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Need some Wico Help
DaveStall:
Last weekend I finally realized a longtime dream of mine and I picked up a pretty nice Robotron cabinet. When I got it home and powered up, I noticed that the joysticks had quite a bit of up / down play to them which could cause the stick to get jammed a bit. I took the sticks apart (they are Wico leaf sticks with a grey base) and found that the springs that go between the actuator and the and base were broken. I tried to fashion new springs (I had to cut some longer springs to size), but now one of the sticks will not hit either the upper right or lower right diagonal unless I flip the actuator over so that the wide part is next to the clip. I have tried everything from longer springs to no springs, even the old broken springs but the results are always they same. The right side diagonals simply will not register unless the actuator is in the "wrong" position. I did notice that the grommets are pretty old and somewhat cracked, but even rotating the grommet still gives the same results. If anybody out there with some Wico experience has any ideas of what I am doing wrong I would greatly appreciate some advice. The game is still fairly playable with my reversed actuator, but it still feels a bit off. I did find an earlier thread where Oscar did a great job of showing the proper assembly of these sticks, so I am pretty confident that the sticks are asembled correctly.
Thanks in advance.
Dave
Tailgunner:
Start scouting Ebay for Wico rebuild kits. They have all the bits needed (excepting the grommet) to return them to like new condition. I've no idea where you'd find a Wico grommet without buying a NOS joystick.
DaveStall:
Thanks for the reply Tailgunner. I will keep a lookout for some rebuild kits. I have seen some NOS Wico grommets on ebay from a few sellers, but I'm not sure if NOS grommets will fit the old sticks or not. Of course, those grommets seems to be worth their weight in gold as well.
Dave
spidermonkey:
Check the hole on the top of the base where the shaft goes through. They should be round. If they are diamond shapped then the sticks are Wico 4-ways. The reason I'm concerned is because Wico usually made their 4-way sticks with a gray base and their 8-way sticks with a black base. Their are rare exceptions but that is the general color rule for Wico leaf switch joysticks. If they are in fact 4-ways then that would certainly explain why you're having so much trouble hitting the diagonals. As far as the centering grommets go, as long as its a first generation Wico base the grommets are all the same. Both 4 and 8-way use the same grommet. Even the early Wico microswitch joysticks use the same grommets. I bought four n.o.s. Wico black ball 8-way microswitch joysticks off Ebay a while back. I removed the grommets from two of them and used them in my older Wico leaf switch joysticks. A perfect fit. Can you post pictures of the bases ? Maybe we could help more if we saw them.
spidermonkey:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=13718&item=6110265737
:)
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