Here is the special tool we'll be using to push the wire into the connector slots.
Here is the relevant page with the exact wiring at the back of Indiana Jones manual. It tells us which wire goes where with its color, what pin it hooks onto and what is it used for. Board has labels for your orientation where is the pin 1 silkscreened directly onto the board. We are starting from top to bottom (since pin 1 is on the bottom). You can do it any way you like, as long as they go in correctly and in appropriate slot.
So, according to the manual wiring orientation, we got brown at pin 12, then another brown at pin 11, then solid green at pin10. The term "N/C" in the manual means "No Connection", so we leave pin 9 empty (we skip it).
Here we see the poor, hacked, tortured and burned old female connector J115. The clueless guy attempting a "repair" really went medieval on it with his soldering iron. This "fix", is actualy a stupid hack performed by a dumbass previous owner/operator. He "figured", in a true McGuyver way, that - Hmm, I wonder if I solder wires directly into the connector, hacking and burning it, maybe then that'll make them stick (they fall off, insulation burns, solder melts, connector housing gets brown, cause it gets so hot/too much current passing)...
Anyway, so we skip pin 9, since it's a N/C. And according to the manual, pin 8 is circled here, and it's an orange wire, so let's get that in there...
Instead of showing every damn wire being inserted, let's just do one - this one, then you can imagine and do the rest yourself copying this way. Let's go.
So, stick the appropriate wire in the approproate wire slot as shown.
Make sure it fits snugly. DO NOT expose or strip the bare wire in there, leave the insulation totaly ON it.
With tool in hand prepare to take it home.
Position the tool over the wire you are inserting. And press on it, really ram it in. You have to do a fair amount of force, but don't push like there is no tomorrow, or you may damage and break the plastic insulation around it or injure and cut yourself. So, yes, it needs a fair amount of force to be inserted. Yes, you have to push pretty hard without being an idiot, there is a fine line. But, it's a concerted effort. You want to position the tool STRAIGHT above and on top of the wire itself, not left or right or slipping. When, it's on top, then push hard straight down. You will hear a small "thunk" as the insulation gets cut and wire gets into the place securely. That's all there is to it.
Taken care of, and we added also the white/yellow colored wire too. Now, do the rest the same way as well...
White/Brown added too.
Why the hell are these connectors called IDC anyway, and what is that? IDC stands for "Insulation Displacement Connector". See, look at the picture up there. You have a metal housing and a metal clip inside the housing. The clip has sharp edges and it's shaped as a capital letter "V". So by pushing wire inside, the edges cut through insulation (they "displace it") and the wire inside touches the V metal clips inside. That's how the connection is made. ASCII drawing here:
\||/
\/
Cool, eh?
Anyway, let's do the rest of the GI connectors here, same technique, same stuff, let's wrap it up now. We'll do J120 and J212 connectors with a very good quality IDC yellow housing.
Here we see the male parts are already installed.
Again, manual in hand for reference and let's get going here and do the rest - same as outlined above...
Working on the rest of the wires.
Some more of them inserted in.
All done and all GI lamps are lit up now, 3 strings on the playfield and 2 in the backbox as seen here.
Wow, man, that's cool - ALL of them are lit up now. Since this game was made in 1993, that probably hasn't happened on it since Clinton took oath and landed in the office...
Now, to conclude this pictorial, the last but VERY important part of the whole rebuiling GI process needs to be done and you will never be bothered with them again, except for an occasional burnt bulb. Hey, don't blame me, they are light bulbs, that's what they do for a living! They shine and shine brightly, then they burn out and die.
Also, very important! If you want, you can substitute factory installed #44 lightbulbs with #47 bulbs. They will reduce current by about 40%, almost half of regular #44s. Your naked eye will never be able to tell the difference, they wil be just a tad bit dimmer, but will save a lot of strain on the machine. BUT, if you want to keep it stock, that's fine too. In home environment, you are really unlikely to have much trouble after going through them like this. Unless, of course you do what arcades do, you leave them on 24/7/365 or so. If you don't play your pinball machine(s) 24 hours a day, then turn them off when done.
On above picture we see the inside of the coin door with a bank of 4 diagnostics buttons.
Let's get into the menus. We have Adjustments, Bookeeping, Tests, Utilities. We want to go to Adjustments.
Adjustments itself has some submenus, such as Standard adjustments, Feature adjustments, Pricing adjustments and so on. We want Standard Adjustments.
Now, cycle through them and go to menu option 25 - "Allow Dim Illumination" and make sure it's set to "Yes".
Go to menu option 29 - "GI Power saver" and make sure it's set to 2 minutes, which is the lowest possible choice. What does that mean? When the game is powered on but sitting idle, in attract mode and not being played, the GI circuit will dim itself after 2 minutes thus saving energy, prolonging bulb life and cutting down on current passing through GI circuit and heating the connectors we just replaced.
Those triacs mentioned in the 1st part of this pictorial are responsible for dimming feature. As soon as Start button is pressed and we want to play the game, dimming will be cut off and full brightness will return.
Now, Go to menu option 30 - "Power Save level" and make sure it's set to setting 4, again the lowest possible choice. As soon as you push play and want to play the game, the full brightness is on. That's it, enjoy your game in its full brightness! Let there be light!
The End! Get out of here, go play some pinball!
FINAL WORDS
If you did everything correctly and GI lamps are still not working, check:
- Wiring: - GI lamps are daisy chained, if one wire breaks "upstream" others downstream wil not work. You have to get underneath the playfield and hunt it down by visually inspecting (or if necessary with multimeter and check continuity and voltages) on the bulb holders themselves.
- Transformer: - Light bulbs themselves. If one bulb is no working, check it and see if it's faulty already.
- Transformer: - Multimeter in hand, dial AC setting and stick both leads on the yellow wires inside the female connector going outside from transformer. Since it's an AC, you don't need 1 lead in there & other on the ground strap, it won't work and will show garbage reading. Stick both leads in there (different pins, of course, no matter which). A reading of between 6.1 Volts and 6.9 or 7 Volts should be seen. Some minor anomalies are allowed but not much. 6.3 is the expected outcome, but if yours show 6.1 or 6.9, that's fine.
If you don't see that EVERY DAMN bulb in GI lighting is working: you either did something wrong by not following me here (likely), OR your transformer is freaking out on you (unlikely). Certainly possible, but unlikely, they don't die all that often, and when they do die, your game cannot function for sure.
- Fuses - Check fuses again the right way. Fuses controlling GI are right above connectors J120 and J121. Manual in hand, look at their numbers and values and check to see if any of them blew. If yes, replace them with exact fuse value as specified by the manual, do not overfuse with a different value fuse you have sorta laying around and you stick it in, you know "just for now" yhen you forget about it. Make an effort to put manufacturer recommended fuses, the exact values for every fuse you replace! Please do not overfuse!
The End
If you have any questions, please email us and we'll try to help you. Remember to do all these steps safely and frequently check and recheck your work.
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