twisting control cable bad?

prkaye · #1 03-11-2009, 04:53 PM

Hmm... I was removing my control cables from the carb, and I got lazy. Instead of removing the bearing, I unscrewed the cable from the bearing while it was still mounted to the throttle arm. Then I realized that in doing so, I had twisted the throttle cable itself inside it's sleeve. I had lost track of how many turns I had gone and so can't untwist it. It seems fine, but I worry that I have structurally damaged the control cable internally. Should I replace these (throttle and mixture) or do you think they will be OK?

JHines · #2 03-11-2009, 06:43 PM

Dan Checkoway seemed to think he damaged his cables by twisting/screwing them. Check this page, about halfway down:

http://www.rvproject.com/annual2006.html

prkaye · #3 03-12-2009, 09:12 AM

That's very interesting. I don't feel so dumb now, seeing that Checkoway did the same thing i did.
Has anybody else done this and not had any problems with it? I guess my fear is after 100 hours of flying my throttle cable breaks or seizes up and I die. Am I being overly paranoid again?

prkaye · #4 03-12-2009, 03:08 PM

I didn't get much response to this, so I thought maybe i didn't describe the situation well enough. Referring to the attached photo, when i removed my throttle (and mixture) cable, instead of removing the rod-end bearing (B) from the carb and spinning it off the rod (A) (the termination of the control cable), I left the bearing attached to the carb and used my fingers to spin the rod (A) off the bearing. In doing so I am worried about what internal (invisible) damage I have done to the cable. Somehow internally the cable itself is attached to that metal rod (A) (I imagine it being soldered on), and by my twisting it I could have damaged this joint. The cable seems fine, still slides with no problems, but have I created a demon that could bite me later? Does anybody understand how the ends of these cables are put together, and whether it would be tolerant to the twisting I imposed?

Mike S · #5 03-12-2009, 03:25 PM

My guess, repeat guess, is that if you could spin it with your fingers, then you should be OK.

Unless, your unscrewing caused it to come loose from the other end

prkaye · #6 03-17-2009, 09:27 AM

In case anybody is interested, I got the following reply about this from Vans:

Phil,

I don't think you have any problems here. The throttle is just a simple
push/pull assembly, unlike a vernier style cable. It has an internal 'joint' that
allows the handle and the rest of the cable to turn independently.

I would suggest next time to simply pull the bolt out of the arm and CT
Bearing assembly. That way it preserves the throttle arm travel range. You
may want to recheck that after reassembly.