Inside view of TM HOTAS Warthog

is the surface is rought, wouldn t be an heavyer grease in order since more fluid liquid will tend to be washed out of the "proeminent surface" and promoto some metal to plastic rubbing which ain t good at all for the plastic.

Has anyone tryed KY...on the ballz :D:lol:

Guess no being water based it would rust it.

It's plastic on plastic, which is why I am trying a plastic only lithium soap designed specifically for that. Hopefully it is not too thick.

That make sense report after please. I tohught that by the pictures the ball was metal.

That make sense report after please. I tohught that by the pictures the ball was metal.

Pictures are nice, reading is better ;)

......It became clear to me as soon as I found out that the ball joint (cap and ball) are both of plastic (yes, plastic!).....

It's plastic on plastic, which is why I am trying a plastic only lithium soap designed specifically for that. Hopefully it is not too thick.

Thick is Ideal, you must mean solid, like the first batch of X65F throttles that would barely move.

Pictures are nice, reading is better ;)

I did read, but it was a missread... Your writting flare spoofed my comprehension.

Thick grease definitely works better than the watery lithium spray lub and WD40 I tried the first time. The grease I'm using now is Valvoline automotive synthetic - lithium. It's almost as heavy as wheel bearing grease, and feels about the same consistency as the red goop TM uses. It really made a world of difference!

So, is that "world of difference" between the WD40/spray and the Valvoline, or between the red grease TM uses and the Valvoline?

In other words, will that Valvoline grease solve the whole stickyness problem?

If so, could you post a link or photo of that Valvoline grease?

thx

Mine originally had almost none of the red grease and there wasn't enough of it in there to spread around so I don't know how good it would have been. I suspect very good if there were enough though. The Valvoline synthetic multi purpose grease is called Valvolene Syn Power http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_x_7070009-P_x_x?cm_mmc=CSE-_-Google-_-VALUE3-_-VALUE4&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=7070009

There's no pic but it comes in the standard wheel bearing grease container.

ah, and can you say that you have no bumbs at all when you pull the stick as slow as you can?

By the way, I think I will give this a try:

http://www.bike-x-perts.com/en/product_info.php/products_id/128303

Of course it's not as smooth as a stick with no mechanics (Nxt) but it is much improved from what it was before. I'm very satisfied with it and can understand why some people cannot feel the 'grind/bumpiness' - theirs probably already had enough red grease.

Its always the same lub it a lot and it works better :D .

Its normal thick grease works better is the surface isnt extremely smooth, it isnt washed away by the mechanism movement.

Does anybody know the exact type of the IDC connector inside the stick? It is at the end of the ribbon wire that comes from the stick (the other end is in the PS/2 plug).

Of course it's not as smooth as a stick with no mechanics (Nxt).

Oh, it's still mechanical... I busted the springs on my NXT twice over the years (while I still had it).

Back on topic: Nothing is perfect (the actual airplane included), but we come close. Bumps, stickiness, stiction... whatever you want to call it exists in actual yokes/controls as well... just saying. :music_whistling:

Does anybody know the exact type of the IDC connector inside the stick? It is at the end of the ribbon wire that comes from the stick (the other end is in the PS/2 plug).

http://www.thommos.com/miscfiles/Parts_Cougar.pdf

http://cougar.flyfoxy.com/warranty_parts.php

Does that help?

Thank you, I'll try it!

Anyone tried teflon grease?

I applied it only for the four pins and for the center spring. It works fine. If it'll work for weeks without any problem, I'll disassemble the ball joint once again and I'll replace the current lithium based grease to this fully synthetic teflon based grease.

I just got my warthog 2 days ago.... I do think it's worlds better than my cougar and I could actually control the blackshark much better than ever. However.. in moving it slowly, I did detect the "sticktion" described here and it did affect the subtle fine movements required for hover and landing.

I tried removing the big spring and repositioning the small ones on top, and boy, what a difference... no sticktion at all, it's almost too loose, but better than stock. It's so smooth, just a barely detectable center. I think just a hare stiffer spring is needed ( unless those 4 springs don't change at all with use.. I doubt )

Wondering if a couple of washer unders the springs to make the compression a bit tighter would do the trick? thoughts?

Read before opening your stick: WARNING - TM WH Modders

In the meanwhile I have tried different greases and lubes, though nothing gave me the hoped for smoothness.

I sadly have to admit that this was a misbought for my flying purpouses.

It is actually the second time Thrustmaster let me down, first with the Cougar about 7 years ago. The pots got dirty after 3 months of usage, making the stick useless. Returned the stick to TM and after 5 months (YES, 5 MONTHS!) of waiting and calling I only (but hapily) got my money back.

This time, I thought (and it looked like) Thurstmaster did their homework with the Warthog and i'm sure they tried with best intentions, but not good enough for me.

The stick is very charming and has an awesome feel, unresistable for many, but like the Cougar, good looks doesn't mean great performance.

I might mod the stick when I have time for it, though for now, the stick ends up in my closet......:cry:

I just don't have the issues you're talking about in my stick, or if they're there not pronounced enough for it to bother me (and I'm usually one picky bastard when it comes to my flying and equip). :joystick:

Time will tell and I'll let you know if anything changes, but from someone who's used to doing plenty of precision flying (and leading), I have to disagree. I like it more than my expensively nodded Cougars so far.

I guess you are lucky having a copy that doesn't have this issue. Interesting is that many do have the so called "sticktion" and I don't think my copy is worse than others.

Anyway, for many among the virtual pilots this sticktion is not really a problem, as they don't need extreme precision.

LOL a lot of BB about sticktion and other minor problems, even when M pilots says the real thing have worst problems...

Wouldn t the "sticktion" be dampened if you added a "neck" to the warthog ? like letting the base on the ground and the stick at confortable "between the leg" height ?

It would probably require DZ and curve adjusting. Just an idea.

And by the way you describe it, i don t see it passing over time. Looking at the picture at the beginning i think the "sticktion is a spring mechanism feature. Then a probable solution would be removal/dampening of the springs, but you will come probably with a too loosy stick, which will be complained against, of course.

Probably greasing the big sring and the black encasing tube and the upper and down plate may solve some as the sring will have less "friction" if in contact with those part when needing to adjust to the presure.

But i f i had to shoot at something, i would shoot at the sring, being less thick (or more plyable material", more "revolutions" for the same height with similar pressure. And second plety of thick grease beetween the 2 "balls" as one slide over the other and between the upper ball and the pressing ring, as any friction will result on stiction, and avoid wear over time.

Extending the Warthog stick is a thing I will certainly try, when I have the time for it.

Quick solution from experience. To solve/repair/make better:

1. Play on X/Y axis (or both): the bottom plastic bolted to bottom metal ring bit which is held by 4 silver screws needs to be adjusted by extending approp. clearance between them. That causes rubber ring from upper metal bit tightning upper plastic ball joint (any gap here causes annoying stick play).

2. So called 'lack of smoothness' while trying to slowly apply low X/Y stick movement - get rid of that f*****g crappy grease and neatly apply few drops engine oil - works like a charm.

Results: TM WH corrected after 2 weeks usage issues that caused 'get this s**t returned' thoughts crossing my mind...

Soon: fixing throttlies lateral and thrust plays