chacy

OK, as you know from my post earlier in this thread, I had to send my radio in to JR for repair due to the chafing on the aileron wiring bundle. I received it back from them today. Turn around was 9 business days from the day they received it (counting the day they received it and the day they shipped it back out to me). Shipping time depends on how fast you want to get it to them and get it back. You will pay for 2nd Day or other expedited shipping, etc. I was told when I called to check on it last week that there was about a 7 - 10 business day turn around from the day they received it until they shipped back out. So, they were exactly in the time frame they stated. Not too bad for the most part.

I read the Invoice/Work Order included with it and it stated that the technician had "replaced the chafed aileron wiring bundle and re-routed the wires" and "repaired the yellow wire I mentioned in my letter" (the yellow wire was referring to the one on my LH trim lever on the side of the Tx that had a bare spot on it).

I had to see that it was to my satisfaction, so I opened my radio up to take a look.
As for what I saw, I was VERY PLEASED. The tech had removed the aileron wiring bundle and replaced it. When he replaced it, he did not route it back through the little hole in the side of the gimbal. He instead used what looked like a brownish hot glue or goop like substance to fasten the bundle to a spot just above where that hole was, but keeping it to the "inside" area of the gimbal. He then routed the wire straight up from that point to the top of the gimbal while leaving some slack in it and "SURPRISE", has moved the original metal wire keeper that had the screw in it to this new location on top of the gimbal where it was now secured and then put the same glue like substance on it there all over the bundle and wire keeper and screw to hold it in place (you can see this well on pic02 at the top right and pic06 at the bottom right). It was then routed from that point on the top right side of the gimbal to straight down toward the face or inside of the radio way out of the way and under the board to the bottom of the gimbal where the wires are actually attached (see pic01, pic02, and pic03).

It is EXCELLENT. I inspected it over and over and deflected the aileron/elevator stick every way possible over and over and over and there is ZERO issue (pic04 and pic05). I inspected the back of the radio cover and looked at where the voltage regulator is again and I held the cover up as close as possible to being installed leaving only a small enough gap as to see down into the area and there is no way possible for the aileron wiring bundle to get to the regulator to chafe, no matter what position the stick is in. It is nowhere near it with it fixed like this. The only part of the aileron wiring bundle that is even out in the open is the part between glue attachments on the gimbal and as far as the back cover going on, this is where there is nothing but a flat plastic surface out to the side of the board that the regulator is on, well clear of anything to chafe on (see pic08). Also, there is not enough slack in the bundle for it to go anywhere other than that area, and since it is attached to the gimbal, there is no pulling, stretching, or putting the wires in a bind when full deflection is made with the aileron/elevator stick (pic04 and pic05 again). This is the way it should have been designed to start with.
Hopefully, production is doing this now.

As far as you fixing yours without sending it in to the service center, I recommend the fix posted on RCU by ultimate1 on page 4 of the thread on this. Because anything you do that would allow you to get the bundle out of that hole in the side of the gimbal so you could re-route it as mentioned above will void your warranty. You'd have to either cut the gimbal there to pull them out or you'd have to do some soldering to disconnect them or cut the wires and reconnect them.
The "wrap around the post" method that is given by JR seems to be good and bad. It may clear the regulator, but I've seen a situation with wire pulling and binding with the gimbal at full deflection. Some have had this issue and some haven't, so I guess it depends on how yours does when you try it. You'd think that the amount of slack would be the same on all of these, but apparently there's some reason for this to be inconsistent.

The tech fixed the yellow "trim lever" wire as well. (Mentioned in my previous post on this)

I give them an A+ for quality of repair.

Again, pic01, pic02, and pic03 are basically the same, just slightly different angles and zoom.
Pic04 and pic05 are showing full deflection in both directions.
Pic06 and pic07 are just different shots from the side views.
Pic08 is showing the black plastic area that the wire is in now, instead of being over close to the voltage regulator. The gimbal and wiring is pretty much centered in this area when the backplate is installed.

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