Question About Apple II Paddles.

[Mister_Alex]

I just bought some Apple II paddles, but am not sure if they are working correctly. Playing the game 'Sneakers', the ship tends to shift around a lot, and will not move from one side of the screen to another until the paddles rotate all the way around.
The 'fire' button works fine.
Is this the way they are supposed to work? If not then I'll see about getting my money back.

 

[ahm]

The potentiometers are probably just dirty.
Keep working the knobs back and forth and they should work better after a while.
You could use some "tuner cleaner" on them, but I don't know if anybody sells that stuff anymore.

 

[Hatta]

This is absolutely typical wear and tear on 30 year old potentiometers. The contacts
inside the pot tarnish over time, even if you got a NIB set of paddles it would
behave much the same.

Working them back and forth to smooth out the tarnish can help, but the
best thing to do is spray a bunch of contact cleaner in there. Radio Shack
sells "tv tuner cleaner", "contact cleaner" that you get at the auto parts
store should work much the same. Remove the pots from the paddles,
and just spray a bunch of cleaner in any available crevice until it
starts dripping out. Work the pot back and forth. Repeat this two
or three times, then let the pots air dry. You should be all set for some
breakout now.