+therealbountybob Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 (edited) Background: Had 2 sets of paddles, all a bit ropey so bought another set boxed from Ebay, one was ok but the other was jittery. So: This site http://www.atariguide.com/help/care.htm has a great atricle on repairing/servicing paddles. Just followed it more or less; I didn't use the rubbing alcohol (surgical spirit over here!) basically took them apart and cleaned them up using kitchen roll (they were covered in black gloop!) and I now have three working sets, very happy indeed Note one set (from Ebay) had the word Paddle embossed on the paddle front rather than stickes and these had a fixed shaft so I didn't take them apart quite as much just dabbed the kitchen roll in after wrapping it round the end of a small screwdriver. Roll on some paddle games in the HSC Next job seeing what I can salvage from 7 dodgy joysticks (now that I have a couple of new ones!) Edited March 31, 2009 by therealbountybob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1050 Posted April 2, 2009 Share Posted April 2, 2009 Just followed it more or less; I didn't use the rubbing alcohol (surgical spirit over here!)huh! I don't know if we can claim them either then. They use a set of water pump pliers and call them a monkey wrench. They show a picture of a cresent wrench but don't list it in the parts needed but which is the descendant of the actual monkey wrench which had a vertical thumb screw as I understand the genealogy. But most disturbing to me is they don't seem to have a clue about contact cleaner available at Radio Shack specifically designed to get in there and clean out the black goop and make electrical contacts work better at the same time, and no harm is done when you leave in there. If fact that's how it is supposed to be used in the first place, squirt and go. There is a place for alcohol to be sure, but the first place on my workbench is reserved for contact cleaner. If the can is missing or unpressurized from the passage of time, then that item is first on the shopping list. I wouldn't be in a great hurry to completely disassemble everything either, not when a shot of contact cleaner will do the job required 95% of the time. I guess my age is showing now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+therealbountybob Posted April 2, 2009 Author Share Posted April 2, 2009 Just followed it more or less; I didn't use the rubbing alcohol (surgical spirit over here!)huh! I don't know if we can claim them either then. They use a set of water pump pliers and call them a monkey wrench. They show a picture of a cresent wrench but don't list it in the parts needed but which is the descendant of the actual monkey wrench which had a vertical thumb screw as I understand the genealogy. But most disturbing to me is they don't seem to have a clue about contact cleaner available at Radio Shack specifically designed to get in there and clean out the black goop and make electrical contacts work better at the same time, and no harm is done when you leave in there. If fact that's how it is supposed to be used in the first place, squirt and go. There is a place for alcohol to be sure, but the first place on my workbench is reserved for contact cleaner. If the can is missing or unpressurized from the passage of time, then that item is first on the shopping list. I wouldn't be in a great hurry to completely disassemble everything either, not when a shot of contact cleaner will do the job required 95% of the time. I guess my age is showing now... I guess the problem is the pot case traps the gunk in so previous grease/Wd40 etc had been collected and then piled up around the contacts... I figured that leaving some gunk/grease would probably help them work so didn't clean them too thoroughly... lets see how they get on when I next use them... will buy some contact cleaner for future use! Have since been busy repairing various Joysticks that I have accumulated over the years ; here's a quick summary for anyone interested (their might be one person out there Working: 2x Competition Pros (new) Power Play Cruiser (Green) Quickshot flat unit with 2 joystick cables Dodgy: 2x Quickshot (my favouites) both triggers not 100% started to cause me big problems playing Miner 2049er in the HSC! - Tested miroswitches with multimeter, seemed ok so cleaned contact area (again using kitchen roll and surgical spirit wrapped around a small screwdriver!) - seem ok, fantastic as even though the Comp Pros are good these are excellent, easier to move and precise without much play before the microswitches engage! Konix Navigator - works ok but physically hard to get into the diagonals - not sure what to do with this, probably just wear and tear... Atari Pro-line - bought boxed but left and right intermittent at best. Peeled off the pads and sellotape, cleaned them up and re-stuck... seems ok! Atari CX40 - up fails - various metal dome pads have cracked so would need new parts... not too bothered for this one. Cheetah Star Probe - Base Left Fire button stuck down, Up and Right not working - Cleaned mircoswitches. Swapped over broken spring on left-fire microswitch with one on right using long nose pliers (as being right handed I don't use other button!) Spectra Video - Thumb button intemittent - Cleaned up Quick Joy (red) - Down and Trigger not working - Soldered two wires back on and voila! Had a quick test of most of these, very strange like driving all your old cars again I should imagine... apart from the Cheetah Star Probe don't think will be using many of them... maybe future Ebay sales. So I've managed to salvage various joysticks and could have saved myself some money... if you've got a bunch of old kit sitting around why not give it a go, it's suprisingly rewarding... now i've got a light gun that's aim is off to the left... not sure how to tackle this as probably the plastic case has warped... next project Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mimo Posted April 3, 2009 Share Posted April 3, 2009 Atari CX40 - up fails - various metal dome pads have cracked so would need new parts... not too bothered for this one. So I've managed to salvage various joysticks and could have saved myself some money... if you've got a bunch of old kit sitting around why not give it a go, it's suprisingly rewarding... now i've got a light gun that's aim is off to the left... not sure how to tackle this as probably the plastic case has warped... next project Have you checked the continuity of the cable with a multimeter? has the plastic around the base of the joystick handle broken (the white insert bit) I can highly recommend the gold rebuild parts from Best if you want to rebuild it As for the light gun, they were never accurate anyway, try turning up the brightness on your TV, that often gets you better accuracy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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