Newbie Question - Throttle Connectors

Not Mickey Mouse at all, provided the clevis has the correct orientation to the throttle arm and the linkage isn't trying to bend the clevis at an angle to the pin. Cheers, Fred McClellan The House Of Balsa Dust home.mindspring.com/~the-plumber

That's what I use on all my airplanes, sort of. DuBro makes a deal with a metal ball and plastic socket. The metal ball has a threaded stud and is attached to the throttle arm with a tiny nut.

As a matter of fact, I flew my Kyosho Sensation 1400 around the field at full throttle for 13 minutes today when the tiny nut came off the ball and the whole works came off the throttle arm. :-)

I usually don't use Loc-Tite... I use thin CA. Must have missed this one.

Good flying, Bob Scott

On 5/17/2004 8:27 PM Ted shuffled out of his cave and grunted these great (and sometimes not so great) words of knowledge:

The clevis is not really "Mickey Mouse". It works quite well and is less expensive than a ball connector. The Sullivan ball connector you have will work just as well as the clevis though. Make sure you have adequate clearance for the locking sleeve.

Nothing Mickey Mouse about it. It's been done that way for years. Use a "Z" bend at the servo end, and a nylon (what you call plastic) clevis at the carburetor. You can use a ball link, but unless your throttle linkage makes some unusual angle to the throttle arm, why bother? Dr.1 Driver "There's a Hun in the sun!"

DuBro makes a metal ball and plastic socket setup that would be perfect. From the Tower Hobbies website:

they say, "These are ideal for use on carb throttle arms."

In the many years I've been flying, I've not had a clevis failure at all. It is a tried and true method of hooking up control surfaces and the throttle. However, that being said, if you don't feel comfortable with the clevis on the throttle, by all means, use the ball connector. It will work just fine. Drilling our the throttle arm (within reason of course) won't hurt anything. That is the great thing about our hobby, you get to engineer stuff to your own liking. As long as it is safe, you are free to connect things anyway you see fit. The dual z bend works too but is limited in that there is absolutly no adjustment of the pushrod if you run out of end point adjustment on your radio. Just my .02

Jim W.

HI, i was told the plastic throttle arm connectors are plastic, because of static build up from linkage, causing radio woes, i could be wrong though

Rule of thumb is to avoid any metal on metal contact in the throttle linkage. The engine can generate radio noise which can be passed down the metal rod to the radio. Modern radios have probably negated this to some extent but, I'd rather let the other guy prove this with his plane!

Use a ball and socket, readily available at the hobby shops around Oakville. They come in 2 shaft sizes...either one will work. Don't worry about drilling the hole out 'cause you will probably use the same set up on the next plane. A Z bend is also good but not so easy to do without the proper tool. I don't generally use a clevis as it does not always provide the range of motion without binding on the throttle arm. Gord Schindler MAAC6694

This one has always intrigued me - just how does an engine produce radio noise ?

Unless of course it is spark ignition.

CW

What are you, an English teacher? Everyone else here understood what he meant.

OK - A metal-to-metal make and break contact at the throttle arm can cause electrical noise. This noise may be picked up by the RX antenna or servo signal wires. How's that? Dr.1 Driver "There's a Hun in the sun!"

AVOID metal to metal contact! If it's a plastic throttle arm, no problem. Plastic ball sockets are available. Dubro makes them. Go here:

's what I use and they work great. Otherwise, the nylon clevis is just fine. I use them too.

And I suppose next he's going to tell us that electrical noise doesn't fall into the RF spectrum!