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Assembling the control stick question

flion

flion

Well Known Member
So I'm on page 39-7 and the instructi0ons say to insert the control stick (WD-1012) into the base (WD-1011 L/R) as far as it will go. How far is that? There is no powdercoat inside the base, which is about 1.5" deep. But the sticks will only go 1"; it looks like they are hitting distortion from the weld. Do I use a rotary file to clean up the inside around the weld area or do I stop at 1"? I kinda want to grind away but before I do something potentially bad to the weldment I thought I'd ask.
 
I had to buff the stick area a bit with the de-burring wheel and hit the high spots of the welds on the inside of the coupling and got them to bottom out at 1.5" with a little work.
 
same here

same exact thing for me.
I used a dremmel tool with an abrasive drumm and a buffer to clean it it up a bit.
Just a heads up before you do too much work on the stick attachment.
I shortened it as much as I could and had to tweak the curve a little in addition to shortening the top end as much as possible.
All this to prevent the stick grip from hitting the bottom of the panel or the stick itself from hitting the front of the seat structure. It may not need anything depending on what panel you use but save yourself some work by waiting with the drilling of that attachment hole.
 
As Ernst has stated, you may end up cutting the stick down substantially to clear your panel. You need to wait with the drilling until the panel and seats are in and the grip is installed to make sure it clears. Here is how mine looked after trimming to clear the Aerosport Panel.
IMG_2596.jpg
 
Thanks, guys. That's pretty much what I expected. Bill, why wait until the seats are in? I get the panel interference (that's why I'm fitting them now, so I can install the stick controls) but I guess I don't see an interference with the seats. Am I missing something?

Also, Bill, I noticed you routed your cable through the curved part of the stick. Where did you put the exit? I was thinking I'd just spiral wrap the cable to the stick and make a cover for it when I did the interior, because I didn't really want to drill too much into the weldments. But you may change my mind. Got a picture of the exit at the base?
 
You need to be seated on the seat bottom in to set the grip height. I'll take a look for a photo, but the bottom exits using the existing holes. The wires are covered with anti-chafe covering.
 
Emery cloth

I worked WD1011 with emery cloth till it slid in and bottomed out.....becareful with rotary tools as those tig welded parts don't have much material built in to remove. I slid in till bottomed out then measured the distance left till powder coating line, removed and cut, reinserted and when it bottoms out the powder coating line is flush. I already know I will have to adjust in other areas to clear the panel and provide correct travel.

I also found on mine that the WD1011 interfered with Wd1010 on front edge and was binding up slightly. I filed down to shift WD1011 back slightly and then fit a shim washer on front side, over the bushing and in between those two parts.
 
Mine was the same as everyone else. Took a while to get it to fit right. I ran the grip wires down the outside of the stick - then covered it with a fabric cover from Abby.
John
 
You can drill your hole at the bottom of the straight section into the bent section. The hole goes into the center of the curved tube and doesn't touch any welds. All your wiring can feed through there invisibly. Don't know why you.d do it any other way.
 
Ok, after getting validation on the "make it bottom out" plan, I went back to work and took another look at it. Somehow I missed that the base was open all the way through. The weld area inside interfered a little but I only got another 1/4" after cleaning it up. However, I could look up inside from the bottom and see that the tube was stopping where it hit the curved wall of the down-tube. Duh! Progressively trimming the bottom of the stick allowed me to get about 1-5/8" into the base. By the way, my sticks came with about 2" exposed (no powder coat), so I still have an exposed ring of a little more than 1/2" that I will have to deal with.

Now, onto the wiring run. Yes, I can trim the bottom of the stick so that wires can pass through to the base. But I'm not going to, for two reasons. First, my bundle is too large for me to feel comfortable passing between the two pushrod connections, even with anti-chafe. Second, as Aerhed pointed out, the place I do need to drill is at the top of the curved section and I can't get a straight shot at it due to the top tube. I could get a small hole up there and then enlarge it with a die grinder but that's more work than I want to do or am comfortable with (I don't want to mess with the weld). I'm going to route out the bottom of the straight section and outside along the curved part and make a nice cover for it instead.

And, Bill, I took your advice. That slowed things down because as soon as I had a stick and a seat, work stopped while airplane noises ensued. But it didn't really make much difference because the panel clearance was the critical issue (and, yes, I will have to cut the straight tube down to about 3"). However, having the seat in will aid in 'clocking' the grip and, besides, it was fun - so it wasn't a waste.

Thanks again to everyone who replied; it was a big help.
 
airplane noise

I just knew from the beginning that this was all about sitting in the canoe
and making airplane noises.:D
 
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