Easy fix for T16000M stick/twist rudder - Complete tutorial

[@ArveyJay]

If you have trouble with the trigger rod - here's a dedicated video dealing with that: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fYTQfGloqdikb8k

[@trevorbarber7172]

hello their. just wondered if you know how too modify ,left right up down with hall effect sensors ,like from analog too digital, i have a speedlink black widow quite old, i guess i got used too the sensitivity being off until i heard about the sensors ,making the sensitivity a lot better?im using fsx .thank you....

[@trevorbarber7172]

potentiometer?

[@ArveyJay]

Unfortunately I know as much about hall effect sensors as I do about being a plumber on mars. Hopefully you can find another video/source of info here. Good luck.

[@trevorbarber7172]

@@ArveyJay thank you for your reply,ill keep lookin,erm just another small thing if you had too choose a new flight stick which one would it be[no pressure then],ive looked at reviews [you tube]n lots of people say this went wrong that went wrong,even if when you spend quite a lot of money on one, kind of puts you off going too the shop n and buying it.....?thank you again....

[@ArveyJay]

@@trevorbarber7172 tricky to answer since I'm still using and enjoying the t16000m and TWCS throttle. I guess if money was infinite I'd maybe look into the Warthog stick and for the throttle I might even look at the thrustmaster tca (with both addons), or essentially the throttle with the most hat stiches and buttons so i can access as many functions as possible with the thumb, and/or without moving my hand off the throttle. Because I play in VR, the more tactile and super obvious the buttons/switches are, the better!

[@dsp4392]

My friend you disassembled a joystick, reassembled it and fixed the issue. There's no way around it, you *are* a tinkerer.

[@ArveyJay]

Touché, I guess :)

[@ytmaxxammo8591]

😂this is awesome. Great vid btw.

[@javierperez222]

Every 6 months to a year... I come back to this video still to fix mine.

[@ArveyJay]

Bummer you have to come back, but glad it continues to work for you!

[@javierperez222]

@@ArveyJay I'm just thankful you made this video! Legend!

[@johnd2385]

I was able to avoid a big portion of this disassembly. I followed your instructions up until the trigger pin part. I left that in and instead of disassembling it further, I found that by this point I had removed enough screws to allow me to spread the controller apart just enough to access the twister/sensor thing. I cleaned it with isopropyl alcohol and put it back together. No nipples of doom to worry about and only took about 5 minutes total. Maybe I was lucky, but thought i'd pass it on in case anyone wanted to try it first.

[@ArveyJay]

Nice work mate. Yes a few others have done it that way as well. I did mine that way also to explain the inner workings. Glad it worked for you!

[@JaxiPaxified]

You can easily pop the buttons out if you removed both sides of the stick assembly. Then pop them in again, once the assembly is loosly put together, so without screws. (If it fails, you can quikcly try again.)

[@kakuro1975]

This was a really good advice, and much easier to know what to do due to the full disassembly in the video. Now it works like a charm again! Large thanks to both and especially Jay

[@crazyprsn2006]

Thank you for this! I was just able to fix mine with almost no frustration! Just need to open up the stick just enough to see the sensor shown in the video and use the swab with iso, and boom!

[@Sevandres]

Doing this made the process significantly easier and quicker for me, thank you John! I did remove the screw for the trigger, but only to allow the bottom part of the stock to come apart in its halves. I rested it on the sides of the sensor square and did my cleaning from there. Once done, simply reverse to put everything back together and I was good to go.

[@grandpasageek5376]

Old school - "rolled a 16 or better on your dexterity." Love it. Thanks for this. Mine hasn't done this yet but now I'm prepared if it does. AJ

[@MrSneakyGunz]

I just bought one of these setups for Microsoft Flight Sim 2020. Can't wait to fix it, when the time comes😂. Thanks for the video.

[@ArveyJay]

Lol, at least you'll know how eh? 🤣

[@songsteel00]

Two notes, You don't need to take the whole top section with the circuit board off to get to this sensor, you can pull both halves of the stick apart after removing all the screws and then you only need to worry about the button on on side or the other. Just leave the circuit board and everything else in place on one side. It took less than 5 minutes to do it this way and requires way less re assembly. And for holding the button in place to reassemble, just use blue tac to hold the button in the up position. A lot less fiddly than using tape.

[@loterrex9139]

I did this too. I also held it almost upside down when I put the side on without the circuit board in it. This way I didn't need to use any tape/the Frakenstein's monster method either.

[@Arventis]

Thank you so much for this! Worked like a charm. Small tip for the "nipples": the left and right buttons can be detached from the case. If you look on the inside, there's a tab on the side of each button, that holds it in place. Press on it, and the button comes right off! This lets you assemble the stick first, and then click the buttons in, no hassle at all.

[@ArveyJay]

Good tip! 👍

[@terpdx]

I tried this, but just couldn't get the tabs to disengage. At a certain point, I was afraid of breaking the plastic.

[@claudemiropacheco]

Put that same tip here before reading yours.

[@Arch-Nemeziz]

Great tip! This alleviated the nipple of doom trouble, although you do need to still be careful as the nipples can fall into the stick assembly if they detach while re-inserting.

[@akwardsiIence]

I was wondering why you couldn't just remove the buttons with a clip and place it in after closing the case. Thanks for the tip, saved me a lot of headache.

