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Stick Wiring

mike newall

Well Known Member
Sponsor
Looking for a quick job in the shop, I looked at the routing of the wires from the stick top........

How are guys routing the wires from the stick grip down the control stick and where are they exiting at the bottom ?
 
My stick wiring. 7A. 5+ years. 1,000+ hours.
DB9 connector for removal, if ever needed.
 

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I routed mine externally. They exit the 6" (?) straight portion of the stick near where it is welded to the curved portion of the stick. The wires just run down the aft side of the stick. I've secured them to the lower portion of the stick with electrical tape. I think this is a common approach. Lots of the spendy interior kits come with stick boots that go all the way to the control stick grip, all the better to hide the wires.
 
I routed mine externally. They exit the 6" (?) straight portion of the stick near where it is welded to the curved portion of the stick. The wires just run down the aft side of the stick. I've secured them to the lower portion of the stick with electrical tape. I think this is a common approach. Lots of the spendy interior kits come with stick boots that go all the way to the control stick grip, all the better to hide the wires.

I did something similar. Wires out the bottom of the short vertical piece, but mine are inside a multi-colored chaffe resistant nylon cloth tube. Attached to stick with zip ties.
 
2000 words on how I wired my control sticks

I shortened the stick to fit my Tosten grips, and then ran the wire loom down the outside covered by heat shrink cable wrap.

Try to ignore the wiring mess...it's much farther along, but it's the only photos I could find of the sticks with the wire's wrapped.

Someday, when I actually, finally finish this thing... I have leather stick wraps making the cable unseen.
 

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Looking for a quick job in the shop, I looked at the routing of the wires from the stick top........

How are guys routing the wires from the stick grip down the control stick and where are they exiting at the bottom ?

On my -8, the wire exit is closer to the top of the stick, 1 inch below the bottom of the Infinity grip. It is easier for me to route the wires when the exit hole is closer to the top. The hole is just large enough for a 2-pin mini-molex connector to pass through. The wiring is tie-wrapped along the stick and the leather boot will cover everything up when finished.

I was weary about drilling at the bottom of the stick because of the weldment and the higher stress level at this location.
 
On my 10, I routed it inside the stick. Made sure that I had a durable sleeve to avoid chafing at the exit and tied it up relatively close to eliminate too much movement.
 
For the RV-8 I have the wires exiting just above the connection to the center tube. I did not like the wires coming out the bottom as there is very little clearance.

I take the piece of stick that got trimmed off and cut it vertically in half. This creates a doubler that gets welded to the stick in the area where the big hole is for the wires to come out to reinforce the stick. The hole is drilled after welding. My thought was that the big hole weakens the stick.

For the RV-10 the cable just runs out bottom of the top curved part, the inside some clear tubing down the back of the stick.

Carl
 
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Also routing externally, then into the tunnel (with a CPC) and up under the Aerosport center console to the panel
 
Tosten grips, wiring routed inside the control column. Needed to drill the entry point obv. Looks neat and avoids any external wires. Plenty of space at the bottom where the wires exit.

Also made and fitted an angled bush to the grip to angle the grip back a bit for extra panel clearance and a more comfortable grip. Might even have a pic or two somewhere. Replaced the ugly big Allen screw that secures the grip with two smaller screws, facing forward so less obtrusive.
 
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Steering Wheel Wrap

On mine the wire exits the stick at the bottom of the short straight piece, then runs down the aft side of the curved piece secured with a few wraps of electrical tape. To make it pretty, I wrapped the stick with steering wheel wrap that matched the colors of my interior.
 
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