Just picked up a partially populated playfield to turn my Flight 2000 donor into a Cheetah. Haven't seen anyone create a Cheetah yet, so here goes!

All the boards and working parts of this F2K were used to re-build a different F2K about 10 years ago. The busted boards have now been repaired and it's time to donate again to this effort.

Already have a BGresto backglass on order. I have two extra 3-bank drops and the different style trough parts in-hand.

I'll make the light panel myself but not stencil the cabinet at this time...no space, equipment, or skills for that right now.

Anyone have some Cheetah tear down pictures I can use to see details of what is missing from the project playfield?

Thank you

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Patient on the rotisserie. Here’s the back of the playfield. I knew it was missing all solenoids and assemblies which can come from the donor. Bought a new complete 3rd left flipper. Third pop bumper parts to be ordered yet.

Has the lamp wire harness but not the solenoid or switch portion. I snagged a complete Big Game harness off ePay for this occasion.

Any other glaring things that I’m probably not seeing because it’s not there?

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Yeah, I was going to wait for the CPR repro until a local Pinsider reached out with the used playfield.

I was planning to make my own harness too. Now only need to make half a harness.

Thanks for the detailed inventory slochar

The only two things I think I don’t have covered by the donor pin and purchases so far are-

1- pop bumper below pf guts for one unit. Lotta hardware, plates, yokes, coil, switch, spoon, etc. missing. Couple people said that this stuff was available at PBR but their website says otherwise. If you have some of that would be great. Old and used is fine! Please let me know when you get the chance.

2- upper loop wire forms. Gonna need to look at some pictures to see what they are. Hopefully not unobtainable. The BlackKnight ones are available though?

See what wire forms you're referring to (W1 and W2) at the loop.

Also noted that three others are MIA:
Two W1 inlane wire forms
Ball launcher W3

Maybe they can be made if not laying around in someone's parts bin?
It's a good start...I'm sure other things will needed

Cheetah wireform.pdf

Did some searching and some people have used the wire bending jig from Marco to make their own wire forms. Anyone have experience with that?
https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/77-8593

They offer a kit with various size piano wire. Anyone know the diameter needed off-hand? Might be better to get more of the right size than a variety that isn't enough of the one needed.

Wire forming starter kit includes a #77-8593 Wire Bending Jig and (10) 1-foot pieces of wire of the following wire gauges:

.031 inch diameter wire (2 pieces x 12 inches each)
.040 inch diameter wire (2 pieces x 12 inches each)
.051 inch diameter wire (2 pieces x 12 inches each)
.063 inch diameter wire (2 pieces x 12 inches each)
.080 inch diameter wire (2 pieces x 12 inches each)

Best way to make clean cuts? Thanks for any input on that.

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Yes, I was going to try and make my own. I have a picture of the light board insert that I was going to work from to try to make a template. I did a proof of concept with my F2K in Photoshop and it might work.

Unless someone steps up with a more accurate drawing. Please and thank you!

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Okay, so there’s some hope for me. Is the wire size in Classic Stern‘s a standard size? Misplaced my calipers and need to buy another.

Best wire cutting tool? Dremel with cut-off wheel or some kind of small bolt cutter pliers?

Thanks. I just cleaned up those sockets and also the strip up the middle. If I wasn’t successful I’ll go with that 555 board.

Changing out the light sockets and using a tip I read from a Pinsider.

Putting a label on the pf and wire so I don’t need to look back at the schematic or pictures to figure out where the wire goes. Only takes a couple minutes and saves me time on reassembly.

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Worked really well for my F2K full swap. Here’s the carcass

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With the ultimate goal of eventual swapping to a CPR repro pf when it comes out, I was thinking of putting all solenoids, pop bumpers, flippers and drop target assemblies on connectors...

Some people think this connector adds a failure point?

Should 0.093 be used or are 0.062 pins okay, current carrying ability?

Discuss.

Good input. Thx

They are working on it now and it’ll be a just a few months...

Edit- see post #253 https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/classic-stern-cheetah-club-its-fast/page/6#post-5931805

A lot of thanks to TractorDoc for making this happen!

Finished cleaning all inserts and changed sockets.

