My saitek yoke has become a bit stiff and juddery in the pitch movement and I was considering taking the case off and lubricating the shaft.  I think the grease that is exposed has also collected some fine dust debris and this is not helping the movement. 

Any suggestions about what I could use to lubricate with?  I was thinking WD40 lithium grease or similar.  I've heard vaseline but I'm not so keen.

Sorry to be blunt but ultimately there no cure. You can lubricate the shaft but it doesn’t really help 

The shaft comes out through a Teflon “bearing”. It becomes sticky over time with wear.

A linear bearing would have been so much better here.

Hundreds of videos on YouTube. And mods.

I used one for some years, tried everything, but nothing really helps apart from replacing it with a controller with better internals. 

I bought a Thrustmaster HOTAS system, it has Hall effect magnetic sensors .so there are no spikes.

As you may have experienced your throttle jumping around, this is because it’s attached to a pot that uses copper tracks that wear out also. You can clean it, but it’s quite involved in stripping it down and easy to break the pot that it hot glued in place. But it will return in approx 1 month usually. Vids on YouTube.

it drove me crazy being on final, and fighting the throttle. 

The hotas system is surgical precision on both stick and throttle.

Thanks for you reply. I have the tpr rudder pedals and know exact what you mean about hall sensors.

I've seen someone open up the yoke and lube with the spare grease inside.

I have pre ordered the honeycomb unit yesterday so hopefully it will improve with that

31 minutes ago, 9GTurn said:

I have pre ordered the honeycomb unit yesterday so hopefully it will improve with that

It will be fine for a few years but eventually the potentiometers will fail. I would never consider buying a yoke or throttle quadrant that did not use Hall effect sensors. Those will last a lifetime as they have no moving parts to wear.

1 hour ago, Ray Proudfoot said:

It will be fine for a few years but eventually the potentiometers will fail. I would never consider buying a yoke or throttle quadrant that did not use Hall effect sensors. Those will last a lifetime as they have no moving parts to wear.

Hello Ray. Which brands use the Hall sensors?

1 hour ago, PATCO LCH said:

Hello Ray. Which brands use the Hall sensors?

I know for a fact Fulcrum use HE. There’s a separate topic about that yoke.

For joysticks Thrustmaster models mostly have them too.

Vic, the other thing to bear in mind is the Fulcrum is made in England so will be priced in GBP. Given the weak state of the Pound it will hold up well against other units priced in dollars or Euros.

Edited August 7, 20196 yr by Ray Proudfoot
Additional info

Hello all,

I recently watched a silent youtube video regarding an upgrade to hall effect sensors. Just google  "Saitek Proflight Yoke HE V2 upgrade" Looks amazingly simple to do.

He produces out of thin air 2 x hall effect sensors (one for pitch and one for roll) and a connector.  Herein is my only problem with the video.  Nowhere that I can find, at least, is a part number or any other information on the parts provided.  So, thinking this could well be a very simple and reasonably cheap repair for my system., I went looking for more information. I found lots of videos on this very subject but the proponents of these videos were incredibly consistent in that, none of them gave any information on part numbers or where one could find them.

Given that I live in Indonesia and have just spent three fruitless hours looking for a shop that sold hall effect sensors (let alone any that are Saitek compatible) or who could even supply any information whatsoever on Hall Effect sensors.

I am inevitably going to have to order these from overseas somewhere so I am hoping that someone on this forum can help with some information.  This really does look worthwhile.

Regards and agog with anticipation.

Tony

Tony,

Thanks for showing interested in my HE upgrade project. All the parts illustrated in the video are my DIY works. The Hall Effect Sensor used in my project is an ratiometrics linear IC 3503.

The housing for the HE sensors and magnets are designed and generated by my 3D software and 3D printer.  Because these HE sensors are not commercial products, so there is no part number associated to them. If enough interests and inquires about these HE sensors show up, I am happy to sell HE kit in here at cost by request, of course in my spare time.

