Inside view of TM HOTAS Warthog

I've followed Vega's advice and bought this: Dow Corning Molykote EM-30L lithium soap.

I've disassembled the stick, washed it and used this grease. Besides this I've used some Loctite super bond power gel to fix that elastic, soft O-ring.

Now it is better than ever, smooth without any sticktion. I'm happy. :)

Just purchased 1oz (should be enough right?) of EM-30L as well. Thanks for sharing your findings Vega and Bird! The only time I notice sticktion is when I try to move Y axis after keeping it still for a while... which results in a "bump" feel to get the stick moving and then smooth again. It can get annoying on finals or other precision flying no doubt in that.

One question that remains in my mind is what did you use to wash the old grease off? Any solvent?

Because of the full palstic design I washed it with simple warm water and dish-washing liquid. Dry it fully, water drops are unwated (use your hair dryer maybe...). But there are many chemical material for cleaning plastic surfaces from grease.

In my oppinion the main problem is that plastic, elastic O-ring. Now I'm looking for the final solution made from silicone rubber material.

The white ring on top of the black "cylinder" has holes for the vertical posts, the holes are smaller in diameter, such that the pressure builds up on the white ring when trying to move the stick off center, which causes sticktion/jitter/hesitation.

Widening these holes to the same diameter as the black "cylinder" will resolve sticktion, however, in return it will introduce a little bit more (than original) center play. Widening the holes results in force being applied over a much larger area (P=F/A)... we get less pressure... less sticktion.

Here is a picture (Frazer, hope you don't mind me using yours):

Seems like you could just remove the white ring instead of drill it. I know I won't be drilling mine but if I get motivated, I may try removing it.

I do agree that some of the sticktion is due to that whole assembly sliding up and down those 4 posts though.

wow stunning, 400 $ stick and you gotta mod it to make it usable. i remember this happening on my hotas cougar.

wow stunning, 400 $ stick and you gotta mod it to make it usable. i remember this happening on my hotas cougar.

It is far from unusable in it's unmodded state. What they talk about here won't be a problem for 90% of users, i dare say.

For my part, i can do AAR easily now, which is probably the most precise i ever need to fly, so i'm good.

I've followed Vega's advice and bought this: Dow Corning Molykote EM-30L lithium soap.

Anybody have any idea where in the UK I can purchase this from?

It is far from unusable in it's unmodded state. What they talk about here won't be a problem for 90% of users, i dare say.

 

For my part, i can do AAR easily now, which is probably the most precise i ever need to fly, so i'm good.

Yeah shure, but for 400 $ these problems shouldn't exist, i've always been very picky about stick jumps, even in dogfights, sorry, but when you need a little bit more of a pull you can't have your stick jump arround or you die.

Yeah shure, but for 400 $ these problems shouldn't exist, i've always been very picky about stick jumps, even in dogfights, sorry, but when you need a little bit more of a pull you can't have your stick jump arround or you die.

I only notice it when looking for it while not flying. In flight, it has never been a bother for me, but suit yourself. :)

Yeah shure, but for 400 $ these problems shouldn't exist, i've always been very picky about stick jumps, even in dogfights, sorry, but when you need a little bit more of a pull you can't have your stick jump arround or you die.

There is no stick jump. The only problem is a very slight "stickation" around the centre - which as acknowledged by the ones that notice would not be noticeable bar those that require extreme precision such as formation flying or those that are particularly fussy with their sticks.

Did you mod your cougar with NXT? It's been acknowledged that the WH comes close to this level of smoothness and if it weren't for the slight stickation near the centre it would probably be perfect. Some have given up their modded cougars for the WH cos the build quality is just superior in all fronts.

Other than that there is no axis spike, jump, whatever and the components, switches, buttons are second to none.

There is nothing wrong with the warthog, it's all the the people's mind that have problems with them. :music_whistling: I think it's the game that is causing the so-called brick throttles :doh:

There is nothing wrong with the warthog, it's all the the people's mind that have problems with them. :music_whistling: I think it's the game that is causing the so-called brick throttles :doh:

You still going on about this Cali - seems like we're going in circles. Sure, there are product problems but what product doesn't have one. And with all current data, bricked throttles are a very, very minor problem.

We've been through this ad nauseum and yet you still like to bring it up in a WH thread. You like to think that it's a "huge issue" currently affecting the WH when in reality it's not.

if it happens to you rma it either with where you bought it or TM themselves. Dunno about laws in other countries but I can return it to my store where I bought mine from which is about 20 mins drive from where I am thankfully.

But you go right on thinking that the WH is inherently flawed. I'll just keep flying with it.