[@joker_g7337]

1:00 I had this issue. I played with a ridiculously large deadzone for a few days to solve the problem. I opened it and cleaned it, put some silicon grease... No luck. The solution was to unplug, plug-in the joystick and calibrate it via windows "setup USB game controler" at 12:38: this part did solve the problem in mere seconds. Before you open it, try calibrating the sensors.

[@lukalalala]

ditto, went through the same process. All it took was unplug and replug for me as well.

[@mydogbullwinkle]

Windows isn't letting me calibrate it. I can open the "Properties" app, but it doesn't give me the option to calibrate.

[@Tacticalpanda757]

​@mydogbullwinkle same here its not giving me the option to calibrate

[@mikefranks6854]

Best Christmas gift I got was finding this video

[@ArveyJay]

Well, Merry Christmas to you then! 😁👍

[@Dr_Tripper]

Thank you. Last night the Z on my left stick went wonky and today it quit completely. Watch your vid (at x1.5) and was done within half an hour. I think it works better now.

[@ArveyJay]

My pleasure, glad it worked for you. I'll speak faster next time ;)

[@Dr_Tripper]

@@ArveyJay Now I got more problems. The other joystick must have gotten jealous and it too is wonky, but a different kind. The one is now pulling left and down. What a pain in the ass these sticks are. I have calibrated over and over again trying to get it so I can use it without slamming into shit to no avail. Any suggestions?

[@josiehatchet]

Thanks for the guide, it was helpful to see where the screw locations were, but as others have said there is no need to remove any screw, other than maybe the small trigger screw. You can just loosen the screws to open the case sufficiently to access the rudder axis potentiometer. I bought my T.16600m joystick at least 8 years ago and have probably not played more than about 5 hours of MS flight Sim with it in that time. The joystick was stored otherwise. So I was rather annoyed when I obtained a copy of StarWars Squadrons only to find the rudder control knackered. I found I only needed a size 0 philips micro screwdriver for the trigger screw, and a Wera size 1 philips was fine and easy for the others. I gently tapped the trigger pin out with a pin type micro-screwdriver and used a small pair of pliers to pull it the rest of the way. With the screws loosened I could open the case a few milimeters and see the potentiometer. I gave it a squirt of WD40 special contact cleaner using the straw. Then a few twists and left it a minute or so, then a bigger squirt and tightened it back together. Now it seems to work fine, only took a relaxed 5 or 10 mins to do. No mucking about with nipples of doom.

[@Argaeus]

Help reaches from where ever you reside to Turkey, thanks a lot for your time to record this video. It was a great help.

[@ArveyJay]

Awesome. Glad it helped you!

[@mikegamerguy4776]

Imagine following every step of this video. Now imagine finding a 4th nipple of doom. I looked all over. I actually got it under the internal trigger mechanism.. and the screw next to it. It was obvious that it didn't belong in either place. It was then I decided to accept that whoever assembled the thing dropped one and didn't bother to get it. Thanks for the video. You saved me money and for that you have my like and sub. GL to you.

[@Dam0nSingh]

beautiful! couple drops of alcohol and mine worked perfectly after, thank you. Tip for others struggling with nipples : Just use gravity to keep em down. Tilt the handle towards you so its horizontal, nipples and buttons will stay down, then gently slide the circuit behind it. No need to tape em or take the buttons out. For Trigger pin : Slide the pin in the orange trigger before you attempt to put it on the handle, its much easier this way. Put it all the way in just before it starts to come out of the inside hole, this way when you finally mount it on the switch , the pin will be secure in place, use something flat to push the pin all the way in.

[@ArveyJay]

Nice work and good tips 👍

[@albertopadovan2111]

@@ArveyJay Thank you very much. Now the T16000M works perfectly.Alberto P.

[@ArveyJay]

@@albertopadovan2111 awesome!

[@barryeverard]

Good gravy! Just ran through this three years later, and it's gone from constantly pulling so far right I couldn't even take off in Star Citizen without crashing. To sitting absolutely rock solid still! Thanks so much!

[@russrichelsoph]

Thanks for the great video on how to repair the yaw on the T16000M stick. Some additional suggestions and things I learned: 1) I used a 1/8 inch punch to push out the trigger pin. It was super easy. 2) I removed the 3 buttons with nipples completely, super glued the nipples in place on the buttons, and then attached the buttons after assembly. This is much easier. The side buttons, 3 and 4, have hooks that go over notches on the outer side of the hole and then a clip on the inside snaps them into place. The center button, 2, has clips on the top and bottom so just but the button in and then snap in the top. 3) Gently pull some extra wire from the base of the joystick. I kept the joystick hooked up when I disassembled and found the jitter stopped when it was taken apart. I think the wires were tight and pulling the potentiometer. I cleaned with alcohol anyway, though. 4) Be very careful of wire placement when you reassemble. I had to resolder a wire when I carelessly placed it over a screw hole.

[@ecanoya]

This was a big help for me. I bought a pair of these used, and the right one was having issues with the twist input. It was registering fine, but wasn't fully returning to center when twisted to the right, and sometimes made a click, like it was physically blocked. Followed your tear down, and found that the housing for the center spring was open on mine, with the top part up near the twist sensor. Put the spring back and closed up the housing, and now the twist works fine (although I almost lost 2 of the nipples of doom. they tried to run). You can tell the previous owner took them apart at one point, because the right one is missing one of the two short screws that go in the main handle.

