Arcade Cabinet Stick Removal...

MuNKeYMuNKeY
in Help Wanted!
I been working off on an on cleaning and tinkering with my arcade cabinet and the other day decided to remove the sticks to clean up, what I have is a half functional (bad roms) Midway NFL Blitz 2000/NBA Showtime 4 player Sportsstation. I can remove player 3 and 4 pretty easy, but player 1 and 2 won't come out, I can loosen everything around it, but the joysticks will not budge, ive rapped on them with a hammer even shot a bit of WD40 thinking maybe the center grommets might have somehow rusted to the joystick shaft (hehheh) but so far nothing works and I rather not go all apeshit and break something.



Anybody here know any tricks for removal?

Comments

  • dewisp02dewisp02
    Do you know what kind of joysticks are in there? A picture would help.
  • Taco!Taco!
    I have a 99 blitz 2 player cabinet. Mine just looks like it's screwed in at the control panel and that's it. No glue or anything else on mine. Can you snap some pictures? I'm curious to see what's holding this in..
  • MuNKeYMuNKeY
    Yeah I'll get some pics when I get back but it looks like this one,



    image



    49way, like I stated I can completely disassemble and remove player 3 and 4 but I can only go down so far on player 1 & 2, and I also noticed the sticks on 3 and 4 I can spin around freely but can't on 1 & 2.
  • darkchylde28darkchylde28
    Take this with a grain of salt, as I know literally nothing about this situation past what you've described, but is it possible that players 3 & 4 are replacement sticks and 1 & 2 are original? If you've literally removed the same components from 3 & 4 and removed them that you have from 1 & 2 and are still stick, it sounds to me like something is either completely gummed/rusted up as you've suggested or the two sets of sticks are very similar but not identical. (shrug) How do they mount? Do you remove the "ball" and then push the whole assembly down through the base? If so, and if you can get at it, you might want to look at the top of the assembly you've pictured above and the bottom of the base it slots through to see if somebody in the past didn't glue/epoxy/whatever it permanently together. If that ends up being the case you'll end up having to slowly pry/chip/cut/etc. those two sticks out to get them removed. I hope you manage to get it unjammed without anything getting damaged or needing to be replaced!
  • dewisp02dewisp02
    This happens a lot with wico and 49 way joysticks. The shaft is most definitely rusted to the grommet. Rarely do you get the shaft out without damaging the grommet.... I used wrench sockets to be able to use a metal hammer without mushrooming the shaft.... I found a socket that can fit offer shaft diameter (so the shaft glues through it), but had small enough diameter to butt against the metal center off the grommet.. might have to use a washer to go between the socket and the metal center of the grommet.. then used another long socket to butt against the one against the washer/grommet center. This allows you to hit the socket with the hammer, which evenly distributes the force. make sure to put the ball (in your case the bat) on something like foam, carpet, etc so you don't crack it. I sprayed pb blaster first and let it sit for awhile. Some say coke or Pepsi works will, but have never tried it myself. Then gave a few good whaps with the hammer. Took awhile but I eventually got it out... my grommets were badly rotten and partially torn before the removal, which is why I was taking mine apart.



    Others have said they heated the shaft and grommet center. And of course you can cut off the grommet center with a cutting wheel.
  • MuNKeYMuNKeY
    Originally posted by: dewisp02



    This happens a lot with wico and 49 way joysticks. The shaft is most definitely rusted to the grommet. Rarely do you get the shaft out without damaging the grommet.... I used wrench sockets to be able to use a metal hammer without mushrooming the shaft.... I found a socket that can fit offer shaft diameter (so the shaft glues through it), but had small enough diameter to butt against the metal center off the grommet.. might have to use a washer to go between the socket and the metal center of the grommet.. then used another long socket to butt against the one against the washer/grommet center. This allows you to hit the socket with the hammer, which evenly distributes the force. make sure to put the ball (in your case the bat) on something like foam, carpet, etc so you don't crack it. I sprayed pb blaster first and let it sit for awhile. Some say coke or Pepsi works will, but have never tried it myself. Then gave a few good whaps with the hammer. Took awhile but I eventually got it out... my grommets were badly rotten and partially torn before the removal, which is why I was taking mine apart.



    Others have said they heated the shaft and grommet center. And of course you can cut off the grommet center with a cutting wheel.





    Excellent ideal I hadn't thought of using sockets over the shat, the gommets to me are in fair shape and not torn (yet) but the stick shafts are very worn down above the dust washer, apparently this game got a lot of 1 to 2 player love back in the day.  When I retun and have time to monkey with the contol panel I will try what you suggested and see what comes of it.  My hairbrain ideal was to swap out those two for 3 and 4 as I really doubt it will ever get played in 4 player much once everthing is up and running (changing it over to a MAME) until I can affored some proper parts to restore those two and worse case i'd rather replace the stick and gomment over the entire assembly.
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