I recently snapped a spring in my Evenstrain, the first to go in the 20+ years I've been using it. That spring owed me nothing.

Had a look about the interweb and found a post someone made in 2013, having found the source company. I doubt there are many active today at SimHQ using this particular stick. But I was so happy to have found that post I wanted to pay it forward, and post here in the case it may help someone else looking for this information in the future.

To be fair, I've only just ordered them, and they may turn out to be incorrect, but it looks to be the right ones. Not so cheap at ten bucks per spring, but a small price to pay to get my stick back up and running.

Evenstrain Cougar Spring @ Century Spring

I'll post again once they have arrived and let everyone know if this thread had been a good idea or not.

Years ago I worried about what might happen were my stick to give up the ghost, so I bought a Uber NXT to keep as a back up. Having now been forced to use it, I can only say I miss the Evenstrain. Glad I have the Uber, but the feel of the two sticks is just night and day. Subjective, to be sure, but I have high hopes for these springs.

I replaced my Cougar with a VKB Gunfighter and a Virpil throttle. The throttle is night and day better than the Cougar, and the stick is really good too.

Did your Cougar have a gimbal mod?

As long as I can keep the Evenstrain running I don't plan to replace it. It's just so smooth and perfect. If it broke for keeps then I'd probably go the same route you have JC.

Searching for the springs I started here at SimHQ and found an old post from Greg, the man who made the mod. I learned I have Evenstrain serial number 37, the first stick of the second run. Didn't know (or remember) that

The springs arrived and are the correct ones but are closed loop so will need to be trimmed off or opened up a bit to work on to the gimbal, which also has a closed loop. Should be a minor operation. Identifying the correct ones is the hard part, so thanks to that anonymous post eleven years ago.

BTW -Recently Thrustmaster update their base for today standards - AVA (Advanced Versatile Aviation) base - CAM mechanism with replaceable CAM profiles, springs with tension adjust.

Oh sure, now they get around to it. Where was this 30 years ago?!

Actually that looks pretty sharp.

It's stoopid money too:

https://www.thrustmaster.com/en-us/products/ava-fa18-super-hornet-flight-stick/

But it does look pretty slick. Curious to know if anyone has tried it?

I have an Uber 2 Nxt gimbal'd Cougar, and I replace a spring probably once a year...

P.S. do you think those springs listed above would work on the Uber 2 Nxt Cougar mod?

I can't say as I have not actually opened my Uber up and looked at the springs.

I found this thread which isn't conclusive but does give some specs in the first post and another post farther down

https://forum.dcs.world/topic/240135-broken-x-axis-spring-on-cougar-u2-nxt/

I think as long as the springs are close to the right length they will 'work', the difference being how the stick feels, how much resistance it has. In this case I think the ones I linked are a bit too short? Specs show length as 38mm and the ones shown in that thread are 42mm. Still might work OK

US$600 retail. Expensive, but I spent more than that on my Cougar, ultimately. And now that I have two Cougars I've spent double that. Evenstrain cost $1000 for the stick and the gimbal/sensors modification. And if I consider I've used it for over twenty years I feel it was well worth the money. As long as it keeps working I don't see buying another.

Oh I did not put nearly that much into my Cougar. Probably $600 all together. I didn't get the Uber 2 Nxt mod until 2013, and it was used not new. Had the Cougar since about '04/05 though - but went through 3 sets of the stock gimbals before I went the Uber 2 Nxt route, and as many sets of pots. The stock stuff really was terrible after about 2/3 years of use. :/

Hi Guys,
Still have these available if someone needs some.
5 for $20 plus shipping

Hey mac, how's things? What is it you have, the Evenstrain springs?