Installing Sanwa Sticks and Buttons in the Iconic Street Fighter Cabinet
I saw a lot of people adding IL sticks to their Iconic SF cabinet for an authentic USA setup, and I get it. I added them to my Killer Instinct Pro. But to me, Street Fighter is a Japanese game, and I think it's known to play better with a Sanwa (or even Seimitsu) stick. So if you want to go that route, get a couple of Sanwa JLX2’s (stick) and some OBSF-30’s (buttons). For color, I think the Sanwa Vermillion is better than their standard darker red.
To take the stock buttons out, you will need a pair of needle nose pliers to pull the connector off the button. Just grip the space between the crimp and the connector and pull it off.
After that, the main issue is the holes in the control panel are 28mm and Sanwa buttons are 30mm. I used a 1” sanding drum which was perfect for evenly rounding off those extra couple of millimeters.
I had to get it online because all the ones at local hardware stores were either two small or too big so I used the one linked here. This is the overall biggest thing you have to do. Just make sure you are outside, wear a mask, and take it slow to get a feel for how much sanding is needed to make the buttons fit. In the end, it’s not a big deal once you get going. I covered the first few holes using painters tape just to be safe but later didn’t use it.
When installing the stick, you can use the two center holes already drilled for the stock sticks, but you will need to drill for the 4 corners. I used a 7/64” drill bit, but double check that on one hole just in case to make sure it aligns with your screws.
EDIT: as RP1983602 pointed out, you can also just use the faceplate of the stock stick if you want.
Use painters tape on your drill bit to mark the length of the screw depth so you drill exactly the depth that is needed.
You’ll also want to get a 5-Pin Double End Female Harness to connect. Just make sure the JLX2's connector is pointing towards the buttons (like the stock stick) and that the gold pins of the harness are facing up towards you when connecting it to the JLX2.
Another advantage of Sanwa sticks is they are customizable in that you can select from a few different springs, gates, and actuators. The Blue actuator for example, is one of the larger ones so it has less dead zone which is also a feels great on a game like Gigawing!
You can also get Battops if you want those instead of Ball Tops.
Here's the installation!
