Happ / IL Competition ball-top mod

[Imperator]

Not quite a full project, but I figured this is the best place for it.  I have a Mame cab with some IL Eurosticks installed, but lately I have been having a bit of eye candy envy.  I have always wanted to put ball-tops and, while I have not found and bubble-tops, I did find some nice translucent ball-tops for the Happ/IL.

Groovy Game Gear sells the Versa-Ball line of ball-top replacements http://groovygamegear.com .  They are supposed to fit Happ Competitions, Supers, and other sticks as well.  This is all well and good except once installed they were both too tall for comfort and to long for my box  .

The sticks were too good looking to give up on so I knew it was time to break out the Dremmel. 



When installing in a competition you would normally be putting a clip on the top notch closest to the stick, and the notch third from the bottom.  Like I said though, this made the stick sit too high as well as hit the bottom of my box.  I decided the best place to cut the stick would be the second bottom notch. Dremmel time.



Now that the shaft was short enough to not bottom out I needed to somehow make it sit lower above the control panel.  To do that I would need to make new notches for the clips.  I measure the distance from the now bottom notch to the next two.  I came up with roughly 5/16" and 5/8".  I then marked off lines 5/16" and 5/8" above the top notch.  This is where I would make new notches.



With a somewhat steady hand (thank you bourbon) I was able to make two fairly straight notches. 


Now it was time to put it all back together.  If anyone attempts this, please don't do what I did and forget to put the dust washer on before putting on the top clip.  I of course forgot to do this for both sticks.  






Remove the old stick.


And put in the new one.


Put the actuator and e-clip back on the bottom and you're all set.


The end result not only looks really good, but to me feels better than the stock Happ bat top.  Because there are two new notches you can adjust it to be just a bit shorter, or a lot.  When using the top notch (shortest stick) the stick sets shorter than the stock Happ.  This gives it a shorter throw, but a slightly stiffer feel.  After playing on them and abusing them they loosened up (I only just install the original sticks themselves a week ago.)




All in all I'm quite pleased with the way they turned out.

[fronty]

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[DaOld Man]

Good modification work.
I like the looks of these sticks, I may have to try them on for size.

[Imperator]

Thanks.  The last pic was really just lucky timing.