Measurements in

7 steps · 9 screws · 3 ZIF latches · Y00 and Phillips #00

Nintendo Switch Joy-Con stick drift replacement: interactive 3D teardown

A left Joy-Con with a drifting analog stick, taken apart in 3D down to its stick module: four Y00 tri-point screws, the back opened like a book over the rail without tearing its two ribbons, the battery unplugged, the midframe turned over, three ZIF latches flipped up the way they are made to go, the old stick out and the new one in. Press play to watch a step, Explode to spread the layers, Reassemble to put it back together.

What you need

A left Joy-Con, switched off and taken off the console, lies face down on a block of ESD foam with a hole for its stick. Tools: a Y00 tri-point driver for the back, a Phillips #00 driver for the inside, a plastic spudger, an opening pick and ESD tweezers. The new analog stick module waits in its bag on the mat.

Tools: Y00 tri-point driver, Phillips #00 driver, Plastic spudger, Opening pick, ESD tweezers

The back screws are Y00 tri-point, three slots meeting in the middle, often called “tri-wing” though they are not: only a Y00 tri-point bit sits in them properly, never a tri-wing or a Phillips one.

Before you open it: the risk map

Seen through the closed Joy-Con: the rail’s two ribbons, the battery, the three ZIF latches, how deep a pick may go in the seam, the back’s hidden clips and the nine screws.

Risk zones

Hidden cable Rail ribbons: open like a book
No metal Battery and plug: plastic only
Fragile latch ZL ribbon’s ZIF latch
Fragile latch Minus and stick latches: flip up first
Pick depth · max 2 mm Seam along the outer side

Screws and hidden clips

PH00 · 3.5 mm ×5
Y00 · 6.2 mm ×4
Hidden clip ×3

Press Risk map (K) on the player to see them in 3D, through the closed Joy-Con.

All 7 steps

1Unscrew the four Y00 screws from the back trap
Turn out the four Y00 tri-point screws, two at each end of the back, with the Y00 driver, pressing down firmly so the bit stays in the head. Each one is 6.2 mm long: lift it out on the driver’s magnetic tip and lay it in well 1 of the tray. Avoid this trap: A Y00 screw has three slots meeting in its middle. A Phillips bit, with four, cannot sit down in them: it rests on their edges, and as soon as it is turned it rides up and slips, each slip shaving the slots a little rounder. A few turns later the head is stripped round and the screw will not come out with any bit. Use a Y00 tri-point driver, press down firmly and turn slowly.
2Open the back like a book over the rail trap
Slide an opening pick into the seam at the bottom end and up the outer side, only a millimetre or two deep. The back comes loose easily. Then open it like a book: lift its outer edge and swing it over the rail, which stays fixed to the back, and lay it flat behind. Do not pull the halves apart: the SL/SR ribbon and the charging rail’s ribbon still join the rail to the board. Avoid this trap: The charging rail is fixed to the back, and two short ribbons, the SL/SR buttons’ and the charging rail contacts’, run from it to sockets on the board. Lift the back straight off, or pry it open hard, and the SL/SR ribbon is pulled taut and torn out of its socket or across: the SL and SR buttons and the player lights then stop working. Open it like a book over the rail side, gently, and lay it flat beside the Joy-Con.
3Disconnect the battery and lift it out
Before anything else, slip the flat end of the spudger under the battery plug and pry it straight up out of its socket on the board. Then slide the spudger in at the battery’s end, beside its wires, lift it gently off the light tape that holds it in the midframe’s tray, and set it down on the mat. Never bend or puncture it.
4Unscrew the midframe and free its ZL ribbon
Turn out the three golden 3.5 mm Phillips #00 screws that hold the plastic midframe and lay them in well 2. Do not lift it off yet: the ZL button on it is still joined to the board by a thin ribbon. Turn it over away from the board like the page of a book, flip up the ZL ribbon’s ZIF latch with the tweezers, slide the ribbon out and set the midframe down.
5Release the minus and stick ribbons trap
The minus button’s ribbon runs over the back of the stick: flip up its tiny black ZIF latch with the tweezers, slide it out and fold it back out of the way. Then open the stick’s own ZIF latch the way it is made to go: lift its free edge, on the ribbon’s side, so it turns up and back over its hinge, about a quarter turn, away from the ribbon. Only then slide the stick’s ribbon straight out of its socket. Avoid this trap: The stick’s ZIF latch opens one way only: lifted by its free edge, it turns up and back over its hinge, away from the ribbon. Pull the ribbon while the latch is still down, or lever the latch from its hinge side, and it is forced the wrong way: its two tiny pivots snap out of the socket and the latch comes off, scraping the ribbon’s contacts as it goes. Without its latch the socket cannot hold the new stick’s ribbon, so the connector has to be replaced, which takes micro-soldering. Flip the latch up first; the ribbon then slides out with no force at all.
6Unscrew the old stick and lift it out
Turn out the two 3.5 mm Phillips #00 screws through the stick module’s tabs and lay them in well 3. Lift the module straight up out of its housing, its stick coming back out through the hole in the face, without disturbing the thin black gasket round the hole, and set it down.
7Fit the new stick and lock its ribbon
Take the new stick module out of its bag and lower it into the housing, its stick through the gasket and the hole in the face, its tabs over their posts. Slide its ribbon into the ZIF socket with the tweezers, contacts down, and press the latch flat. Then press Reassemble: its screws, the minus ribbon, the midframe, the battery and the back go back on in reverse order.

