u/GavinGWhiz

I regularly get messages from queer folks in the area searching "queer" on the subreddit and finding my original post, now feels as good as time as any to re-up with another reminder this place exists. We've got over 150 folks from all walks of life hanging out, chatting, sharing goofy memes, and pooling resources when needed.

I've fixed a couple of friends' joycons over the years and each time I've used the $15 replacement joystick from iFixit. Perfect part.

Problem is, ordering them one at a time for $15 each is a tad expensive when I look over at the other sites and see the bottom-of-the-barrel knockoff ones are going for $5 each, even cheaper when bought in bulk.

In a world where I become The Switch Repairer for friends/locals in my city, I keep thinking about how joysticks will be the biggest price hurdle.

Is there a known supplier/seller/brand that y'all go to for good joycon joystick replacements besides iFixit?

Here's the timeline of this car's misadventures:

• Identified problem as a bad CV axle from clicking when turning/reversing.
• Removed old axle, but the RockAuto replacement axle was for a Civic SI instead of a DX (my fault).
  • Note: when the old axle came out, no ATF leaked out.
• Without reinstalling the old, bad axle we put the wheel back on and rolled the car out of the spot it was taking up.
  • While doing this, someone said it should be turned on for power steering to help out the younger helper doing the steering inside.
  • Out of habit, said helper tried to put it in drive when we went from pushign the car backwards to pushing it forward, causing the gearbox to grind.
  • When the car got to where it needed to be, another helper became obsessed with the idea the key HAD to come out and forced it into park, even with the gears grinding.
• When the correct part arrived, we installed it but, crucially, we did not know about the bull ring popping into place. The bull ring was on the new axle, but when the splines lined up and everything easily slid in, that felt "correct" and I didn't know to keep pushing until it popped in.
• We reassembled everything and started it for a test drive.
  • It shifted through all gears seemingly fine. It reversed and went forward a short distance perfectly without the clicking sound of the old bad axle.
  • When putting it in drive and accellerating forward to leave the property for the test drive, the axle popped out of the transmission.
• We got it back up on stands, took everything apart, and actually "popped" the axle in place using Reddit advice of "use the axle as its own impact hammer".
• We also realized the zero ATF leak was a bad sign, so we put two quarts of appropriate Honda ATF in and it started actually registering on the dipstick.
  • Once we did this, a steady leak of clearly older ATF did start in the open axle hole.
• We removed the new CV axle to compare it to the old one and found the edge of the new one appears chewed up/worn down (likely from popping out while in gear). It's the top one of the two in the below photo.

https://preview.redd.it/3j6r9edxrpzg1.jpg?width=4624&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a436eb53000331be4cbcb4e2195334a54ebe1ddd

With all of that: two big issues remain:

1. The new axle never fully seated flush against the transmission. There were a couple fingernails-width between the metal of the axle "collar" and the transmission. Given how much trasmission fluid was everywhere at this point, it was hard to tell if that's just how things are with this axle or if that was enough space for there to be a leak, even after properly being "popped" into place.
2. I'm paranoid that between the ATF being low, shifting it without an axle in, and the new axle popping out after not being seated properly, the transmission might be messed up in a way that putting a second new axle in is also not going to seat properly.

Everything looks/feels fine in the actual hole, but I also have no point of comparison as this is the first Honda I've worked on as an amateur and zero of the CV axle replacement videos on YouTube point a camera in the hole to show what it should look like normally.

https://preview.redd.it/3ctd3rp9spzg1.jpg?width=3472&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ebfaa907e4469905f2c3a2da99e66ffb14cb5a3b

Already-long story short: I've gotten this car from a family member who sank $10k into the idea it would be a bulletproof daily driver. This was intended to be a easy-to-intermediate repair that's turned into a stressful one we spent way too many hours on. As evidenced by the fact we got sloppy because we were tired and accidentally broke the damn new CV axle after taking it out.

The core questions becomes this: Should I just get another CV axle and pop it in? And should I be sweating if it's not flush with the transmission even after feeling the distinct pop of that ring going in? I'm at the point of feeling defeated enough to consider, despite this being the nicest secondhand car I've encountered, putting it up on Marketplace as a "bring your own trailer" special and washing my hands of it.

Long story short: I was doing a CV axle replacement when I bumped up against a small problem (I ordered an axle for the wrong side).

We put the wheel back on and put it in neutral to push it somewhere for storage until the correct axle gets here. The plan was to just put it in neutral and let it sit somewhere for a few days.

When it came time to move it back forward, the helper steering shifted into drive out of habit, causing a loud grinding noise from the transmission. Then the other, older helper got it in their head it HAD to be shifted into park, causing even MORE grinding.

Am I overreacting, or did the transmission with a rag stuffed in the open hole just eat itself?

I presume there isn't much ATF in there as-is based on the fact nothing came out when we pulled out the CV axle.