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Reconditioning Nintendo 4-Way Joystick or Alternative
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blkdog7:
In the last two days I have completely taken apart, insanely cleaned and rebuilt, two different DK joysticks. It's quite easy and sort of therapeutic. :)

Before taking them apart I drew a diagram showing where all the wires went.

I complelty disassembled every single piece of the joystick. Removed the switches, 4 way restrictor, etc. There was not a piece that was not removed. On both of the joysticks that I cleaned they had a ton of grease that was full of dirt and grime. The micro-switches were also gummed up on the metal lever part. I took every single part of the joystick and sprayed the living hell out of them with Johnsen's Electronic Cleaner:



After spraying them I wiped them down with a soft rag. I did this to every component, switch, etc. of the joystick over and over 'til nothing had any grime on it. No grease, no black, only nice shiny metal.  I also did the same for the little roller ball thing inside the top of the metal plate. I kept spraying and spraying until the ball was just raw metal and had no grease or any grime on it.

I then put it all back together but sprayed the ROLLER BALL ONLY with Pure Silicone Hinge Lubricant Spray:



Both joysticks came completely back to life and felt like completely different and new sticks. I highly recommend this before replacing your stick. It's easy and a bit rewarding. Just make sure you are ready to catch everything when your remove the "C-Clip". It's not fun trying to find the parts that flew across the room.





WunderCade:
Do you find that there is still a lot of play (jiggle) in the stick even after you greased it or is it  snug a "center"?

In other words you can tap/flick the ball top with you fingers and the joystick doesn't sort of just jostle around. That's what mine does. In looking at it it appears to need some sort of grommet at the end where the E-clip is so there isn't soo much play between the shaft and leafs. That is what is causing the joystick to feel loose.
pcb:

--- Quote from: DonkeyKong on February 17, 2008, 01:12:14 am ---... usually the spring needs to be replaced ...
--- End quote ---

I have not found an alternative spring for these.  Has someone else found them?
blkdog7:

--- Quote from: WunderCade on March 16, 2008, 06:26:13 pm ---Do you find that there is still a lot of play (jiggle) in the stick even after you greased it or is it  snug a "center"?

In other words you can tap/flick the ball top with you fingers and the joystick doesn't sort of just jostle around. That's what mine does. In looking at it it appears to need some sort of grommet at the end where the E-clip is so there isn't soo much play between the shaft and leafs. That is what is causing the joystick to feel loose.

--- End quote ---

The two joysticks I did both center completely after cleaning. You can push it in any direction and it always returns to center. On one of them it would completely stick to the right. If you pushed right and let go it would often stay stuck to the right. After cleaning it returned to center as expected.

Anyways, your joystick should have all of these parts:



If it doesn't then something is missing!

WunderCade:
Mine returns to center it's just real jiggly. I can jiggle it around. I've looked underneath the CP and there is some space between the contacts and shaft of the stick. That's the only thing I can see that allows it to jiggle around on center instead of being snug.

Now, mind you...I have not cleaned and re-greased the middle bearing. Maybe some grease will take care of some of that jiggle.lol
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