Nintendo 64 Analogue Stick Repair (Continued)
To ease the friction caused by the plastic parts rubbing against each other - it's a good idea to grease them up. mmmonkey used some Tamiya Ceramic Grease from radio control cars (you can get it from an model shop that deals with radio controlled equipment, it's for gears, plastic & metal bearings). Don't go mad with this stuff, just lightly coat the end of the control stick and the ball that is just below it. You should also grease the the black "bit", but mmmonkey forgot to take a photo - you'll see it a bit further on though.
Before putting the the upper half back together you should stretch the spring a tiny bit, you may also notice that the diameter of the spring is larger one end than the other end. Start putting it back together now, keep twisting the control stick so it fits through the hole, then put the spring back (the larger diameter end sits in the lid of the unit). When putting the white ring back on, the flat side is facing up, while the side with the lip sits on the end of the spring with the smaller diameter. And finally put the black "bit" back on, and twist it around so it holds it all together, make sure you've got the tip of the control stick and the teeth of the black "bit" in the right place.
The photo above shows where to grease the black "bit" that mmmonkey forgot to include earlier, only the curve is greased, do not grease the teeth. Now it's time to do the simpler lower half of the unit, remove the black "bit" with the larger curve, and blow out any dust etc, then grease the four grooves where the black "bits" rest. Then just replace the black "bit".
If you've got all the parts back in their original places/positions, then the analogue unit clips back together very easily, if it doesn't then check that you've got the black "bits" in the correct positions etc. Once you've screwed the unit together, check the movement of the analogue stick, it should now be moving much smoother, if it's still too loose, then remove the spring and stretch it a bit more. If you've left the rest of the pad soaking in water, then finish cleaning and drying it, then simply re-assemble it.
