How to Regrease a Thrustmaster TWCS Throttle
The standard grease used in the Thrustmaster TWCS Throttle is not as smooth it could be. For better control, use Nyogel 767A instead.
Page Contents
Introduction
The standard grease requires a little bit of extra traction to get the throttle handle to move than it does to keep it moving. Because of this, fine control is hard to attain. For example, I’ve read that this can really mess up air to air refuelling in DCS which requires a high level of precision. Even in normal use, compensating for this asymmetric traction requires effort that isn’t realistic or rewarding, but is solved quite easily.
There are kits you can buy that will replace the moving block and rail bearings, but that solution is more expensive and requires going into disassembling the block. Since regreasing the rails is much less invasive, I made it my first thing to try, and as far as I’m concerned I have no need to go any further. Regreasing with Nyogel 767A achieved the result I wanted.
Nyogel 767A Grease
The preferred type of grease rated by many is called Nyogel 767A. It is very expensive to by in quantity, but you may be able to buy a small amount from a supplier on eBay. The amount shown here is 1g, but you will only need a few percent of it to do a thorough job.
Useful Tools
You can do the whole job with just a screwdriver and your finger, but you may find it useful to have some tweezers (pliers in this photo) and a paintbrush to grease the throttle lever.
Unscrew the Base
This is the underside of the throttle. The screw you can see at the centre-top is the tension adjusting screw used to increase or decrease the friction on the throttle movement. Be sure to avoid accidentally tightening up the wrong screw when you reassemble the throttle later.
Clean the Guide Rails
Get some paper towels and cut them into a few strips, you will need about 8 strips in total. Open up the back of the throttle and pull a strip under one of the rails to begin taking off the standard grease.
I found it useful to twist the paper towel to get a firm grip on the rail and strip all the grease off.
Move the throttle up and down to access all parts of the two rails and to flush out grease inside the moving block.
Clean the Swinging Arm
You will then need to clean out the standard grease located inside the swinging arm by moving the block up and down to access all areas.
Apply Nyogel 767A
When all the standard grease is removed, you can begin applying the Nyogel 767A. Initially I used the paint-brush as shown, but the Nyogel is really stiff stuff, so I ended up applying it with my finger. Don’t miss the underside of the rail. Do not leave any blobs behind – you will need to leave it with a thin even layer if you can. You can spread the layer later on, so its not crucial, just do your best.
I found the paint brush useful to apply Nyogel 767A to the swinging arm where the indent was too small for my fingertip to access easily.
Despite my best efforts, this grease is so stiff that I can’t apply it neatly. However, the movement of the arm will smooth out the grease where its needed.
Set the Throttle Tension
At this point you can move the throttle back and forth to even out the lubrication and then adjust the tension in the throttle friction arm using the same screwdriver as before. Since the unit is uncovered its easier to see the effect of an adjustment as well as feel what it does. Flip the throttle onto its base and try it out your settings until you get it just right.
Reassemble
When you are ready to reassemble the base plate, check the wiring to make sure that it is sat neatly in the clips provided in the base plate.
Similarly, ensure the USB cord is positioned in its holder at the exit of the base plate. It isn’t fixed into place until you have screwed the base plate back on.
When you reassemble the throttle, there is a possibility that you may mistake the tensioning screw for one of the baseplate screws, so take care to avoid that trap.
Adjust Throttle Tension
With the whole thing reassembled, you will notice that the Nyogel 767A is a fairly stiff grease that provides a constant resistance for long movements, and for fine movements the resistance is not high, and may even offer some stability. You can optimise this resistance with the tensioning screw underneath the throttle. Move the throttle to its fully-forward position to make the tensioning screw visible in the baseplate hole.
