3" benson imperial trackball orientation

[sman26]

Hello

I purchased a USED 3" Benson Imperial TB and was curious how to orient it when I place it in my MAME Cabinet.  When I spin the TB the ball has a tendency to want to orient towards the direction where the cables come out of the top.  It spins forever when I spin it toward where the cords come out.  When I try to spin it towards one of the 2 arrows imprinted on the top of the TB plastic body on either side of where the cords come out of the TB, it doesn't spin very good and wants to go again toward the direction of the cords.  My questions is, is that the straight up direction towards where the cords come out or is one of the arrows, to the left or right of the cords the "UP".  Just wondering if I need new bearings so it will spin in all directions equally?
Hope that makes sense.

sman

[BobA]

On my betson the cable comes out the top right corner.

Correction:  Apparently my trackball is not the norm.  Bottom right corner for the wires not top right.  Thanks Randy

[sman26]

I hope maybe this picture will help explain what I am trying to figure out a little better.
Thanks.

[TOK]

Sounds like the rollers and bound up. They are very easy to pull apart and clean. Here is the one from my Golden Tee when I picked it up... It was so bad that the ball wouldn't even move if you weren't pushing it pretty hard. I figured I was just going to have to replace it.
I oiled the bearings and buffed the rollers and it works like new.

[RandyT]

I hope maybe this picture will help explain what I am trying to figure out a little better.

See TOK's photo above.  That is the proper orientation for a Betson Imperial trackball.  The wires exit at the lower right when viewed from above.

The "drift" is normal, and it's due to the roller design.  The Betson isn't alone, as pretty much all trackballs have this kind configuration internally.  Some arcade games, like Marble Madness, actually change the orientation in software and position the trackballs in such a way as to maximize their efficacy based on the way the game is expected to be played.

If you position it incorrectly when you install it, there's probably a good chance you can swap some wires around and fix it, but not the way you showed it.  The rollers with the encoder wheels must be positioned to react to motion in one of the 4 cardinal directions.  Positioning as you have for the photo would probably require a special driver to translate it.

RandyT

[sman26]

Thanks guys.  So Randy, you say the proper orientation for the Betson should be like TOKs top photo?  Mounted underneath the CP, the cables should be coming from the bottom right corner?  The Blue/Brown encoder wheel at the top/rt and Yellow/Green encoder wheel to the Bottom/Left?

Also, I know Randy talked a bit about this over at http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=99574.0 but I don't have ultrasonics and a vacuum chamber.  2nd best way to clean the bearings? (Are "rollers" same as bearings?)
Some people mention Radio Shacks  "Component Cleaner" as the solvent and then spin to get grease out then soak over night in 3 in 1 Lubricant?  Personal thoughts?
TOK...what worked for you exactly?

Appreciate the help.

[TOK]

I soaked the bearings in 40 weight motor oil for about an hour. I polished the rollers with regular car polish and a rotary tool. The rollers have some very slight grooving, but it doesn't affect the operation at all once they were polished up.
Once all the components were pulled from the housing, I just washed that with dish detergent and water then blew it out with compressed air.

I think my GT was in a bar because it was just full of that caked on smelly beer residue. It was nasty, probably way worse than yours. I wiped all the excess oil off the bearings and put it all back together. It's been functioning perfectly for over a year now. Plenty of beer around it, just not sitting on the control panel. 

[RandyT]

Mounted underneath the CP, the cables should be coming from the bottom right corner?

The wires exit at the lower right when viewed from above.

[sman26]

Thank you.