Hey guys,
I found a great link on how to fix the flaky stalk. This is better than spending money buying a new unit or a used one with no guarantee for it to work properly. It turned out that the circuit board is badly oxidized and after sanding it out things worked like a charm. It took me 30 minutes to complete it. Scroll down in this link:

http://forums.quattroworld.com/s4s6/threads/1634.phtml

Make sure to watch out for the small springs and component. Good luck!