The answer to the skating CX22 cue ball mystery

[Swami]

Just for posterity if someone else has this problem.

 

I got a $6 CX22 off eBay that was dirty as can be inside and out. I cleaned it up and sanded the spinner shafts and oiled the bearings and cleaned the button contacts. Button stems were both broke off so I had to carefully super glue them back together. Soaked the ball in 10% bleach for 20 min and scrubbed with toothbrush (still yellow). Then many many hours trying to figure out why the cue ball kept skating. If I had spare bearings I might have replaced them but, didn't. So, I was trying everything else and honestly didn't know if the ones opposite the encoder were supposed to be stationary or not. It seemed to me that it would be really surprising if the bearings were worn out. Finally I figured out that the inner wheel of the bearing opposite one of the encoder wheels was not turning on one of the shafts and was turning on all of the others. It was stuck ... HARD ...to the shaft by some invisible petrified glue. I had to wrench it off with two pairs of pliers, which took a couple minutes of wrenching. Once it was off and I had wiped out the inside of the bearing center hole and outside of where it was on the shaft, it now works like new!!!! In addition it went on and came off of the shaft very easily.

 

I'd noticed there was the slightest grinding/catching at that particular bearing about once every ten minutes when it was free to spin. Otherwise, it seemed as "friction-free" as the rest and appeared to spin freely. Only when the ball was on it rolling rapidly in varying directions would it catch. I'd have to check, but I believe the bearing opposite the encoder wheel were not freely sliding off the end of the shaft in the other trackballs I restored, but did not have this skating problem.

 

Also, I wonder if the bearings they make for the 2.5" arcade trackball on eBay would work?

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/O-E-M-2-1-4-HAPP-TRACKBALL-REBUILD-KIT-WITH-BALL/382142848984?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649

 

P.S., this is only the third trackball I've restored and the other two were pretty simple. One had a button stuck from petrified goo (probably coca-cola) and the other just needed some basic cleaning.