fixing up a sixer-pcb and controller pin question

[maxgrrl]

I'm still a newbie at this but I got fixing controllers down pat and revived quite a few systems so far but I'm stuck on this one.I got a 1977 Atari sixer everything works fine but the controllers wont allow me to go left and its not the controllers since i tried about 10 working ones.How can i tell if its the male jacks coming out of the system(the pins look fine)or can it be the PCB.Any suggestion swould be great.if its the pin can it be repaired with replacing and is there a way to tell which pin is bad if i know its just the left direction that doesnt work.I've tried searching for pics and schematics but no luck.

[Mindfield]

Open the unit, remove the RF shielding, flip the PCB over and take a close look at the solder points of the joystick ports. In all probability, there's one or more cracked points in the bunch. Just take a soldering iron and reflow (re-melt) the solder so that it can reform around the pins (being careful not to flow one point into an adjacent one, of course). Do all 18 (9 per port) just to be sure they're all good and solid. If you want, you can add a bit of fresh solder if there isn't enough on the pin to begin with (which is most often the cause of cracked points).

 

I tend to go whole hog -- I use desoldering braid to remove all of the solder, and then apply fresh solder to all of the points.

 

Also check the pins on the port itself to make sure they're all straight and all stick out far enough; I have a heavy sixer with one funky pin that's probably been bent one too many times and tends to recede into the port when I insert a joystick, so I have to pull it back out with a pair of needle nose pliers.

 

Either way, that ought to fix the problem.