If you have any questions please contact me @ [email protected].

ntydk,

Mate, I have just sent you an email and I am extremely grateful for your response.  

My email is self-explanatory, but I urge all Saitek yoke users to at least have a look at the video mentioned in my first post. 

This looks like the "be all and end all" of Saitek woes, and, combined with the spring modification,(also on youtube), would, I believe, extend the life of the yoke immeasurably.

The only remaining problem now is the "Teflon Bearing"  I have no idea how hard that would be to replace or modify, but given the number of people suffering from the stickiness of the shaft, no doubt someone somewhere has come up with a solution, and, may well be prepared to share it with us here.

I am running wild with words and speak from no experience at all as far as the Saitek system is concerned ... I have not even taken the lid of mine... but I certainly know the pain inflicted by the Saitek shortcomings.

Regards

Tony

8 hours ago, himmelhorse said:

The only remaining problem now is the "Teflon Bearing"  I have no idea how hard that would be to replace or modify

You could do this:

 

I was going to modify mine...and was looking at something like this for the Teflon bearing replacement...

http://www.wychbearings.co.uk/KH10-PP-INA.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIr5aO6Pj34wIVk4jVCh0FegsbEAQYBCABEgIuDfD_BwE

you’d need to measure for correct diameter, inner for shaft diameter and outer for seating in place of the Teflon bearing.

In the second vid he talks about the flat spot in the pitch axis. ..then my nephew came in and all hell broke loose , lol... think he said he was unable to get rid of it, so you pull back to flair...nothing...nothing..then over pitch....ballooned landing.

3 hours ago, MaDDogz said:

you’d need to measure for correct diameter, inner for shaft diameter and outer for seating in place of the Teflon bearing.

Even if there is a part to fit the Saitek's shaft (25mm) I think you will struggle with this kind of bearing because the shaft has a wide slot cut through it to operate the aileron mechanism. I assume the ball bearings are captive but I would still expect that the shaft wouldn't rotate smoothly when the slot encounters the balls. Perhaps it would also damage the balls over time.

There are other kinds of bearings that might work but like I said in the video, when you're going this far you might as well start from scratch. If I was doing it I would keep the handle and build everything else from the ground up.

Good point Mark. I forgot about that actually. (haven't even looked at mine for 3 years)

 

On 8/9/2019 at 5:54 AM, ntydk said:

 

The housing for the HE sensors and magnets are designed and generated by my 3D software and 3D printer.  Because these HE sensors are not commercial products, so there is no part number associated to them.

Your mod on yt looks great and definately will extend the life of the yoke.

Why don't you share your 3D design on thingiverse website for all to make their own parts?

I can get the HE sensors from RS components here in the UK but I can't see how they fit in your 3D case and how they recieve input from those toothed parts to convert signal to the control board?

Edited August 12, 20196 yr by 9GTurn

Ollie,

Norman (ntydk) has expressed to me a desire to help out people at cost for the complete kit.

I have been given a quote from him, which I am obviously not going to reveal.  To put this another way, the cost of postage to Indonesia, is almost the same as the cost of his package.  It is not, I repeat, not, expensive. He uses Paypal or a money order system, so payment is easy too.  In summary, I cannot think of ANYONE who cannot restore even an old old yoke with this system and have it perform better than a new Saitek yoke. The new spring or rubber band modification (if you want to ignore MarkDHs' modification) just makes a superb system even better.

All of this for less than USD30-35 plus postage and a bit of your own labor.  What more could we want.  In reality, would this new system be as good and as reliable as a USD600 plus, yoke. My contention is that is would be.

I think it makes sense and I for one am going this route.

I am just surprised that this Hall Effect modification is not included in the yokes by the manufacturers at a slightly higher cost. I would guess that the same applies to the pedals and controllers.  As Mark has pointed out the actual construction is fairly cheaply done, but, if the original includes the HE sensors and the spring modification, why would you need to take it apart. Having said that, I guess the answer lies in planned obsolescence.

At least, guys and girls, this is something to think about.

Regards with special thanks to Norman

Tony