Saitek throttle quadrant cleaning redux

[tttocs 301]

I know this has been hashed over before, but I wanted to add one more data point.  Following a summer layoff from simming, my Saitek quadrants had gone from terribly glitchy to downright unusable.  As I had nothing left to lose, before replacing I wanted to take a stab at a simple cleaning solution.  I know that others have offered some (often strong) opinions that they can't be cleaned in a simple process because they're sealed.  Well... no.  My guess is that while the intent to seal may be there, the seal is less than perfect (which may be partly why mine have always gotten noticeably worse after a layoff due to some dust getting in).

I started by blowing some canned air into the base of each axis and whattya know - it actually helped a bit, though they were still spiking.  Seeing that blowing air in actually had an impact, I went the next step and blew in some quick dry contact cleaner (CRC QD Contact Cleaner in my case).  After applying at each axis, I moved each lever through its range of motion several times and then finished with a final shot of air "just in case".  After doing all six, I fired up the sim, tested and glorioski!  5 smooth levers and one with just a tiny bit of spiking near the bottom of its range.  I unplugged and went through the process a second time on the one still glitching and when finished I now had six perfectly functioning levers.

If you're at the end of your rope as I was and close to pulling out the credit card, do yourself a favor and give the throttles one more chance at renewed life (with the usual caveats of "try at your own risk" and 'YMMV" and so forth).  Mine are almost 7 years old, and I really wasn't expecting this to work, but in fact it worked perfectly and I could not be happier with the results.

 

Scott

Edited September 2, 2018 by tttocs

[zmak 331]

Yep been using this method as soon as they become glitchty. Cheap and easy fix

[Blaster254 0]

I have to say thank you for saving me nearly £200 to replace the lot. I think I’ve had the yoke and two throttle sets since they were first launched and for years they’ve been playing up bar one throttle. I was so close to trying to take them apart before buying a new set.

I came across this and gave it a go! Amazing!! Working better than when I first bought them. together with FSUIPC that I’ve just started using, smoother than a babies bottom!

thanks bud

 

Ryan