Original 1977 joystick HELP NEEDED!

[the 5th ghost]

Hi,

 

I have a big problem and was hoping someone's expertise can help me fix it.

 

I have five Atari joysticks that are the original 1977 heavy sixer type that I can't get to work properly.

 

Here are some details:

 

1) Among the five joysticks there are 3 different types of circuit boards. One has Atari logo Rev. 4 c.77 on it, three have Atari logo rev. 5 co.77 on them, and the last one is brown on the bottom and has Santo 88 on it.

 

2) All five of them work properly when I manually depress the metal contacts on the circuit boards.

 

3) All five joysticks have good cables.

 

4) All five joysticks have the springs intact and none of them are damaged anywhere internally. The plastic plates that go between the springs and circuit boards are all unbroken and don't have stress marks.

 

5) NONE of them work when the joysticks are fully assembled.

 

What else can I do to get these to work when they are screwed together? CPUWIZ once suggested to me to try loosening the screws but this isn't helping me with these particular sticks.

 

I also posted this in the HARDWARE section but figured it may be a good idea to post it here as well.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[bjk7382]

Well if all the directions work when you manually depress the contacts it is most likely the springs that aren't pushing on the plastic contact plate hard enough. I used to have one of these that I streached the springs that weren't working the best and it worked fine, I sold it on ebay as working, but I don't know how long after that it stayed working.

[Rob Mitchell]

Well if all the directions work when you manually depress the contacts it is most likely the springs that aren't pushing on the plastic contact plate hard enough. I used to have one of these that I streached the springs that weren't working the best and it worked fine' date=' I sold it on ebay as working, but I don't know how long after that it stayed working.[/quote']

 

This is my experience also .. stretch the springs .. and that will make better contact!

 

Rob Mitchell, Atlanta, GA

[the 5th ghost]

Thanks for the tip!

 

I didn't try stretching the springs yet but last night managed to get 3 out of the 5 to work perfectly

 

The other 2 will have to wait till another day. I broke one of the little metal contacts removing it from the circuit board