Fairchild Channel F joystick repair

[NightmareX]

I bought a Fairchild Channel F model 1 on ebay and set it up at home. Playing the console game hockey, I noticed that I cannot move the player bar in the up direction on either controller. How can I repair this?

[dennilane]

Hopefully you have figured this out by now, but the wires seem to break easily at the base of the joystick. How I fixed mine is I opened up the joystick, snipped the wires inside about 2" from the inner workings, then snipped about 5"-6" down, stripped & re-soldered each wire. Used some electrical tape to tape each wire up carefully & then bundle & tape all together. I took the little rubber part that the wire goes though the bottom (cut it length-wise & pulled the stuff out) and carefully tucked everything in place and put it all back together and then used more electrical tape and secured it to the base of the rubber thingy so the wires don't pull out. Mine works perfectly now & we did this to 4 of the 5 joysticks we have. Ohh, and while you have it opened, check the springs to make sure they are bent out enough so the contacts are working properly & not touching.