The trick to this is making sure your Female side pins corresponds with the male side or you will have all kinds of problems.... Pre wired plugs work, but are kind of sloppy IMO, due to the fact you have to splice the wire, looks kind of a hack job when your done.

[gb_phil]

I probably should have attached photos on the first post to further explain what I mean.

Here's a look at my setup. Three molex connectors running from the JAMMA board up into the panel:



Here's a look at what happened when I pulled one of the disconnects (is that the right terminology) off the switch. Notice the switch connector snapped in half:



Looks like the disconnect was crimped on to the switch connector and so when I pulled too hard it snapped. On my MAME the disconnects fit snugly but I can easily remove them.



So my situation is this. If I replace the buttons and the joystick switches I'm likely to break more connectors in the process. If I do, half of the connector is sitting up in the disconnect which I guess makes that disconnect useless. So what can I do? Do I need to replace all my wiring? Just the disconnects? If I could get three sets of wires with Molex on one end and disconnects on the other setup just like my game has, I'd love to purchase those. But I'm not sure if those are actually pre-made like that or if everyone just wires up their own Molex and disconnects. Also, I apologize if I'm botching the terminology up here. Please feel free to connect me if I'm wrong!

[Vigo]

Cool Find! I'm Obviously a Ghostbusters fan here. 

I wouldn't bother making more work for yearself at this point. Use pliers to pull the rest of the disconnects straight out, so you dont have to wiggle to get them off. That should help prevent anything snapping.

New switches shouldn't snap so easy either, so you can be a little more carefree about putting the disconnects on, you can still use pliers, but if it is too tight, just take a precision screwdriver to loosen the disconnect gap a little before connecting them to the new switches.

[gb_phil]

Viggy, Viggy, Viggy, you've been a bad monkey.

I'm a HUGE fan myself (hence the gb in gb_phil). Been wanting to get a GB machine for 10 years. I actually have two...sort of. I purchased a dedicated Vigilante cabinet earlier this year (the dedicated Vigilante is the only other cabinet like Ghostbusters) and had it converted to a MAME machine themed after the original GB machine. I have the GB marquee, GB bezel art, and GB side art that I had mocked up from the original. It looks just like GB except for the custom control panel and the coin door is only two player instead of three. Anywho, I'm trying to fix up this dedicated GB and hopefully sell it. I love it but don't really have a use for it since my other machine can play GB and anything else I want.

I guess I'll order my parts from GGG and I'll do my best to not break any more connectors so I don't have to replace the wiring. Thanks for the tips!