Went with insulated 18 gauge wire with solder lugs instead of stapled braid.

Got the fancy striped wire from Remington Industries. They often have clearance spools. Got 313 feet for $11.40 shipped.

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Use my temperature controlled station to work on boards but not for under the playfield. I use a light weight 25w pencil for those jobs.

How do you know when you’re soldering too much....when your tip is reduced to a nub.

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Not much playfield work accomplished today. Ordered some parts.

Tested and cleaned a bunch of bulbs to go in the new sockets.

Built a little box that has a 44, 555, 89 socket powered by a phone charger that stores inside. Put in an LED to show when power is on. Testing goes really fast and is independent of having a game powered up.

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Put up a wanted ad for the missing under pf parts of one B-695 Thumper pop bumper. I know the yokes can be printed at Shapeways but the whole base is bare and there are several obsolete parts that are needed.

Used, dusty, dirty, rusty, smoky, stinky is fine as long as they still work.

Thank you

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/stern-thumper-b-695-pop-bumper-parts

Yeah, don’t want to add extra work putting in the connectors or dealing with any ongoing issue with them. Only thing is I’m planning a swap to the repro pf, probably not too far from when this used one is all assembled.

Guess I could try moving everything over without unsoldering all the coils. Someone showed how they slid the entire harness with all components connected from one playfield to another.

Maybe just use connectors for all four drop target banks. Thx

One assembly (or just one set of bottom side parts) would be fantastic!

I’ll measure the W1, W2, and W3 wireform hole spacing this afternoon.

Do you have a picture of the BK round ring set up?

Gonna recycle the two spinners from my F2K. Pf has one so should be ok on those.

I have the ratcheting crimper but after I re-pin or recreate what is missing of the harness I won’t look forward to doing any extra crimping. See my above response to Brian. Most likely just put the drops on connectors.

Appreciate everyone’s input and expertise. Thx

Great information, I haven’t purchased the bender yet. I’ll look into the K&S.

I can measure the hole spacing of the missing wire forms on the playfield but what thickness of wire do you use?

Maybe I’m overthinking it but in fabrication, is there a trick to figuring out how much length is lost in the bend or just trial and error to get it to come out the right finished length?

Here are the measurements I took- only approx since my calipers are on order-

Up by spinner loop
Left side of loop (W2) = 1 7/16”
Right side of loop (W1) = 2 3/8”

Ball catapult (W3) = 3.5”

Two by the In Lanes (also called W1 but measure different than the upper W1) = 2 3/16”

Yeah, I don’t have a complete 5 bank target bank yet although I am still looking.

I did pick up a front, top and bottom along with a reset bar from a 5 bank.

I think I can take the sides, levers, coils and part of the back from the F2K target bank and build the 5 target bank. Only thing to cut down or source would be the rods that stretch from side to side. There’s a brass one and a steel one. Wish me luck.

Plan B was to get a Meteor 6 bank and see if it could be shoehorned in there or cut that down. Someone from overseas did answer my wanted ad but was asking $165 for it and I passed.

I find the new bulbs are cheap and burn out fast.

If the old bulbs burn out I’ll change them right away or when I do my upcoming swap. First order of business is to get this game complete. Then I can LED it and perfect it. This pf is only temporary.

Thank you. F2K uses a lot of the same wire colors. I will copy from that but I’m sure I will have lots of questions.

Not in league so networking and have placed an ad here on Pinside.

Thanks I did see that harnesses are being remade.

About 40 years ago I had a job in a main frame computer manufacturing company...this included making wire harneses.

I can do this portion of the build and I will enjoy it.

Hey good idea with the pliers or maybe in a vise? Just clamp it and bend it.

No cabinet work right now. I’ll just sandwich between other games until I have space and equipment for that part.

My calipers showed up. Wire forms that are there are 0.08” diameter.

Laying out the switch matrix harness wires. Labeling all the strobe and return lines.

To pick a path for routing the wires I stand up sharpie markers so I can see the destinations.

Anyone have other tips if not going from an original layout?

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Update- switch wiring is finished. Satisfying to go from no wiring to complete. Took a few hours but I was making sure I didn’t make any mistakes.

Solenoid wiring is next. Should go a lot faster.

