I recently purchased through Amazon a 2004 Ihrust master cougar that was represented as being in excellent condition. little used and never repaired or modified.
I paid 250.00 plus shipping.
What I received was cosmetically in near perfect condition however when I attempted to reattach the handle to the joystick base I discovered that the base piece of the joystick that lead into the gimble potion of the joystick base was essentially free floating. It would be easily moved through at least 150 degree of arc and could rotate nearly 360 degrees. While waiting to see what the seller wanted to do I did not try to open the unit and investigate nor did I try connecting it as best as I could and testing it out. As well when received I found one of the screws that held the base plate to the throttle assembly floating loose in the box, At first I thought it must have just come unscrewed however inspecting it revealed that it had been sheared off and a portion was still threaded in place while the remaining portion had broken off. It was obvious that someone had probably over tightened it and sheared it off.
Has anyone seen such damage as this before?
Any idea what this would be worth?
As I said I did not test out anything though mechanically the pro throttle appeared to be functional and all buttons/hats on the handle were intact and appeared functional.
I guess I could invest the 320 euros to replace the guts of the joystick with a real simulator fsssb r1 and hope that the throttle was fully functional or just send it back for a refund.
Any one have have any thoughts, ever see anything like this before ? Any thought what it is worth "as is"? Any thoughts re alternatives for repairs?

Thanks, Jon

Stick: The gimbals are most likely broken. I've seen pictures of broken stock gimbals before.

Throttle: I'm not sure exactly which of the screws you're talking about, but I hope it's not one of the long ones in the middle that run through the throttle bushings. In any case, you definitely have to be careful about overtightening the stock Cougar screws, because they can and will break on you if you do.

The first thing I'd check is to make sure that it's all electronically functional. Open it up and rotate the potentiometers by hand if you have to. If anything's wrong with the PCBs, then you're going to have a major headache on your hands, but if it all checks out, fixing the mechanical issues will be fairly easy.

It's still annoying that the seller was a bit deceptive about the quality of the Cougar itself, but if you've got the dosh and don't mind a little tinkering, you could make it even better than new.

I took off the rubber bellows and can see that the metal gimbals are broken ( metal looked like it had snapped in two). Explains why the stick wobbles.
The broken screw on the base of the throttle is one of the four that are at the 4 corners near the rubber "feet". Looks like the remaining portion of the screw may have to be tapped and unscrewed or drilled out to get the base plate off if need be.

So by checking the pcb's I assume you mean the printed control board, right?
And are you referring to the throttle or the stick or both?

I DON"T want to give this up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been using my CH stuff since 1996 and love the fact that it seems bullet proof (the one problem I had early on the company cross shipped a replacement and couldn't have been nicer to deal with !) But God, the difference in the feel between the 2 sticks and throttles.
Maybe if I was playing a Predator Drone sim the CH would be more realistic, but not when you are "flying" an F16!

Does anyone know if replacement gimbals are available?

I know about the FSSB replacement and that may be the way to go, but at 320 euros it is a bit pricey, considering I paid 250 plus shipping for basically a broken stick.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Think I should cross post this elsewhere? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

If it is only the metal gimbals that are broken, What do people think a "fair" price for what I have would be?

I mean both throttle and stick PCBs, though the throttle one is very simple, just a few resistors and other components. It's the stick PCB that's the real concern, since it houses the actual microprocessor and all that drives the whole system. As long as that works, any other fixes should be quite easy.

The broken throttle screw is one of the short corner screws? That should make for an easier replacement, at least. I'd try to take the throttle apart anyway by unscrewing the rest of the screws and seeing if it'll come apart with ease. (Be careful, though; you don't want the throttle tension arm getting out of place.) If it does, then the broken end of the screw should still be exposed, and you can remove it with ease.

Replacement Cougar gimbals are still out there, I'm sure, though if you've come this far, you might as well get something better than stock. Too bad all the mods cost more than the whole Cougar does by itself, unless you get some crazy good second-hand deal.

