Anyone tried greasing their n64 control stick?

[KnitePhox]

this one's good

http://www.amazon.com/Permatex-80345-White-Lithium-Grease/dp/B000HBNV58

im sure u can find white lithium grease almost anywhere though, like auto parts stores or department stores

 

[madrush21]

Is that the grease you were using at apex? My joystick is still like new after greasing at apex. Maybe it's time to reapply some grease

 

[KnitePhox]

naw this isn't the grease i had at apex or what i use on my heavy-play sticks. i've only tried white lithium grease cuz of sheer's reccomendation on 2 sticks but it's about as good, considering how easy it is to find, not necessarily this particular brand. i like the permatex brand tho.

the one i had at apex is really hard to find, i got it at a local industrial hoses store, can't find it online

it's called Taylor Lube HP(high performance), it's the one-up version of this
http://compare.ebay.com/like/160537893855?var=lv&ltyp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar

 

[Nintendude]

A group of MD/VA players wants to grease our N64 sticks, but we want to make sure we get the best grease. Is white lithium grease still what you guys recommend?

 

[SheerMadness]

IMO white lithium grease is probably a tad bit thicker than I'd like. But it still works great.

Honestly any plastic friendly grease is sufficient. There's not enough info to have any clue what kind of grease is ideal. Look through this thread and see what kind of grease everyone is using and how they like it.

 

[Sangoku]

I just greased 3 of my controllers tonight (one of them was worn out already, but I used it to try first) with brown lithium grease (couldn't find any other grease at the biggest store of the city... what a dumb place). I think it feels really nice, but again I might not be too complicated since I played for years with a joystick with like 1 cm of play. Let's see what happens in the future.

By the way, is it normal that the screws are so hard to remove? Maybe my scredriver sucks, but my hand hurts now.

 

[SheerMadness]

Never heard of brown lithium grease. I'm sure it's fine though.

Controllers that have never been opened before are pretty hard to open initially.

 

[Battlecow]

tasteless comment

 

[Sangoku]

I hope your women don't have sticks you need to grease though.

 

[Battlecow]

nothin 2 see

 

[Komotonoto]

use a PHILLIPS # 0 screwdriver or a nicely tipped/new #1 and you'll be fine so long as you don't angle your driver too much(are autistic)

-knitephox

 

[Elzevir]

Tamiya ceramic grease. I paid about 4$ for a small tube and it's kept my sticks in good shape for over 3 years.

 

[breakthrough]

Okay so I just received a brand new OEM nintendo 64 controller that I purchased on ebay. Expensive, but totally worth it. It feels absolutely amazing, and hadn't been touched before I used it to play some console with my brothers and our buddies. Would you recommend I grease the joystick ASAP or wait a month or two?

 

[SheerMadness]

Why would you wait to grease it? Unless you like sticks that have a bit of wear on them for some reason.

 

[Sangoku]

Maybe it's worth reminding you that greasing a joystick is not something you do to repare it, it's prevention.

 

[breakthrough]

Maybe it's worth reminding you that greasing a joystick is not something you do to repare it, it's prevention.

I did know this I was just trying to get some opinions and it looks like I got them. Thanks for the replies.

 

[SheerMadness]

How bout some updates from people who have greased their stick? What kind of grease did you use and how effective has it been?

I greased 4-5 of my controllers with white lithium grease. Though I really only use one of them consistently (my online stick). It hasn't seemed to have gotten any worse since I greased it, and I've recently gotten better at slide DI so I really crank that ****. But I have noticed that white lithium grease tends to dry out a bit over time, so I open it up once every month or two to check and reapply if need be.

 

[The Star King]

Sheer learning to DI? My entire life is a lie.

 

[MrMarbles]

How bout some updates from people who have greased their stick? What kind of grease did you use and how effective has it been?

I greased 4-5 of my controllers with white lithium grease. Though I really only use one of them consistently (my online stick). It hasn't seemed to have gotten any worse since I greased it, and I've recently gotten better at slide DI so I really crank that ****. But I have noticed that white lithium grease tends to dry out a bit over time, so I open it up once every month or two to check and reapply if need be.

After reading this thread i decided to grease my controllers with the white lithium grease like....2 months ago. after 2 months of hard use the joystick of my most used controller was starting to feel a tiny bit worn so i opened it up to see what it looked like and was dismayed to see that the grease was completely gone and the powdery residue from the inner bowl being worn down was present. so i re greased the bowl and as an experiment just spent like two solid minutes moving the joystick all around in every direction to see what effect that would have on the grease. when i opened the joystick back up almost all of the grease i had just applied had been pushed up around the sides of the inner bowl. Keep in mind that i only used a very slight amount of grease like you recommended, like just enough to visibly see it on the plastic surface after it was spread out. so it was disappointing to see that it was just pushed aside after only 2 minutes of use. IDK if the ever so thin layer that remained is even enough to prevent significant wear. Now i'm curious if other types of grease with react in a similar fashion or if there is some magical solution that can solve all of my problems.

 

[SheerMadness]

when i opened the joystick back up almost all of the grease i had just applied had been pushed up around the sides of the inner bowl

Yah I noticed that too the 1st or 2nd time I re-opened my controller to check on it. I actually put a big clump of it in the center of the bowl now instead of thin layer around the entire bowl. That seems to work a bit better, but it still pushes a lot of up around the sides. Despite that I still think the bowl is significantly more slick than if it hadn't been greased at all, so I'm pretty sure it does help. Plus a lot of the grease seems to stick and kinda dry to the tip of the stick which probably helps (a dried layer of lithium grease has to be create less friction than if it were just plastic rubbing on plastic I think). So just make sure to put a crap ton of grease on the tip of the stick.

