Update: guy at the retro shop in Dayton said skip the $40 kit and just clean my stick, he was dead on
My joystick on an old fight pad was drifting hard, so I drove 30 minutes to a retro shop in Dayton ready to buy a whole new stick kit. The owner looked at it, came back 10 minutes later, and said he had cleaned the pot and swapped in a $3 spring instead. I almost argued with him because I wanted the upgrade. Plugged it in at home and the dead zone is perfect now, not a hint of drift. Has anyone else been talked out of a bigger mod by a shop guy who was clearly just right?