Wico Leaf-Switch Joystick Restoration

[MacArizona]

New to the forum. I am upgrading an old cabinet so I expect to do a lot of reading and learning here.

I have a question re vintage Wico joysticks (I believe these are the same as used in Robotron). I have a 4 player cabinet with (obviously) 4 sticks. They all work pretty well despite their age. I would love to keep them and just replace worn parts as necessary.

The only problem is cosmetic. The color of the balls on top of the sticks doesn't match what I'm doing.

Is there ANY way to remove these and replace them? I am concerned the shaft flares inside the ball. I could probably get the balls off (and destroy them in the process), but I'm not sure I can then securely put new balls on that match my color scheme.

If they can't be removed, can they be recolored in any way that looks decent and is somewhat permanent?

Last resort, I suppose, is just buy new Wico shafts. I would like the balls to be black, and I found some on Bob Robert's site but it looks like he's not doing business right now.

Any advice appreciated!

[DeLuSioNal29]

Don't destroy the Wicos.  You can probably sell them and grab brand new sticks instead. 

What color are the ball tops of the Wicos in there currently?  Also, if they're red, what's the shaft size?  It's a long shot, but you may have rarer Robotron sticks which are 4" in size.  (3.5" is standard Wico size).  If the former I've got dibs.. LOL.

Good luck!

DeL

[behrmr]

New to the forum. I am upgrading an old cabinet so I expect to do a lot of reading and learning here.

I have a question re vintage Wico joysticks (I believe these are the same as used in Robotron). I have a 4 player cabinet with (obviously) 4 sticks. They all work pretty well despite their age. I would love to keep them and just replace worn parts as necessary.

The only problem is cosmetic. The color of the balls on top of the sticks doesn't match what I'm doing.

Is there ANY way to remove these and replace them? I am concerned the shaft flares inside the ball. I could probably get the balls off (and destroy them in the process), but I'm not sure I can then securely put new balls on that match my color scheme.

If they can't be removed, can they be recolored in any way that looks decent and is somewhat permanent?

Last resort, I suppose, is just buy new Wico shafts. I would like the balls to be black, and I found some on Bob Robert's site but it looks like he's not doing business right now.

Any advice appreciated!

The balltops are molded to the shafts so they can't be swapped.  I saw a thread somewhere about someone having mixed results with dyeing them.  But user Andrewb on KLOV restores a ton of Wico sticks.  He may have what you need or be willing to trade.  Consider contacting him.