If you want to cross-post anywhere, the Benchmark Sims forums would naturally be your best bet, as it's the Falcon 4.0 enthusiasts who naturally seek Cougars and know them better than anyone.

And yes, I know what you mean about CH feel...I love the Control Manager and Bob Church's ludicrously powerful scripting language and all, but TM gear just feels better in my hands, like it's not digging into my palms or anything. CH software with the TM feel would be the perfect combination.

Agreed, re the CH vs Thrustmaster.
Thanks for the help.
I'm communicating with the seller. He will either refund my money or we can negotiate a reduced price.
I contacted thrustmaster and they think parts may still be available but want me to completely disassemble it and send them more detailed pictures. If I go that route I will then be able to inspect the PCB in the stick. I'm not sure though that it would be fair to the seller ( who I believe honestly didn't realize the stick was broken) for me to do that and then send it back asking for a full refund.
So I'm trying to decide, how much of a project do I want?
If I'm going to replace the guts do I go whole hog and put in the FSSB controller for 400 + us dollars, modded gimbals? stay stock if guillimot can provide the parts? Pack it up and send it back and wait for another one to come on the market in good condition for a reasonable price?
Good suggestion about Benchmark sims, I had forgotten about them.
Again,
Thanks for the help.
I also cross posted this in the Sim HQ forum under hardware/controllers and got a lot of good comments. I also posted some pictures of the damaged gimbal parts).
Again Thanks for the help,
Jon

Well if you think it was an honest mistake from the seller, try to find how much replacement Gimbals would cost from TM including shipping to you, and try to negotiate for the seller to refund you in that amount (plus something for the screw damage). After the refund you can decide if you want to go the mod or stock way, and if you go mod, you'll have the refund money to help you go that way, probably not much I heard that TM charged something like 20-30$ for the gimbals, but that was a few years ago I think, no idea what they charge now. Eighter way the replacement of the gimbals or installation of an FSSB wont be much of a project it's really simple stuff, TM really made the cougar quite servisable.

My two cents.

I checked with thrustmaster and they want me to disassemble the unit so they get a better idea of the damage before answering if/how much to replace. One of the respondents in another thread offered his old gimbal assembly after upgrading to a FSSB unit. He was offering them for free except for the shipping, but.... he is in Portugal and I am in USA, So shipping would be 42 euro's ( about 56.00 US ).
I am worried though, if whatever happened was with enough force to shear the metal bracket in half, did it take out the PCB or some other internal component? If I understand correctly, if the circuit board is damaged the whole thing is pretty much toast.
I'm mentioning the damage that I see, and I have been reluctant to open it up because I did not want to be accused of causing the damage. I'm beginning to think it would be best to return it and chalk it up to fate.

Thanks for your thoughtful reply!

If it were me, I'd return it and work towards getting one that was fully operational. Good luck on whatever decision you make.

you can test it without the gimballs, just strip out the parts and rotate the pots by hand, I did it a few days ago while doing a conversion of an old FLCS grip to work with the cougar, it's not a problem, I had the throthe partially disassembled, the cougar grip completle disasembled, PCB taken out with the throttle, joyt pots and stick grip (sometimes opne in half) attached to it. So test the electronics funcioning, to be sure of what's best.

International shipping can be much cheaper, just chose an apropriate shipping method, I've recevied and shipped enough stuff from the USA to know it should be a lot cheaper.

I've replaced the gimbals twice on my Cougar. Once it was just one axis, the other time I did both. One axis comes off fairly easy, but the other axis is attached to the center joystick post by a pin with a squeezed washer on the end. You've got to remove all that carefully, and replace it back. If you do replace the gimbals, don't forget some grease. It will help prevent premature failures. My first set failed because there was just about no grease on the gimbals where they touched and rubber against each other...

I'd do the same thing, I see Cougars pop up every so often on forums sale boards.

Return it and then get a new Warthog...you will like it better in the long run.