But yah I think white lithium grease is a little too thick to be the ideal grease. I've only heard good things about ceramic grease, so maybe you should try that next. Until then just check and re-apply with your lithium grease every couple weeks or so.

I'll probably get some ceramic grease the next time I order something off Amazon.

 

[Sedda]

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but if anyone knows, is white lithium grease safe to travel with on an airplane? I finally have time to start playing smash 64, but I'm moving countries soon and I don't want to be the source of a catastrophe lol

 

[Nintendude]

Knitephox says:

white lithium < ceramic grease < wheel bearing grease

i personally use penzoil red grease 707l http://www.pennzoil.com/other-car-p...nnzoil-premium-wheel-bearing-707l-red-grease/

but u can use pretty much any wheel bearing grease

 

[madrush21]

Updates:
-Found a new controller right before apex with a perfect stick.
-Greased it apex with whatever KnitePhox had at apex; applied a very small amount of grease
-Been playing on it a lot
-Stick feels like it's one month old instead of five
5 out of 5 would grease again

 

[SheerMadness]

Were you at Apex lol? Did we play?

Nintendude, red grease sounds pretty messy. It works well for you though? What's the consistency compared to white lithium grease?

The stuff I saw KnitePhox greasing controllers with at Apex looked way too runny to me. It was leaking out of people's controllers, not good. White lithium grease is too thick. Something in between would be perfect.

 

[Nintendude]

I haven't greased any sticks yet. That's just what Knitephox recommended.

 

[madrush21]

Were you at Apex lol? Did we play?

Nintendude, red grease sounds pretty messy. It works well for you though? What's the consistency compared to white lithium grease?

The stuff I saw KnitePhox greasing controllers with at Apex looked way too runny to me. It was leaking out of people's controllers, not good. White lithium grease is too thick. Something in between would be perfect.

yeah I was at apex I don't think we played. I only put a very small amount of grease, haven't had an runoff. I'm gonna open it up soon and see what it looks like.

 

[Grizzmeister]

Tamiya ceramic grease. I paid about 4$ for a small tube and it's kept my sticks in good shape for over 3 years.

This is the best grease to use on the analog stick of a N64 controller. Ceramic grease uses nanotechnology and is amazing at making the stick last MUCH longer.

Watch this video to see how amazing nanotechnology is.

 

[Nintendude]

Got my 10 1st party sticks in the mail yesterday. Can't wait to have 6 brand new greased controllers!

 

[SheerMadness]

Where did you buy 1st party sticks?

 

[Nintendude]

That guy from Canada who posted last summer saying he got 1st party sticks from the hotel he worked at. I bought his remaining stash.

 

[MrMarbles]

That guy from Canada who posted last summer saying he got 1st party sticks from the hotel he worked at. I bought his remaining stash.

I am so jealous right now

 

[rustyw]

I just greased one of my controllers. Having a little trouble doing stuff that involves me going to the right, but that's probably because I put too much grease in the white bowl. I'm sure the grease will settle soon and it'll work fine.

did this end up working for you? I did the same thing and now the range is tiny for moving to the right, though it's fine when I move it to the left. I even replaced the chip that plugs in to the controller's main board. Anyone got any ideas?

 

[SuPeRbOoM]

The first controller I greased was kinda wack, I needed a test controller anyway. It probably depends how you put the stick parts back together(stick placement, spring, etc.).

 

[SheerMadness]

Cherish the **** out of your remaining 1st party sticks people. Check the grease every 3-4 weeks.

Been looking for new controllers and it's getting really sketchy, a lot of these controllers have 3rd party replacement sticks and the seller doesn't mention it. Make sure you can spot the difference between an original stick and a replacement. It can be really tricky with online vendors like ebay/amazon that don't have any zoomed in photos of the stick. Also know that any listing that mentions a brand new stick is almost guaranteed to be a 3rd party replacement.

 

[Cobrevolution]

i just greased two of mine today. gonna play some games online and see how it works out and then at CoS tomorrow i'll tell you how it affects gameplay. whitel ithium, as well

 

[Grizzmeister]

Here's a picture of one of my N64 controllers that has the new third-party "GameCube style" sticks installed. Sadly, these sticks are horrible for playing Super Smash Bros. as they make smash attacks very difficult to pull off.

 

[Nintendude]

I greased 14 sticks today.

 

[KnitePhox]

good job

ideally u grease EVERYTHING except the fine black wheel, even the board is okay to grease so long as you use grease that is non conductive

 

[Tom Bombadil]

I just opened up a controller I greased 2 or 3 months ago to do some maintenance and it was fine. The grease wasn't dry or chalky or anything other people have been mentioning. I used white lithium grease and I used a lot. To the point that for the first day or two of pivots and movement practice some grease was coming up into the thumbstick bowl. I just sort of wipe it off using a Q-tip and it seems fine.

Not posting to say that this way is best, just giving some feedback

 

[Nintendude]

Is there even a point to greasing everything else though? I greased the bowl, the inside of the black pieces, the U-shaped indents that the black pieces sit in (and the part that makes contact with them), the bottom of the stick, the part of the shaft just above that, and a tiny bit of grease in the two grooves in the "ball" of the stick. Seems to work great although I wasn't sure exactly how much grease to put in the bowl.