Then flipper, pop bumper and drop target rebuilding.

Previous owner used sheet metal screws instead of machine screws for the flipper bushings and tore out the threads in the flipper brackets. Will blue loctite and a nut hold for the bushings or will I need to buy new brackets?

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Thx guys. I’ll add those to my next parts order.

KenLayton linked the correct Type 2 baseplates.

Installing the right side drop target bank. Two of the switches on the back of the bank hit the kick back coil.

The middle switch screws are against the coil. They need maybe 1/8” more to clear for mounting the bank but there doesn’t seem to be anyway to adjust. Also the kickback coil lug is touching the upper bank switch. See circled parts in picture.

Do I have the right kickback mechanism? I’m using the one from a Flight 2000. I put in the right coil and all the mounting holes match.

If there’s no room, maybe use a slimmer coil. Would a 1500 work here instead? Thx
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Is that what Cheetah is supposed to have here? Can this bank be converted somehow?

Yes, the holes are there on the bottom plate and I see how they mount from the Stern 1979 parts catalog.

In looking at pictures of other people’s Cheetahs they don’t have the switches on the bottom of this bank.

Should the ball kicker mechanism be different instead?

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Thank you @quench. I did look at that picture but didn’t see that the coil was turned. I usually have the lugs away from the stop, don’t know why I didn’t here..

Also I’ll try to skinny up the switch stack.

Good ideas. Every mm will help!

I'll try the suggestions from Quench in the next little bit that may make the difference. Thx

Turning the coil and removing the Bakelite spacer from the center drop bank switch helped it fit but the screws still close to the coil.

I’m going to fill the bracket holes and scoot the coil back less than a screw width. Plunger operates smoothly and there is some daylight between the parts.

Thanks guys.

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Plus a little filing and round head is now a pan head screw for some more clearance.

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Progress is happening!

Solenoid and switch harness is complete. under pf (resized).JPG

All drops and pops are rebuilt. drops pops (resized).JPG

Converted the Flight 2000 drop target bank to a Cheetah. That was the hardest part of the project so far. Haven't done much metal work and don't really have a workshop set up for it. Lots of measuring and went thru a disk and a half cutting the front and rear plates. Reattaching the memory plate was a challenge. Won't win any beauty contest but works manually. Will need to verify in the machine if everything works.

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New drop targets on order. Re-pinning connectors and final adjustments on switches before moving to finish the topside.

Thanks, glad there is interest. I’ve read a bunch of restoration threads before even considering this build.

My result won’t be anywhere near the high quality of a lot of super talented pinsiders but learning a bunch in the process with help from this group.

Topside is re-rubbered and complete except for fixing up the ends of the in lane plastics. Both are busted at the flipper ends. Also crafting a temporary left sling plastic.

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I’ll be buying a new plastic set with the repro playfield. Just didn’t want to spend an extra $60 plus shipping. The CPR combo price is a good deal.

Only parts to add are those that can’t be done while the playfield is on the rotisserie. Those are near the top rail and apron.

Which way do the kickout coil terminals face so they don’t short out on the apron or trough? Not the way it is now but toward the player?

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Light board fabrication is the next step while waiting for the Bgresto back glass to arrive. Measurements of the display locations were requested in the Cheetah club thread https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/classic-stern-cheetah-club-its-fast/page/7#post-5989842

Otherwise have my 3/4” birch plywood and 1/2” forstner bit are ready to cut.

Have my new lift channel from Pinsider @gatecrasher. Very nicely made. Quick shipping, well packaged and reasonable price.

ROMs will be changed on the OEM MPU-200 to the Cheetah Home version.

Thank you for the direction!

Playfield is complete and in the cabinet. Will do last minute checks and fire it up over the weekend. Game has a split personality right now.

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Full size light board template is complete except for confirmation of credit display location.

Pay no attention to the numbers and extra lines on the print. Needed them when zooming in on areas and piecing together the printout.

Photoshop doesn’t have tiled printing for making a poster picture of letter size paper. Surprisingly the free Adobe Reader does.

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Cutting and drilling was fairly easy.

Just have the display areas to finish. May wait for my backglass to make sure the alignment is right on.

