Sticky Throttle

[chriswheatland]

When I bought my HOTAS throttle it was fine out of the box, but recently, it’s become what I can only describe as “sticky”: it sticks and jumps right along the range of motion. I’ve read about some stuff called Nyogel 767A damping grease that the sim community seem to swear by, but has anyone had any experience with this? I Googled it and it’s quite pricey! If it’s worth it I’ll take the plunge, but it’s quite a risk to take.

[kalnaren]

What throttle?

[Neo King Arthur]

Have you checked in your controls settings? Your throttle should use the Throttle Axis. And it should show a bar where you can move your HOTAS throttle back and forth, and look at how the bar is moving. If it doesn't move as smooth as you want it to, there might be some calibration issues happening.

[Viper9x]

Are we talking about sticking and jumping through the physical movement of throttle or are we talking about the position values being sent to the computer jumping? What do you see when you look at the joystick via windows control panel?

[chriswheatland]

The inputs to the PC are just fine. It's the physical throttle itself. You put a little pressure on and it doesn't move. Then a bit more and it doesn't move, then a liiiitle bit more and it jumps a few cm and sticks again, all the way along the travel.

It clearly needs some kind of lubricant, and I was wondering if anyone had tried Nyogel before and had success?

For reference, it's a Thrustmaster TWCS Throttle

[AugustsEve]

My Thrustmaster TWCS started doing the exact same thing after a few weeks - pretty annoying.

[Neo King Arthur]

Spray some WD-40 maybe?

Or if your hotas has some tension adjustment to tighten or loosen the throttle, you can loosen them up.

[Rasluka]

I've heard with the thrustmaster warthog at least, the rubber in the throttle will get grinded away and start mixing with the lubricant creating a horrible sticky paste.

[NicenJehr]

I encountered the same with my thrustmaster TWCS. Olive oil, wd-40, silicone grease and tension adjustments did not help. I no longer have that throttle but I would try to get a recommended lubricant from the manufacturer

[VadeR]

Did you open up the unit? There could be something in there that may have been tightened too much causing the stiction. I had this issue with another controller I had, but it was not a flight sim controller.

Doing a quick google search for 'twcs stiction' brings up quite a bit of results so it seems like a common problem. There seems to be plenty off mods/fixes, try going through those to see if you can find something that will work for you.

[Ludicrous_Speed]

Probably need to redo the lubricant, I had mine do that before I went ahead and redid it. Look around for some suggestions, as the kind of lubricant you get does matter. Even then you'll have to move the throttle and stick a few times to get it properly smooth if you don't use them for a few days.

[pr0x]

Flight controllers in that price range are cheap plastic toys; that's the issue. You'd be better off playing with an xbox controller if you can't afford something like a Warthog.

[Crunchmeister]

Unfortunately, that happens with the more affordable HOTAS systems. Even some mid-price ones too. Cheap plastic construction with internals made of chineseium. They don't last.

I have a cheap Thrustmaster T-Flight that I bought a few years ago for flying in VR. It worked great at first. The stick still works great, but it creaks very audibly now and feels rough to use. The throttle is now loose and floppy and the dead zone around the central detent seems to grow bigger and bigger over time, making it harder to accurately set my power.

In any case, you're going to see issues like this over time with pretty much any HOTAS system unless you spend an arm, leg and left nut on something like the Warthog or Virpil.

[NicenJehr]

The TWCS has steel rails fyi. I'm not sure what the bearings are cause I never opened it up.

[Sandhill]

Years ago I bought a 5.3 oz tube of Novagard G662 for exactly this purpose (rudder pedals in my case). It too is pricey $30ish, but I've used it on a ton of things since and the tube is still 80% full. It ticks all the right boxes, non toxic enough to be certified for use on drinking water systems, not only safe for plastics but probably acts as a conditioner for plastics, keeps rubber fresh forever, dialectric so never any conductivity, never degrades etc.
What looks like a similar product from Loctite (LB8801) is available from your local Graingers and other Loctite retailers for $22, again for a 5.3 oz tube.
Edit: cheaper and they do claim food grade, although I'd hesitate to consume PTFE
Super Lube 92003 Silicone Lubricating Grease with PTFE, $10 from Amazon for a 3 oz tube.
The Novagard is pure silicone, the others not.

[kalnaren]

About your best bet for a "cheap" throttle is the CH Pro Throttle. About 100-150, depending on regional pricing. Thing isn't without its quirks but one thing you can't accuse CH of is poor quality.