[@ArveyJay]

Lol re the nipples of doom, but glad you got the fix to work!

[@matthewpeden4490]

I let mine get worse than the little adjustment and my yoke was at the point that the plane just spiralled into the ground. Thanks for this

[@Nubbley]

i play star citizen, and landing my ship in hangars was disastrous haha, ive crashed a massive Hercules C2 into the side of a planet and lost all my trade money lol

[@verdmooring2695]

Thank you, thank you. I was given a used Thrustmaster and immediately started having this issue. Safely landing a spaceship in Star Citizen was proving to be a lesson in frustration when the ship started rolling uncontrollably.

[@ArveyJay]

Glad it worked for you!

[@mutantender1099]

So, fun fact, I am definitely getting this and if it breaks, I’ll fix it just like my new friend right here, thanks for reassuring me

[@ArveyJay]

Nice. Enjoy

[@squidontheside5496]

Thank you a lot! It helped me with my own T16000M. Mine was always going crazy on that Z axis, now it work again. That's some high level dark magic over there.

[@ArveyJay]

You're welcome. Glad it helped!

[@渡邊了敏]

I was quite at a loss how to fix my malfunctional Z-axis. Exactly the same trouble hit my device. Your tutorial helped! Thank you very much.

[@ArveyJay]

Awesome so glad it helped!

[@BP.MX5RF]

If this doesn't last (fingers crossed that it does), I disassembled as described, then that short set of wires in front of the sensor, I pulled up about .25" for just a bit more slack. Then, if you look inside the handle halves, you see some contact points that guide/hold that sensor in place. IMO that's a little tight. I took some *extremely* light sand paper and took a few swipes at it. Not much, just take the slightest amount of surface off of it to free up the sensor from sticking against those points. Reassemble. So far so good for me. With any luck you don't have to do any of this a second time.

[@The_Real_Indiana_Joe]

I've done this once, quite a long time ago, now it needs it again. I have a dremel and I am half tempted to make a damn cleaning hole and cover it with a sticker. LoL!! I did it and it worked! You gotta make sure not to hit the sensor, so I watched the above vid about 5 times to get the place correct. Thanks for the vid Jay!

[@ArveyJay]

My pleasure, glad you're up and running again!

[@JerBearTeo]

This method cleared the phantom inputs right up and its working well right now though I dunno for how long more. THANK YOU Arvey. A previous method I've seen on Reddit had a very comprehensive (and scary) total teardown of the potentiometer which I wasn't prepared to do. I don't know how you guys have yours for 2 years before it starts wonking out. I had mine for less than 8 months and it went nuts. Warranty via Amazon is hard to track down too so I just gave up and did this. It worked. Probably gonna solder in a couple of new, more reliable branded potentiometers for both my sticks before I sell it off to a friend and upgrade. These sticks are decent really, except for the potentiometer axis which is a shame. A decent product felled by a component that really costs less than 1USD.

[@ArveyJay]

Thanks mate, I'm glad it helped! Yeah it does seem a shame that this cheapo component lets the stick down and that Thrustmaster seem uninterested in reparations. I guess this is where the community bands together and we fix it ourselves. I'm glad to be a part of that with you all. Take care mate.

[@patrickthompson9719]

A simple household vacuum fixed it: Had this for 3 yrs. Then the twist went right after the warranty expired. I watched your vid and couldn't believe that it was a simple dust problem. So, I put my household Dirtdevil vacuum hose over the top and sucked out the dirt and now it works perfectly just like new again. No need to unscrew or pull it up. Many thanks for letting me know this.

[@MzunguMjinga]

I bought and received a used T16000M and sure enough it had this issue upon arrival. I want to comment and say thank you for this very detailed breakdown. Beginning to end it only took 45 minutes, but would have taken x3 longer without this instruction. Worked like a charm. One comment. Isopropyl alcohol is usually the main ingredient in eyeglass or screen cleaner... for those in a pinch.

[@ArveyJay]

I'm glad it worked for you and thanks for the additional info! 😁👍

[@blaqkstar]

Began having major drift issues w/ my left stick about two months ago and have been more or less just dealing with it until eventually twist input stopped registering altogether. Turns out that the wires meant to connect to the potentiometer weren't even soldered - they used hot glue, which of course ended up with one of the wires detaching... At any rate, this helped me fix it just in time for an upcoming Star Citizen dogfighting tourney. Thank you!

[@ArveyJay]

Nice work!

[@egemenkanmaz905]

This worked very well, thank you good sir! Just a note, I didn't have any of that isopropyl alcohol, WD40 worked just fine there!

[@davewills6121]

You say your a tinkerer, yet your vid was the best ive seen, it made a daunting task very straight forward. Kudos.

[@ArveyJay]

That's awesome mate, I'm glad I could help! 😁👍

[@enfp9397]

After about a year or so of inactivity I fired up MSFS2020 and plugged in my Thrustmaster T.16000M FCS. Pulling hard to the right. Bad rudder. I followed your instructions up to a point. I used my $15 Aliexpress lockpicking kit thingys to push the trigger pin out and pulled it quite easily with pliers. Loosened the screws. I used the thing that looks like a speculum. :o Like reverse tweezers. Sprayed some Servisol Electronic Circuit Board Cleaner into the widened gap. Gave it a few twists. Tightened the screws. It works PERFECTLY now. Thank you so much mate.

