The wires can be removed from the cartridge by GENTLY pushing them apart from the back of the cartridge using the blade of a tiny screwdriver such as you’d use to install a cartridge. Those original wire leads are extremely delicate, so be careful. I wouldn’t use pliers at all to install the new cartridge, I’d use tweezers. Check out the Micro-Mark tool catalogue online. Now, if you do break those tiny original wire leads, you can replace them with another fragile Pro-Ject tonearm cable or go aftermarket, such as with the Cardas tonearm cable you see online. Do NOT attempt to repair a broken tonearm cable!! I should mention that later-model Pro-Ject tonearm cable isn’t quite so fragile as the original, and some would object to the price of the Cardas option, which is comparatively quite high. (There are idiots who substitute wire from computer mice!) When I had to rewire my own tonearm due to a broken original cable, I chose aftermarket (Cardas) because Pro-Ject hadn’t yet introduced their new sturdier...