What you need

Y00 tri-point screwdriver · for the four back screws
Phillips #00 screwdriver · for the five screws inside
Plastic spudger and an opening pick · never metal near the battery
ESD tweezers · for the three ZIF latches
A replacement analog stick module · standard or Hall-effect
A magnetic screw tray · the screws are 6.2 mm and 3.5 mm

Questions

Why do Joy-Con sticks drift?

Mostly wear inside the stick module: metal prongs slide over softer contact pads that read the stick’s tilt, and as the pads wear, or dust gets in, the reading at rest wanders off centre, so the console sees a push nobody makes. A new module fixes it.

Which screwdrivers do I need for a Joy-Con?

A Y00 tri-point driver for the four screws in the back and a Phillips #00 for the five inside: three in the midframe and two in the stick.

Are the Joy-Con’s back screws tri-wing?

No, though they are often sold as that. They are Y00 tri-point: three slots meeting in the middle. A tri-wing, a flat or a Phillips bit will not sit in them and rounds them off.

Do I have to unplug the battery?

Yes, first, before you touch anything else: pry its plug straight up off the board with a plastic spudger. Plug it back in only once the stick and the ribbons are in.

Which way does a Joy-Con ZIF latch open?

Up and back, away from its ribbon: lift the small black latch by its free edge, on the ribbon’s side, and it turns over its hinge about a quarter turn. The ribbon then slides out with no force. Never pull a ribbon with its latch down, and never lever the latch from its hinge side: a snapped latch means a new connector.

Do I need to disconnect the minus button’s ribbon?

Not strictly: it runs over the back of the stick, and the stick can be worked out round it. Unlocking its ZIF latch and folding it back makes the stick much easier to lift out.

Are Hall effect sticks worth it for a Joy-Con?

They fit the same way as the original, in the same housing with the same two screws and the same ribbon in the same ZIF socket, with no soldering, and with no rubbing contacts inside they are much less prone to drift. Some come with a ring sticker for the recess round the stick; any new stick needs calibrating afterwards.

Can I clean a drifting Joy-Con stick instead of replacing it?

Sometimes, for a while: contact cleaner can wash dust off the contact pads. But the pads wear under the metal prongs that slide on them, so the drift comes back; a new module is the lasting fix.

What should I do after replacing the stick?