[@de6287]

Just fixed my left rudder using this video, all i did was remove a strand of hotglue from inside that tube the sensor sits in and now it works again. Saved me frustration while i save for new sticks

[@keikocgz]

Great vid! In my case, I did not disassemble the stick itself. I only opened it half way through until I got to see the wires. A wire or two interferes with the potentiometer movement. Used small cuts of electric tape and isolated it on the left molded portion. All false registers were gone after.

[@MjrChaosnet]

Just another comment confirming that your method worked like a charm as well! Just confirmed it worked. However, I did go the extra step (as a user on Reddit added) of removing the pot from the stalk - it comes right off - and peeling it apart, cleaning the insides out with a cotton-tip swab, and applying some very light dielectric grease before putting it back together, placing it back onto the stalk, and reassembling as you described. I appreciate your time and diligence. Job well done!

[@ArveyJay]

Nice work mate 👍

[@libormaslo9535]

WORKED THANKS! Im super unskilled person whan it comes to this, but with this video it was actually easier than I thought. I was about to throw awaz this joystick and said, well I give it a try, what I have to lose. It works like a new one now. Shame on manufacturer really. Such a simple repair.

[@ArveyJay]

Agreed

[@johnnyg4977]

She worked a treat mate. To hold the two thumb switches i cut off a piece of a coffee stir stick which wedges nicely in gap to hold these buttons up. Hope it works for rest of you.

[@ArveyJay]

Beauty!

[@vincelam97]

done.. thank you so much for this ! The rudder was not working properly exactly like what you said after two years I bought. Now, the rudder works perfectly again. Thanks again from HONG KONG flight sim user... really appreciate that !!!

[@ArveyJay]

My pleasure! 😁👍

[@Arasaka]

The sensor had actually popped out of mine, and didn't want to stay in. Can't glue it as it needs to rotate. Finangled it back though it didn't want to stay in and now it works. Saved me $100, but more like $200 as I have the old grey/green sticks and a nonmatching pair would annoy the s our of me. Many thanks!

[@pfd1972]

I used this stick for Elite Dangerous for a couple months then put it in the original box in my closet for almost two years. This weekend when I took it out the twist had the phantom right inputs. Your instructions helped me dissemble and clean it up. Operational for the moment...

[@ArveyJay]

NICE! 😁👍

[@NathanWind99]

Just did this today and fixed my problem. Thanks for the detailed instructions, it really helped. I ended up gluing the nipples in place, which made it relatively easy.

[@ArveyJay]

Nice work!

[@cjthibs]

I did like a lot of others and only halfway pulled open the stick and avoided all the issues with the nipples of doom. I was able to keep the top part of the stick completely together and luckily nothing inside moved. Thanks for this video. I wouldn't have had any idea what to do about this without it.

[@TorstenHoff]

First of all, thanks for the video. I found myself having to perform this repair on my T.16000 today and the guide was very helpful. I also wanted to give some feedback regarding the Nipples of Doom. I initially tried using small pieces of Scotch Tape to prevent them from moving during reassembly. However, they would still either fall off or move around, and not line up with the post on the underside of the button. After 90 minutes of trying that, I gave up. What I wound up doing next made the reassembly incredibly easy. I popped out the side buttons (there is a small cam next to the round post, push that in), put small drops of superglue on the button posts of the center and side buttons, and then glued the Nipples of Doom to the buttons. I then reassembled everything. Only the center button needs to be re-installed before the two halves of the joystick are joined. The two side buttons can be pushed back in at the very end, the glue will hold the Nipples of Doom in place, and the cam will prevent the button from popping back out. Also, I used DeoxIT D5 electrical contact cleaner / conditioner. It's a better choice than alcohol or the WD-40 I've seen used in another video.

[@ArveyJay]

Good feedback thank you!

[@PVT_MaYhEm]

Saved me after I got conned into buying 2 used sticks... both had this issue. In fact, one wasn't working at all at first. Your advice had me up and running within minutes. (Mainly because I'm comfortable with tearing things like this apart, haha)

[@ArveyJay]

Nice work mate!

[@Clr-Clr]

It sucks i just bought 2 sticks and the left one turns left without me turning it

[@pawestoowski2381]

Thank you, that was very helpful and instructive and gave my T16000M a little more life. It's a shame a joystick with such good and durable sensors has such a weak spot and a single point of (common) failure.

[@ArveyJay]

Agreed!

[@npc6817]

Because it's the one potentiometer in a hall effect stick, not to mention it's mapped to the one axis they wish you'd buy pedals for

[@zakzwijn8410]

@@npc6817 So they know very well what they are doing by installing those flimsy potentiometers.

[@npc6817]

@@zakzwijn8410 hell yeah they do. My personal recommendation when it fails replace it with a vkb gladiator. Not as cheap but combined with the t16000m throttle it can map 1/1 any modern fighter hotas and is better quality than the t16000. Also it's not a 300$stick

[@zakzwijn8410]

@@npc6817 My issue is that I really like the T16000M, they are the perfect size for my small hands. I ended up ordering new pot meters and soldered a new one on the stick; now it works like new again. I also ordered new pot meters for the throttle unit in case that one breaks too (and it will).

[@bradenhatch2495]

DUDE!! tried this as a last resort and I didn't expect it to work tbh.. BUT IT DID! thank you for your help!!

