Controller Fixing Guide and Technical Information

by Jpep

This guide contains 3 sections: a cleaning guide, a guide to decrease resistance from the triggers, and a control stick guide.

Necessary Tools

You will need a Y1 tri-point (not a tri-wing!) screwdriver to open the back panel and a Phillips 0 screwdriver to take apart the triggers. Smaller sizes can work as well.
The bit set I use in this guide can be found here. It contains many bits that are of no use for the GCC so you may want to buy individual screwdrivers instead.
A Phillips screwdriver is not necessary to swap the back panels from 2 controllers.
Q-tips and rubbing alcohol will be used to clean the motherboard.

Cleaning

Locate and remove the 6 tri-point screws on the back of the controller.
Pull on the back panel to separate the 2 halves of the controller.
The Z-button is not locked in place and may fall off on its own when you do this. If it doesn’t, pull on it gently to remove it.
Grab the corners of the motherboard inside the front shell and gently pull away to free it. Avoid grabbing and pulling on the rumble motor, it comes apart easily.

Pull on the grey contact pads gently and remove them.
Pull on the Control Stick and the C-Stick away from the motherboard until they come off. They are stuck in place quite tightly so don’t be afraid to pull hard.

On the back shell, locate and remove the 4 Phillips screws.
Remove the plastic plates on the triggers.
To remove the triggers, press down on them and pull them in and towards you.
There may be a metal bracket holding the trigger trogether. If necessary, remove it so the spring and contact pads can come undone.
It is usually recommended to remove this metal bracket piece entirely as it creates a lot of friction when pressing down on the trigger.

Take the shells, the buttons and the triggers and let them stew in warm soapy water for 15-20 minutes.
Once done, scrub them thoroughly with a toothbrush to get rid of any dirt, dead skin, or oils.
Gently wash the contact pads in warm soapy water, again with the toothbrush. They are somewhat delicate so don’t put too much force into it.

To wash the motherboard, dip a Q-tip in rubbing alcohol (a toothbrush also works, though be careful that it is completely dry) and rub the board.
Clean the areas beneath the contact pads and the stick bases thoroughly.
On the backside of the board, clean the sliding potentiometers and the black pads that the triggers press down on.
You can also quickly scrub the metal pieces with a toothbrush and some alcohol if you wish to, but it’s usually not necessary.

Once you’re done, follow the steps back up to reassemble the controller.
The sticks have a small notch on their underside which indicates which way is up.

The controller cord won’t fit if it doesn’t encircle this small peg above the rumble motor. Push down on it hard so it stays put as you manipulate the shells.
Make sure the sliders for the triggers are pushed all the way up before putting the shells back together.

Control Stick Guide

Dropped spins can be caused by manual input error, but they can also be caused by a well-documented deffect on the control stick called PODE - Potentiometer Oddity Degradation Effect. It is a complicated issue, but the gist is that it can cause the controller to ignore certain stick inputs, which can result in dropped spins.
Detailed technical information about PODE can be found here.
Getting rid of PODE unfortunately requires changing the potentiometers, which is usually accomplished by just buying a new GCC, but it can also temporarily be reset by following this guide.