Calibrate it in the console’s System Settings, under Controllers and Sensors, Calibrate Control Sticks. If it still misbehaves, check that its ribbon is fully in and its latch flat.

Safety

Take the Joy-Con off the console and let it switch off first. Unplug its battery before you touch anything else inside, and pry only with plastic: a punctured lithium-ion cell can catch fire. Open the back like a book, never pull the halves apart: the rail’s ribbons tear.

Lithium-ion batteries: never bend, puncture or pry a battery with metal. A damaged cell can go into thermal runaway: it smokes, catches fire and can explode. Discharge it below 25% first; if it swells, hisses, smokes or gets hot, stop and move it somewhere safe.
Static (ESD): work on an anti-static mat with a grounded wrist strap; a spark you cannot feel can kill a chip.
Power off: switch the device off and unplug its charger before you open it, and disconnect the battery before touching anything else inside.

About this teardown

3D Spatial Reconstruction: Models are engineered from factual hardware measurements to visualize internal layouts, screw lengths, and hidden cable traps before you open your device. Always verify cable routing on your specific hardware revision.

The Joy-Con is a left Joy-Con of the original Nintendo Switch, modelled at its real size: 102 mm tall, 35.9 mm wide with its rail, 13.9 mm thick at the body and 28.4 mm over the stick and the ZL trigger, as Nintendo gives them. Its colours are a plain grey of our own, with no logos or printed artwork. The order, the screws and the connectors follow iFixit’s Left Joy-Con Joystick Replacement guide; where the inside parts sit and their sizes (the battery about 32 × 20 × 5 mm, the stick module about 17 mm square), the back’s clips and the pick depth are our reading of teardown photos, so they are estimates.

Where the owner’s brief for this guide differed from the real Joy-Con, the Joy-Con decided. Its four back screws are Y00 tri-point (three slots from the middle), not tri-wing, though they are often sold under that name, and 6.2 mm long; as the brief warns, a Phillips bit strips them. Inside, the brief named a PH000 driver: iFixit’s own guide gives the midframe’s three golden screws and the stick’s two as 3.5 mm Phillips #00, all the same length, which we follow (a student team’s guide on iFixit gives 3 mm #000). The back opens like a book over the rail on two ribbons, the SL/SR buttons’ and the charging rail contacts’, each in its own ZIF socket on the board. Three ZIF latches are opened, the ZL button’s (to free the midframe), the minus button’s and the stick’s, each flipped up before its ribbon slides out; iFixit’s guide puts the ZL latch on the side opposite its ribbon, and the stick’s is drawn the same way, hinged on its far side so it turns up and back, away from the ribbon. The battery’s plug is pried straight up off the board before the battery is lifted out. And the old stick comes out into the open Joy-Con: its base is wider than the hole in the face, so it cannot be pushed out through the front.

A Hall-effect replacement stick fits the same way, on the same ribbon and the same two screws, with no soldering. The 3D runs faster than real hands do: allow about 30 minutes.

Sources: iFixit: Left Joy-Con Joystick Replacement, iFixit: Right Joy-Con Joystick Replacement, iFixit: Left Joy-Con Charging Rail Replacement (its two ribbons, each in a ZIF socket), iFixit: Nintendo Switch Teardown, iFixit News: How to fix your Nintendo Switch’s drifting Joy-Con joystick, XDA: replacing the Joy-Con thumbsticks, the ZIF lever flipped up first (July 2024), TronicsFix forum: a Joy-Con connector’s snapped latch means a new connector, Nintendo: Joy-Con (L) specifications, Nintendo: Nintendo Switch technical specifications, Price: iFixit’s Joy-Con joystick, $14.99, or $19.99 with its tools (October 2026), Price: Gadget Medics, Boca Raton, Joy-Con stick repair, $25–$45 (October 2026).

The 3D models, drawings and text are our own. Nintendo Switch and Joy-Con are trademarks of their owners, named only to say which device this teardown is for; iTakeApart is not affiliated with them.