Then sand and paint the front. Anybody know what white paint to use on this board and does it need to be sprayed or can it be brushed on? Thx

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In the decade and two moves since I picked up the project game I managed to lose the transformer board.

In the process of building another. The Weebly board is a fun little build as many have made them.

The transformer came with a connector but it must have been something like 0.084 so I replaced to 0.093 which are the connectors I’m using in the game.

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Hey Chris,

Yes saw your line of products and Agent_Hero mentioned it in post#16. Very nice solutions!

My metal panel wasn't in too bad a shape but will verify when I get it all together. Thanks.

Happy Holidays...

IT’S ALIVE! IT’S ALIVE!!

Need to adjust some switches and fine tune but played several games. Plays fairly fast even though some inserts on this previously owned playfield aren’t completely level. Glad I was able to start with the semi-populated field to make this a reality. Thank you again @out_of_order!

Can’t wait for the CPR repro to come out but plenty of game rules to learn in the meantime!

Appreciate all the help from the Pinsiders on this thread, the Cheetah club thread and others but especially thanks to TractorDoc who is a great resource both publicly and on PM.

Also a plug for Matt’s Basement Arcade for fast turnaround on the game chips (Pinsider @meloyelo51).

The Bgresto back glass is shipping tomorrow and should be here Tuesday. This thing is coming together!

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Building the harness was not a bad experience. I double and triple checked my wiring but it seems there are mistakes in the switch matrix schematic for the pop bumpers.

Manual says:
Switch 12 (White-Black) = Top Pop, but it should be Mid
Switch 13 (White-Green) = Bottom Pop, but it should be Top
Switch 14 (White-Brown) = Mid Pop, but it should be Bottom

Plays much better when the switch activates the correct pop bumper. Wrestled with redoing the switches or swapping the solenoid numbers. In hindsight swapping solenoid return lines at the driver board connector would have been less work than cutting tie wraps and rerouting the switch wires. Maybe next time someone is under the hood or has their pf on the rotisserie they can confirm.

Everything else seems right but as I learn the game I’ll post if any other issues are discovered in the rollovers or targets designated in the manual schematic.

Game is getting better the more I play it.

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Solenoid numbers for the pop bumpers match the manual. The switch numbers when they matched the manual did not correlate with what pop bumper was activated.

Now that I have swapped them as stated, each pop bumper when the switch is closed causes the corresponding pop bumper solenoid to respond as it should.

I went through the switch self test and the pop bumpers were the only switch matrix errors in the manual.

Pop switches should be like I marked up in the picture. Someone can check it.

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Mentioned this in the Cheetah Club but no one confirmed the schematic is wrong.

Isn’t the EOS wiring on all the flippers that is in many Stern manuals just wrong?

Stumped me until Pinsiders confirmed how to hook it up.

Right flipper, for example, the EOS is connected to Blue-White, not Orange.

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Ok, I see that now. Small sample size but seems like the diodes come that way and thus require wiring different than the schematic.

Letting this beauty come to room temperature before installing lift trim and molding.

Very well packaged by BGresto. Can’t wait to see it in the game.

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Game conversion is close to finished. Back glass looks great even though not lit up yet.

Just have to wait for a day above freezing to cut out my display windows and add insert lamps and harness.

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I put marked up graph paper behind the backglass display windows to make sure the holes would line up.

Used a jigsaw to make the cuts in the light panel and it went very smoothly.

Just have to add the backbox harness and GI lamp sockets on the board to finish it up.

Game play is a lot of fun, especially now that I can see the score display.

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Finally got back to finishing the light insert panel. Bgresto glass looks good lit up with warm white LEDs.

The F2K harness to the displays is a little tight. Maybe I can cut some wire ties for slack but it’s in.

Don’t have a cabinet refinish area (or skills) but painted the frame of the back box black. An improvement over the original blue.

Almost time to swap the playfield if I can stop playing it.

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Finally finished the swap to the CPR playfield. This conversion was a fun project and the game is a great player.

Thanks to all that helped with parts, showed their restorations and answered questions!

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Thanks HoakyPoaky

I missed the original sale and only have that playfield because of Tsskinne

Surprised there is still stock of the second run.