[@ArveyJay]

Nice one! Glad it worked for you!

[@Nugz92]

This helped me out too, including the video in the description for getting that pin out! Thank you for this! I bought my 16000M as the throttle/stick combo in 2018 for $120, and now it looks like the cost is $180. This saved me a decent chunk of change!

[@ArveyJay]

Nice one! Glad to help

[@Conorkc86]

Hi Arvey, mine too started acting up like this 2 years in. Made Elite unplayable and DCS a pain. I was looking to get a new stick, but they are all sold or extortionate in price. Came across your video, had a go and it worked. One change I made was using contact cleaner spray in place of IPA. I have it as I am a tinkerer, I had this apart to see if I could fix the pot. But I took apart the base and thought the twist was to do with the hall effect in the base. Never thought to check under the handle. Good man yourself, hope you are well and thanks again!

[@ArveyJay]

My pleasure and I'm so glad it worked for you!

[@crazyprsn2006]

You're a badass, buddy! Thanks so much for going through the frustration of tinkering and fiddling to figure it out. I went with what a commenter said and only go so far as to stop at where you'd remove the trigger and you can pull the stick apart enough to access the Z-axis controller! A beautiful use of internet!

[@8lackWolf1982]

Never believed it would work. I used WD40 instead of alcohol and work great. Thanks for the great video.

[@ArveyJay]

Nice work!

[@caploisirscaploisirs2988]

My planes were out of control, going on right and never on left on ground or in flight. Excellent tuto even if my english is not perfect, easy ti understand. After cleaning how it is explained, it's working well again. Tanks a lot !

[@JohnMichaelson]

Disclaimer: I absolutely disavow any methods presented here, and purely by coincidence did the same steps in the same order all on my own after watching, and managed to fix my T.16000. Thank you for the wonderful clear presentation as I threw caution to the wind. Definitely subbed :-).

[@ArveyJay]

🤣🤣🤣 gold! Glad it worked for you!

[@flybichou]

Hello Harvey, I am your last but probably not least happy customer ! Thank you so much for your precise and clear video. Just my personnal touch: I replaced your plastic Qtip and masking tape with a simple cardboard piece pressed into the slot. And will put my new T16000 in storage as a long term spare item, ( I hope !!!).

[@ArveyJay]

Good tip with the cardboard and I'm glad the solution helped!

[@jaimilynstewart1854]

Thank you! This video worked for my T16000M. The rudder axis jitter had gotten steadily worse for months and this completely alleviated the problem. I see now that there is a linked video for removing the trigger rod. I, too, couldn't remove this rod so I paused the disassembly at this point and tried prying the two halves apart. I got them apart just far enough to move them both forward slightly, giving access to the twist sensor. I DID have the trigger screw removed, but not the rod. The middle button just below hat switch came dislodged slightly, but it wasn't too hard to hold it in place for reassembly, and the "nipple of doom" thankfully stayed in place. After applying some alcohol and twisting the sensor a bit, I put it back together and it works flawlessly.

[@BANDIT_NOOB]

Worked perfect thanks. Mine was only slight. But was still doing my head in. Doused the pot in IPA and gave it a few turns and also pulled some of the wiring from out the main unit to give some slack. Zero twitching now thanks

[@zippyuk]

It only bloomin' worked perfectly!!! :-) ...and no parts pinged off into the furthest, darkest, corners of the room - Thank you Arvey!

[@ArveyJay]

Awesomeness! 👍

[@letsroll2001]

This was incredibly helpful. My joystick was locked into continuous z-axis input. I did not remove the pin as it was stuck in place. I was able to wiggle the potentiometer and loosen/move the wires away from the potentiometer slightly. I skipped the cleaning of the potentiometer. It worked like a charm and my joystick works once again! Thank you so much!

[@terpdx]

Yeah, I think moving the wires is key. I doubt a dirty pot has anything to do with the issue, although cleaning it certainly doesn't hurt as long as you have it disassembling. Has the issue returned since you fixed it? My worry is that the wires will eventually just go right back to interfering with the pot.

[@letsroll2001]

@@terpdx yes the problem repeated a few weeks later after a fair bit of squadrons play. But the same fix took care of the problem again.

[@terpdx]

@@letsroll2001 I just bit the bullet and ordered a different joystick after getting consensus recommendations from around the web. Only problem is that it's coming from China, which means it probably won't arrive at my door for another 4-6 weeks. Fingers-crossed the T16000M fix lasts until the new FCS gets here.

[@Vitomskisxpl]

Thanks for showing the process! I had the chance to change the stick in warranty, but it also happened to my other stick.

[@sebestyenhriczu9510]

Thank you, it worked perfectly. Instead of suffering with buttons 3 and 4 and their nipples of doom, I simply popped them out of their cases (the grip) and inserted them after the two sides of the grip were together. This way I could just hold the button with the nipple in my hand upside down and push the whole joystick into it, avoiding the pain of a misplaced nipple.

[@Jukingbox]

This is late, and not coming from a professional, but I just glued the 3 nipples of doom into place with a very small drop of instant glue (on the rubber part pointing up, not the metal contacts obviously). That made the reassembly process way easier. Maybe it will come back to bite me later, but for now I'm happy. Also, thanks for making the video, it was a huge help.

