Rebuilding an Atari Trackball

Now that the busy summer is over, it’s time to try to finish up some of my Centipede work before Winter. I’d like to get this game down into the gameroom before it gets too cold to work on it in the garage.
The first thing I needed to do was to buy some more repair parts from Bob Roberts. Bob is a great guy and I often refer people to him for parts. He has several repair kits compiled for common problems. This time I ordered another part for the Centipede monitor since it was still not working as well and I liked. I also ordered parts to rebuild the trackball, because it was totally worn out and needed replaced or rebuilt. I received my order on Monday, and as always Bob included a couple surprises. He sent me a nice little mini-screwdrivers and a small bag of candy for Halloween!

I made sure I took several pictures to show how easy it is to rebuild a trackball. Trackballs wear out badly, and this one was virtually unplayable in its condition. Here are a couple shots of the trackball and the rollers inside before replacement:

Basically these are really easy to work on. Just remove the six screws holding the shell together, and pop off the top of the shell. The ball and roller assemblies lift right out. Two of the rollers have the encoder wheel screwed into the side of them. Just remove the small screws holding those on with an allen wrench. Just be careful not to bend the encoder wheels. Those need to be perfectly flat to work the best. The repair kit I purchased from Bob includes the three rollers, and six sealed bearing assemblies. I also purchased a new white button and a new “snow white” trackball because I liked the look of it more than the offwhite ball, and my old one was really scratched up and worn.

Here are a couple comparison photos of the parts:

Then just put the trackball back together and here’s what you get: