My fix for broken 16LA joystick
I too was shocked at this pathetic welded rod/plate combination NH used (after it broke off!). I figure they did it so that the button wires could be routed through the inside of the handle (why not use a solid rod and expand the plastic housing for the cable?).
Anyway, here is my fix: 1) I cut off a 6" or so piece of electrical conduit (9/16" ID) and jammed it over the rod end. A very tight fit! 2) I drilled a hole big enough for the wires under the joystick "head" (that round thing that fits in your hand) and routed the wires outside the plastic handle (you have to cut them, which I did, or re-solder them at the switch). 3) tapped two holes in the conduit to hold the screws (which I think are metric, which I replaced with standard #10 because my taps are all standard). 4) wrapped the lower part of the handle with electrical tape to cover the wires.
Appearance/functionally it isn't bad for me (to have the wires outside the plastic case) because my 4-in-1 switch is tie-wrapped to the joystick handle and has wires running outside anyway. So I don't notice the wires coming out of the underside of the ball (hand never went there anyway).
I should slather some silicone around the hole where the wires come out....
The result is that the joystick is much more solid than before! So I probably won't bother to have it replaced with the (inferior) original version.
By the way, mine was overstressed by an afternoon of using a rock-picking bucket, where you really abuse the loader by bouncing the rocks around to sift out the soil.