[@zakzwijn8410]

I tried the cleaning but I found that you can only do that so many times. I ended up ordering new pot meters for the throttle unit and stick. Just soldered a new pot meter on the stick and it works like new again

[@frankwheatcroft2897]

Thanks my friend took me 90 mins but works fine now. As for the boob buttons i squashed a cotton bud and inserted into the top of buttons, and i put a tint tiny bit of treacle on the bottom of button were it is fixed never moved at all. Thank you again for saving me money.

[@ArveyJay]

My pleasure! Glad it worked and thanks for the tip.

[@Kit_Ocaoimh]

Not all heroes wear capes. Thank you so much .

[@ArveyJay]

🤣

[@flentaldoss]

Thanks for this tutorial. First one took me an hour, 2nd was 20 minutes, but got both my sticks working again, so Elite's back in my rotation again!

[@davidgardner6799]

Actually, I did follow the video exactly but it did set me in the right direction. I'm not a tinkerer so rather than taking the joystick meticulously apart, I just poured the alcohol all around the thumb stick at the top and let in seep down into the handle of the main stick while rotating it back and forth. I waited awhile to let the alcohol dry and this seems to provide the same results in less time. 100% fixed the problem, at least for the last few days.

[@bruno.henrique]

Just finished doing this and it solved the rudder problem completely. I used a contact cleaner spray instead of alcohol! Thank you for posting the tutorial!

[@ArveyJay]

Nice work mate! :)

[@vegnachaos9995]

would WD40 contact cleaner be okay to use?

[@bruno.henrique]

@@vegnachaos9995 i think wd40 does not evaporate completely and it will remain inside it for a long time, that may mess the circuits a little, the ideal is to use something that evaporates

[@vegnachaos9995]

@@bruno.henrique okay thanks for the Reply. I'll get something else to fix mine other then WD40. my sticks have been driving me nuts with this issue

[@seannolan872]

@@vegnachaos9995 I'm off to the stores tomorrow to but a tin of WD-40 contact cleaner. It says it evaporates quickly. That'll do the job !! I'm also going to give it a good squirt, a good q-tip clean and a blast with an air-can. belt and braces stuff.

[@alejandrodiazart]

Thank you sir! That did the trick. "Easy" though...not so sure I had to put it back together and disassemble like...3 times. First the wires were in the way of the long screw (good thing I didn't push hard! - something to watch out for) Then somehow the trigger was also activating one of the hat buttons. How? I have no idea And then last but not least, the twist detector moved and it wasn't set right. All the while, those cursed nipples kept falling. I for one was very glad my daughter wasn't around to hear the uninterrupted string of obscenities coming from me, specially when the whole thing fell apart and I spend half an hour looking for the damn nipple. But....it works PERFECT now!

[@ArveyJay]

🤣🤣🤣 yeah that sounds like a nightmare but I'm glad you persevered with it and got there in the end! Well done!

[@dom38_fr82]

Thanks a lot, this video saved 2x T16000M ! Great camera and explanations. Just a little hiccup though, let me warn readers so that it won't happen to you as it did for me : at 10:40 when you reassemble both sides, be VERY careful with the wires, they must be curving towards you, toward the back of the joystick if you want. In the video, Arvey has been lucky, but in my case, the wires were showing through the hole where the really long screw should go and I had to re-open it and kinda force the wires to stay out of the way. When your joystick is back together, if you look through the hole where Arvey is putting back the screw at 11:05, you should see.. nothing, it should be empty to give room for the screw.

[@ArveyJay]

Good tip! Thanks mate 👍

[@bloodshot420gaming6]

Awesome! This video helped me out a lot! I had the same issue and figured I would give it a quick google search and came across your video. I figured it couldn't hurt to try, since it was unplayable the way it was. It fixed the drift! It was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. The only thing I did different is, instead of removing the circuit board from the one side of the joystick, I held it in place then cleaned the sensor and slipped it all back together. The nipples of doom were no issue for me like I thought they were going to be. I was able to hold it upside down and slide the half back in place. Thanks so much for this video, saved me from buying a new one now.

[@user-uc3ss4uq4j]

I just did this. I’m my case it was clean but, I found that the wire harness that sits in front of the sensor, works it’s way to one side of the sensor if you twist aggressively a lot. If it does; it will put pressure on the sensor on that side; which in turn you will have to try to twist more to counter act that pressure. I took it apart and moved the wires back to the front of the sensor and it worked.

[@ArveyJay]

Nice work!

[@JonnyFlash80]

Thanks. This worked a treat! I found that buttons can be kept in place by pushing them upwards so the little tab holds them in during reassembly. The trigger rod did need way more force than I expected to push it out. It's a tight fit.

[@CastellanDraco]

Awesome Video, fixed my rudder z axis over steer, and saved me from buying a new T16000M over a simple fix, the N.O.D. were a bit frustrating as was the trigger pin removal, but it was all very manageable. Thanks for the great video, very useful, spot on with directions from start to finish.

[@ArveyJay]

Thanks mate, glad it worked for you!

[@scatz4569]

Absolute legend just tried now after the exact problem you described appeared after the stick had been working fine then sitting in it's box for a year it decided to just stop working! Seems okay now so we'll see if it lasts! Many thanks.

[@PainFireFist]

Thanks for this, could fix the rudder with the help of this video. The pin and one of the nipples gave me grief, but eventually I got everything back together and all the buttons still work plus the rudder is back.