I said there is nothing wrong with it, although a few other people have came forward and said they have bricks also. I'm sure TM will figure/fix this soon. Just don't buy things from them as soon as they come out, history shows that. Who knows, if my CH breaks I may even get a warthog.

I don't have a problem with the plastic. CH makes plastic all over and their sticks are all very high quality. Something that you don't get guaranteed for a metal joint.

 

Besides that, I've already modded my TMW. I'm simply not a friend of 400 Euros Arm-muscle-trainers. As a friend of mine said: Planes have to be flown with two fingers, not like a constant fight with white knuckles.

 

I was pretty sad they didn't make the spring for the stick adjustable, but I simply removed it. Instead I moved the 4 smaller springs on top of the ring. Now the friction along the steel tubes is largely minimized and the stick is very smoothly move-able to all extends. No center play, no uneven resistance. Very comfortable.

 

And you don't need to be Schwarzenegger to make little precise adjustments in a dogfight.

 

Besides that, it eases the pressure on the plastic balls. Works nice for me.

Feuerfalke,

Last night I decided to open her up and do your mod...WOW what a difference! alot smoother and so easy on the Y and X axis, though at first the stick was a bit to loose and was not returning to center so I put one nylon washer under each small spring to stiffen her up which solved this issue and at the same time increase the tension up a bit. so if you need more tension you can add an extra washer or so under each small spring. got A pack of 4 nylon washers at Home Depot sku# 030699869480 1/4" 6.4 nylon washer. Fits perfect without interference. Thanks!

If some of you have problems with stiction, I noticed something on my stick that caused extra stiction.

I opened up mine and looked at each of the 8 screws fastening the white O-ring to the black cylinder. I found one of these had been slightly angled when screwed into place, thus skewing the white ring quite a bit, causing a lot of unnecessary tension on the 4 struts. I loosened this screw a bit, and voila, loads of less stiction.

If you have a lot of stiction, this might have happened to your stick as well, worth checking out.

I'm gonna try out lubing some Molkyte EM-30L on the struts and ball as well, see if it makes it better. Just gotta find some where I live.

Ok, just removed the big spring and moved the four little ones above the plate. Took 4-5min, really easy.

And what can i say, holy snap! It's so smooth now, 90% increased smoothness. And you don't have to fight any resistance at all yanking the stick.

And if you're afraid of the tiny, tiny cables and breaking them? Don't be, you don't even have to separate zeh balls! But i did anyways, and man, grease must be veeery expensive in china. It was really dry... :'(

So to get the extra 10% smoothness, im gonna get some of that lube you guys are talking about.

And btw, i didn't even notice it before, but the little chinese that assembled my stick busted one of my screws. Guess he was in a hurry home or something. It was one of the eight visible on the silver ring/plate. Had to push down my screwdriver really hard, one more slip on that screw and it's busted for real.

If you still are hesitating, i can shoot a youtube movie so you can see how easy it is.

hi Dejjvid,

any video tutorial is welcome, for sure!)

Copy, i'll record one on saturday.

Edit: Compressing the movie now, should be uploaded and ready in just about one hour.

ok, here's the video.

It's a quick video recorded with my iphone, so the quality isn't the best. I hope you understand my sometimes crappy english ;)

nothing raw and dirty..well done..thank you..appreciated.

Cheers

SCUD

Awesome, looks easy. I have tried it out.

However I decided I didn't like the stick too loose. Aim was not good I kept overshooting and overcorrecting. So I put the big spring back in.

One different thing I did though - with the 4 little springs in the default position I put 3 small metal washers underneath each of them to shorten the distance and make the power of that spring stronger.

The result:

-Centre detent is not as strong because big spring is offset by more force from those 4 springs

-Slightly decreased tension, just right for me not too hard not too loose.

I also heavily re-greased everything I saw on the inside I'm sure that helps.

Sweet, i've got kinda used to my stick now. I'll have it the loose way for a few weeks and see if i want to change it later.

I still need to find some good grease though. I hear the awful sound of friction sometimes when i fly.

And my DMS left button has been bad since day one. Im gonna try to open my handle to see if i can fix it. It's annoying when you start to broadcast SPI to everyone when you zoom out your TGP :)

Anyone else had any problem with DMS button?

Anyone else had any problem with DMS button?

No, but since the replacement, the new stick has really sensitive trim hat but only in right direction.

Since one srewhead was busted. And almost every screw inside the stick is skewed. I believe the manufacturer was in a hurry producing the Warthogs. You can definitely tell that it isn't a robot that has assembled the units.

Don't know if i break the dms button when i try to fix it. So i'll rather wait until someone produce a nice little guide for taking the handle apart.