All about connectors: Molex, sizes, tools, pins and crimping

Pinball machines (as well as other arcade games) use a wide variety of wires and connectors. The most popular brand of connectors is called “Molex” which is a specific maker, but also a generic term often referred to as the plug/un-plug style connectors you will find on everything from power supply wiring to board connectors.

In this video, I go over the most common sizes and types of connectors you’re likely to find, what tools are available and how to rebuild and re-pin these connectors.

Re-pinning System 80 edge connectors – Gottlieb Mars God of War

I finally found some time to take a look at the Mars God of War I pulled out of a hurricane katrina-damaged house in New Orleans last year. The batteries on the MPU board had hosed the connectors as well as the main board and I am set to replace it with Pascal Janin’s PI80x4 board. In preparation for that, I have to re-pin some of the damaged connectors… as this video shows, things are never as easy as they seem…..

Re-pinning a pinball connector (.100″ Bally/Stern MPU connectors)

In the process of working on a 70s-era, early solid-state pinball machine from Stern (MPU-100 series), I had a need to rebuild one of the connectors, so I thought I might make a video. In this case I’m re-building the smaller .100″ connector. At some point in the future I’d prefer to make a better video of this process on a bench, but unfortunately, most of the time when you’re working on these connectors, you’re huddled over the machine messing with the wiring harness.