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Some thoughts Kitsch Bent N64 analog stick repair parts


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So after reading someone suggest the repair parts from Kitsch Bent on here (I can't remember which thread or who mentioned it) I decided to try them out. Specifically the gears since is the only place I've ever seen them for sale. They also offer the bowl but that is/was out of stock when I ordered. I bought 5 sets of them and have installed 4 of them. The positive is that they do make limb sticks stiffer...giggidy....but they definitely are not back to like new. They feel like something is not sized right and is catching something. At first I attempted a fix where i sanded/smoothed spot in the mold where there are dimples in the apex of the curved parts, you can see the basic shape in the picture but not the dimples. These dimples are most certainly from the plastic mold and are just something that happens from manufacturing. I also lubed up the gears and bowl area. These attempted solutions did help some but I think the true culprit might be that the teeth of the gears are just slightly off angle or size and cause some minor binding. The end result is that the stick is stiffer but has less of a snap back to position as if the mismatched gears resists the spring just enough to make it a disappointment. 

https://store.kitsch-bent.com/product/n64-joystick-gears

Image of N64 joystick parts

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Thanks for posting. I was just looking at these pieces the other day and was curious how well they worked. I’d have to hunt for the YouTube video but I ended up fixing my original joysticks through a tedious but relatively successful process. It involves a hard epoxy to reinforce the old bowl.  It’s not perfect but it made my loose controllers playable again and keeps the original hardware.

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21 hours ago, portabello said:

Thanks for posting. I was just looking at these pieces the other day and was curious how well they worked. I’d have to hunt for the YouTube video but I ended up fixing my original joysticks through a tedious but relatively successful process. It involves a hard epoxy to reinforce the old bowl.  It’s not perfect but it made my loose controllers playable again and keeps the original hardware.

Ive seen that method but that was only for the bowl. The slots on the gears where the stick goes through is what was worn on mine. It can be reapaired by building layers of epoxy and sanding it back to shape with a dremel. But its such a pain in the ass I was hoping these would help avoid that.

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14 hours ago, LeatherRebel5150 said:

Ive seen that method but that was only for the bowl. The slots on the gears where the stick goes through is what was worn on mine. It can be reapaired by building layers of epoxy and sanding it back to shape with a dremel. But its such a pain in the ass I was hoping these would help avoid that.

You’d think that with 3D printing technology somebody would just knock this out of the park and get it perfect. Maybe that’s what the Kitsch Bent pieces are an attempt at. What a crazy controller!

Have you seen the videos where they mod an N64 controller with a Game Cube joystick? I’ve read it’s very smooth but still not quite the same.

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This is why I have kept one or two extra controllers for parts. I have a boxed and Japanese controller. Both have very good sticks. 

Parts seem iffy at best and the aftermarket GameCube sticks are not any good in my opinion.  Hopefully someone really puts the time into quality parts. I would pay a premium to keep using the real controllers.

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@portabello the kitsch bent ones are not 3d printed their definitely molded. Ive not looked into modding the stick like that but have one controller with a replacement module i got years ago with that style of stick. You see tgem for sale everywhere. I didn't think they were that terrible 

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