[@ivanbaez4261]

Really usefull vídeo. The button of the inside of the joystick who works When you press the trigger was not working anymore y disarm the joystick and send it to a guy who repairs tv and stuff to change that tiny button. I rearm the joystick and its working like new

[@Dreamlord83]

This worked like a charm for me! Problem solved, off to explore more in Elite: Dangerous! Many thanks for this man!

[@ArveyJay]

Awesome. Glad it's worked!

[@CLEARRTC]

I appreciate your tutorial, it was most useful when I was doing my service. I just thought I would mention after suffering with the silicon nipples I found the actual solution (and how it must be assembled in the factory) If you look inside the grip where button goes there is a plastic tab that is part of the button protruding, use a small slot screwdriver to push it up and it will click into place, the button is now even further up and away than when in its unpressed position, slide the handles together the button will look obviously to high, give it a click and then moves back into the normal position, the circuit board will never have pushed the nipple off the button because of the extra clearance and you are good to go. The pot in my controller is bad so I will be doing this again, I will take some pictures or a video to send to you to update or and an appended video if you like.

[@ArveyJay]

Thanks that would be great! Well done on finding the fix.

[@CLEARRTC]

@@ArveyJay Emailed the trick to the button

[@ja31472]

I've own this for a week and I'm getting rudder glitches; small, random inputs when I use the stick without twisting. I may try cleaning it but I'm glad it happened while I can still return it.

[@ArveyJay]

Yeah definitely return it!

[@callumhounslow6712]

Followed this guide and it only took 10 minutes.. I'll test it out soon. Even if it hasn't worked, thanks mate.

[@marangonicow2315]

I'm AMAZED how quickly and well this worked!! Like others, I didn't need to undo everything -- I undid all the screws, including the trigger screw, but NOT the trigger pin, and then I split it open (required a little force). I used isopropyl as suggested, but I then also used compressed air to give it a final dust off as it wasn't as accessible as taking the entire thing off. It took me about 20 minutes because I was being super careful, but knowing what I'm doing, I could do the entire thing in about 5 minutes flat. Thank you so much! Whilst I'm here... I'm only a few weeks into my Elite journey, I haven't really met anyone yet.... Where does everyone hang?

[@randyg.1090]

Just wanted to say thanks for the incredibly well timed video. I had just started getting Rudder Judder about 3 or 4 days ago when this popped up in my feed. I also want to thank your viewers that pointed out the tabs on the buttons, those made this SO much easier! Thanks again, and o7, see you in the Black!

[@ArveyJay]

Thanks mate, so glad it worked for you and yes the commenters have been very helpful indeed! o7

[@FrancoisFortinFrankishNet]

@Arvey Jay - Many thanks for you video! I just fixed the yaw problem that crippled my 16000M (it had about 600h of flight, I didnt want to have to replace it). A few additional pointers to other folks performing this fix: - You can take the buttons out when you reassemble the handle. Each button has a lock mechanism, so you can push them into place, and they'll lock in. - I used the slightest bid of epoxy glue in these freaking "nipples". Makes the whole world better. But be very careful not to put too much. Safe flight CMDR.

[@ArveyJay]

Nice work mate and cheers for the tips!

[@finnigan16]

Excellent video, you got a new subscriber here. Just a couple of additional notes from an electronics technician: Most of those screws (the black ones) are self tapping screws threaded right into the plastic. Human nature is to try to thread a screw in as tight as you can, fight that urge and go easy on them! Thread them in until they are snug, but no tighter. It'll be very easy to wreck those threads, and that'll be an extra pain to try to fix. Not all isopropyl you buy at the store is equal when it comes to electronics work, most of the stuff you'll find is for antiseptic use, and can be as low as 70% isopropyl per volume. That's not suitable for electronics cleaning use as you're introducing a lot of water to the system, which can cause problems either immediately or down the road. Do your best to find 99% isopropyl, and try to keep the cap on and keep it stored in a dry place when not in use. Isopropyl is hygroscopic and will absorb water from the air, lowering that 99% value without your realizing it. Finally, before reassembly, find a decent set of dull tweezers to help wrangle those silicone conductive pill buttons. A dab of glue likely won't be all that helpful as they're made of silicone and trying to adhere them to anything isn't straightforward. Patience and, as you demonstrated, a clever way to elevate the button is your best bet.

[@ArveyJay]

Awesome comment and tips! Thank you. 👍

[@SternLX]

Being that I'm a tinkerer and fixer of things that owns a large collection of tools(I assemble and modify a lot of R/C cars and trucks), I'm just here to see what solution you came up with to fix yours. Pretty much the same way. Differences: I only pulled one side(left side) of grip off. The rudder pot is accessible with the other side left on the stick. I use an electronics cleaner in a spay can with tiny straw. Basically a pressure wash. Stuffing paper towels to catch overflow.

[@wolf-trail]

Watched your video today, thank you. I have the dual stick version of the T16000, so I had to tear into both sticks as they were exhibiting the same odd twist behavior. All working well, so here's to day 1!

[@ruicruz8641]

That was a great how-to video. Super-informative and every bit as difficult as you'd said it'd be on all the right places. One additional thing I did was: glue the tip of the nipples to the buttons using some weak glue, just to help keep them in position. Many, many thanks!

[@Zeeeeeek]

Thank you! Needed your video to fix the rudder on both of my thrustmaster T16000 and the similiar thrustmaster airbus sidestick (which is much easier to dis- and assemble, than the T16000). I actually opened the casing of the sensor and clean it deeply. Both work now like a charm!

