Broken pin / connector for R/L throttle grips

[Keith Briscoe]

Doing a little maintenance on my rig, I removed the section that has my throttle mounted.  I heard some rattling.  As I looked closer, the "nub" on the pin that connects the Left and Right grips is GONE...  I wonder how they are staying together, since I thought the nub was essentially the lock.

I have just sent a ticket to Customer Service.

 

[rob10]

That little pin that makes the "handle" or "nub" screws in, so if it got loose it could well fall out.  IIRC that part is also held in magnetically (at least on the Orion 1), so probably isn't going anywhere even without the pin to hold it.  But obviously it's going to make things a challenge if you want to split the throttles very often.

I would check around (and in) your throttle and you may fine it sitting in a crack somewhere.

Edited January 13, 2024 by rob10

[Keith Briscoe]

That's helpful Rob. Yeah, I hear something rattling but no idea if it fell all the way into the base. I'd prefer not to open her up.

WW customer service provided first response already, so I'll see what they suggest and offer.  

I'm not looking at it now, but it wasn't clear how I would get the main magnetic pin out, but suppose I can just disassemble the grips and eventually get it. Then Im hoping I'll be able to fit in a replacement slide pin.  I don't recall how that pin is secured inside the right grip.

[Phantom711]

I think the little pin is screwed in the larger pin (or in your case „was“).

I actually removed both completely. Real aircraft don‘t have them stuck together either.

 

EDIT: If the little pin fell into the base, I‘d be a bit worried, that it could cause a short.

Edited January 14, 2024 by Phantom711

[Keith Briscoe]

yeah, that's what I was thinking Phantom.  May have no choice but to slowly and carefully disassemble.  It doesn't really freak me to take all the bolts out of the bottom plate.  Just don't know what I'm going to find and hope there's nothing tricky required to re-assemble (shouldn't be, but still).

I expect I'll get a follow up chat message from WW cust svc tomorrow (Monday).

[Brun]

The pin should be easy enough to remove without disassembling anything, it's an M3 thread so just find a suitable screw. Might need something pointy to rotate the empty hole into a better position. Once you've separated the left and right throttles, remove the screw and the pin can be pulled straight out.

You can also use an M3 screw as a replacement, however the head may need to be cut off to prevent it fouling the throttle handle.

 

Edit: Just realised it's broken rather than just unscrewed. Guess that makes putting another screw in impossible, but I'd still expect you can release it from the current state and remove the pin using something suitably pointy.

Edited January 14, 2024 by Brun

[Phantom711]

@Brun

The problem is not so much the larger pin holding together the throttles but the tiny one that is missing and might be dangling around in the base. I would not want something metal rolling around uncontrolled on a PCB. 

Edited January 15, 2024 by Phantom711

[Keith Briscoe]

Well I decided to try to move the connecting rod, saw that I could slide it. Slid out from left grip and pulled the rod. Lucky for me, the nub / handle also fell to the ground. So I have both pieces now!!!

And now back together again, yay!!!

Thanks to each of you for your attention and help. I hope this could help others in the future.

It could almost be worth it to put a dab of general purpose lock'tite on threads of that grub screw.

All done.

[OhNoMyHookBroke]

On 1/14/2024 at 4:24 AM, Phantom711 said:

I think the little pin is screwed in the larger pin (or in your case „was“).

I actually removed both completely. Real aircraft don‘t have them stuck together either.

 

EDIT: If the little pin fell into the base, I‘d be a bit worried, that it could cause a short.

My pin fell into the base as well (or at least I think it did LOL). Super frustrating, because now the two throttle grips aren't connected together as well. Winwing should design this better.

Also, they're charging me 40+ dollars to buy a new pin.

Edited 12 hours ago by OhNoMyHookBroke