Can my sanwa JLF be fixed?

[wiki]

Hello all. I'm very new to arcade parts and don't know all the terms for the individual parts of an arcade stick, so please bear with me.

I recently purchased a hrap3 - after having a few turns at it i noticed something very strange. My stick would lock up as if there's a screw blocking it. Moving my stick around will suppress this, but after a few more 360s the problem would come up again. This only occurs on the top half of the stick.

I opened up my hrap3, took out the restrictor plate and the thing that's connected to the 5-pin cable. I tested it out again by twirling 360s and unsurprisingly, the problem was still there. Again, the bottom half was smooth and the top half would lock up in various places.

Has anyone encountered this problem before or have an idea what's going on? im afraid that by further dismantling it, i'd make my JLF useless - so some guidance to give me assurance that chances of that not happening would be nice.

Thank you

[EvilSamurai]

Do not take out the restricting gate. You will ruin your JLF if you do. You are probably just feeling the square gate. You can buy an octagonal one from www.lizardlick.com

[wiki]

When i said restrictor plate i meant this: Sanwa GT-8F 4/8-Way Restrictor Plate (http://lizardlick.com/images/for_sale/joysticks/gt_8f.jpg). It's not the square gate (restrictor plate?), cause after taking that out, i still had the same problem. Also, I'm very certain it's not because i'm 'feeling the square gate' as i have no problems with it. Thanks for your help tho.

[Toodles]

Do not take out the restricting gate. You will ruin your JLF if you do. You are probably just feeling the square gate. You can buy an octagonal one from www.lizardlick.com
Funny, I take them out all of the time. Can put them right back, too. If the problmen still happens when the restrictor plate is removed, how will replacing it help?


I recently purchased a hrap3 - after having a few turns at it i noticed something very strange. My stick would lock up as if there's a screw blocking it. Moving my stick around will suppress this, but after a few more 360s the problem would come up again. This only occurs on the top half of the stick.

I opened up my hrap3, took out the restrictor plate and the thing that's connected to the 5-pin cable. I tested it out again by twirling 360s and unsurprisingly, the problem was still there. Again, the bottom half was smooth and the top half would lock up in various places.
From the little text that's here, I don't know how anyone could be certain where it is getting hung up at, but we can certainly suggest places to check.

If you have the metal HRAP3 plate off, and the JLF restrictor plate and microswitch board removed, move the shaft around till it sticks and try to eyeball where it's getting caught at. Report if you see anything obvious, but you likely would have already if there was. Check the bottom; at the very end of the shaft is the e-clip that holds the white actuator in place. It may be difficult to see, but there is a spring under the white actuator going to another smaller white piece of plastic. Just on the other side of the smaller white plastic is a very flat metal washer that should lie flat against the black plastic. Make sure the metal washer remains flat against the black plastic when it moves; the smaller white piece can move around just fine.

Next, remove the ball from the JLF. Use a flatblade screwdriver on the bottom to hold the shaft in place while you screw the ball with your hand. Set the ball aside, and also remove the flat black dust cover on top. Check for stickyness on the bottom of the dust cover and top of the plate where it meets the dust cover. Move the unballed shaft (no homo) around to see if it still sticks.

If it does, remove the JLF from the metal plate by unscrewing the two or four screws that hold it to the plate. Remove the second black dust cover that was between the JLF and the metal plate. Move the shaft around, see if it sticks.

If it does, then you have to remove the e-clip. This is kind of difficult, and usually involves a pair of pliers or 2. Remove the e-clip, and also remove the now-free white actuator, spring, and small white plastic piece. The metal washer you can leave on or take off, whatever you like, but if it remains on, make sure its stuck flat; the grease should hold it in place. Lift the shaft up from the top, pulling on the end that had the ball. A half-sphere-ish piece of white plastic should come with it. Check the half-sphere, and the spot it rested on, for any kind of abnormality like sand or something getting in the way, especially on the edges.

Reassemble and test.

Has anyone encountered this problem before or have an idea what's going on? im afraid that by further dismantling it, i'd make my JLF useless - so some guidance to give me assurance that chances of that not happening would be nice.The whole thing can be dismantled and reassembled without too much difficulty. Unless you break a piece of plastic or lose one, it's pretty simple to field strip, and at most $30 if you do.

[EvilSamurai]

Funny, I take them out all of the time. Can put them right back, too. If the problmen still happens when the restrictor plate is removed, how will replacing it help?

I meant to say that using it without a restrictor plate will eventually ruin the microswitches.

[Toodles]

He said he removed those, too.

[wiki]

Thank you toodles! That's the sort of reply i was hoping for. I'll try this later on and let you know how it goes, as im occupied atm. This has given me an idea of what to expect, which will help my confidence. Again, thanks.

At the worse situation I decide to replace the stick, is there a guide on how to do so for the HRAP3? I checked out tingboy's hrap2 mod tutorial and the way the stick is mounted onto the plate is different to the HRAP2. It looks like screws with a flat head that seemed to be burnt on (my impression) as i can see something that looks like rust around them.

Edit: i found the problem and it seems to be the second dust cover between JLF and metal plate. It's weird. Pressing "down" on the stick, the dust cover leaves enough room for it to not lock up however pressing "up" forced it to 'spring' up and lock in a diagonal way. this happens because the metal plate is on a slant pointing up when playing normally on the hrap3.

Now that i realised it's the dust cover causing the problem, is it necessary to keep it?

[_Snake_]

I don't want to make a new thread, so I'll ask here. Are the "tabs" on the gates important? I just got my HRAP2 and want to swap to an octagonal gate. However, the gate which I own has the tabs removed since I used it on the EX2 stick.

[Toodles]

Now that i realised it's the dust cover causing the problem, is it necessary to keep it?Which dust cover? If its the one on top of the metal panel, it may have a burr or a sticky spot you can trim or clean. Same thing for the dust cover between the panel and the black JLF plastic. See if whatever is catching is fixable, whether it means trimming or cleaning the dust cover or metal panel.

But, no, the dust covers aren't required, but you definitely want the top one at the minimum. If the problem is the one between the panel and the JLF, try to fix it, and throw it away if you can't. If the problem is the one at the top, fix it if you can, switch it with the bottom one if you can't, and as a worst case scenario, buy the JLF shaft cover from Lizard Lick; it has a black shaft cover and two dust covers that fit it, and they're cheap.

[wiki]

Just finished removing the inside dust cover and im happy to report that the problem has finally been fixed : ) I can finally do 360s without being locked.

Don't think i would ever use the provided inside dust cover again, unless i trimmed it down from the sides. However i don't think it'll be worth the effort. Hopefully the top dust cover should be enough to stop dust.

Thanks for all your help toodles, you really gave me a lot of confidence. It was my first time opening a hrap.

Edit: lizard lick calls the inside dust cover a dust washer for anyone ive confused.

I wonder if lizard lick's dust washer is the same size as the one ive got. I think mine was incorrectly made a little tad too big.