[@sevaeron]

Knew i'd eventually run into an issue with the T16000M. Glad you have such an easy to follow tutorial on resolving this! TIL i have titanium fingertips

[@Max4eva]

I recently fixed my stick with the same method up until the cleaning of the sensor (didnt have any cleaner on hand so I went in to investigate if wires were in the way), but i did two additional things; if you look inside the left side of the handle, there's 2 plastic "beams" as it were that are built into the handle to prevent the sensor from popping out of it's housing (this is apparently possible after it's opened by just pulling up with enough force). These beams are actually low enough that when you place your hand on the hand rest, it pulls the entire housing down on top of the sensor on the left side, thus the very constant left twist drift and twitching. I took a razor blade to the beams and shaved off around 1-2mm of plastic off each one, so that it wont make contact with the top of the sensor when weight is applied to the handle. I also moved the wires of the chip to curl over (rather than under) the thumb rest screw hole (situated just about above and forward of the sensor as well), this should prevent those wires from being to close to it to interfere as well.

[@ArveyJay]

Good tips!

[@angelarch5352]

This exactly just happened to me, everything else on the stick is working perfectly. Thank you for the video!

[@angelarch5352]

[UPDATE] I just finished trying this, it worked perfectly omg! My twist rudder was randomly fluctuating up to 100% on its own constantly... then now it is rock steady like new. amazing! NOTE: those nipples of doom are no joke, I ended up putting a dab of Locktite 60sec flexible glue to stick the nipple onto the bottom of the thumb button, since it kept falling out on me. Works great so far. used gorilla tape on the side buttons to hold them in the up position. The pieces went together well after that. reassemble as in the video.

[@angelarch5352]

[UPDATE 2] lol, I had to do it again-- 10 months later, and again the stick works good as new now. Love this video, had to watch it a few more times... and I am sure 10 months from now I will be back to watch it again:) thank you so much!

[@57thStIncident]

Thanks, this worked for me. The 'nips of doom' technique that worked for me w/o too much trouble was to invert the entire joystick such that the circuit board was level but button-side-down so that gravity would hold the nips in place while I worked the handle halves back onto the circuit board. What gave me a smidge of trouble is that I couldn't quite get the halves 100% back together initially, I suspect one of the wires was caught between the screwhole pillar halves. Other comments here mentioned that the buttons 3-4 can actually be popped out and can be re-installed with nips after stick is reassembled but I didn't try this approach.

[@bwpaulson]

Weighing in, that this worked like magic for me as well. Thanks very much for the step-by-step instructions!

[@timdd6734]

Thank youvery much for your tutorial. It has helped me a lot. With my joystick, the pin in the trigger was very difficult to get out. I had to use a small hammer. I also removed the two buttons (left and right) before re-assembly and used super glue to fix the nipples on the buttons.

[@ArveyJay]

Nice work. Glad it fixed the problem for you 😁👍

[@vondertann]

Wow... thank you for this video. I was able to fix the rudder, which ended up saving me €200. The thing is like new! THANKS!

[@erikmihalj]

Thank you. This cleanup worked beautifully. Those bottom two screws gave me a headache. I stripped one and barely managed to open the stick.

[@kevlar099]

I drilled holes on the palm face, just below the switch under the hat switch, below the circuit board inside the joystick. That way, I can easily clean the potentiometer on regular basis using contact cleaner with the "straw" and without disassembly of the joystick. Works okay...

[@ArveyJay]

Intersting. Hopefully the hole doesn't introduce more dirt into the system. Maybe tape it over when not in use or something?

[@kevlar099]

@@ArveyJay I actually use the small plastic caps from a bottom end of a ball-point pen (the kind that is basically a plastic tube with an ink cartridge) to close the holes. Works good.

[@unit1473]

Worked like a charm. Might have to do it again every 5-6 months, but hey, it works. Thanks for the video man

[@ArveyJay]

Pleasure, glad it worked for you!

[@glennledrew8347]

My word. That is toy quality. The CH HOTAS uses all discrete, self-contained switches, not this game pad level of cheapness. Once a potentiometer gets 'noisy' in its response after many hours of use, it's usually the case that the wiper has worn a groove into the carbon film layer (which provides variable resistance). If so, the thing has not so long to live, and issues tend to pop up more quickly after each such cleaning. Again highlighting the difference, the CH gear is made so that all potentioneters (big, high quality, long-life, metal things) are easily replaceable. CH used to sell them, but stopped this policy at some point. Grrr. But they can be found (or could be as of a few short years back) at Digi-Key. I obtained 25, which should keep me going for decades. You sell yourself short on your handyman abilities. Very well done video! 😊 Cheers from Canada.

[@skitzum5005]

Thank you so much! Was gonna go buy a new flight stick. Very clear tutorial! In my case, the potentiometer was loose, and the circle base wasn't sititng in it's spot. (The part you said may not come apart). I put a tiny bit of super glue, cleaned everything up, and now there is no issues!

[@ArveyJay]

Good work!

[@yutman4532]

Great video. Ive had my T16000M for 10 years and im glad to say its still going strong. My only problem was the trigger button but by removing the trigger and cleaning it all out its worked perfect ever since. Ill keep you channel on file so I will know what to do if this problem or simular ones occur in the future. Thanks.