Brief Description: Modification of stick wiring harness
I ordered two Infinity Stick Grips for installation in the RV-8. The grips were ordered with six switch functions including boost pump, autopilot, push-to-talk, flaps, starter, and pitch/roll trim. Each of these switches come wired with individual ground wires. In addition, there is one extra unused wire in the bundle which is encased in a fairly heavy insulating sheath. The harness is sturdy and neatly done but the resulting cable bundle is fairly large in diameter. The cable is designed to route down thru the stick tube and exit via a drilled hole in the tube wall.
I was concerned about the size of the hole in the stick tube so I decided to modify the wiring harness to reduce its overall diameter. I began by removing the external sheath and located all the individual ground wires. All the ground wires except the PTT lead were cut about six inches below the grip and connected to a single 20 AWG wire providing a common ground. Using a common ground removed five wires from the bundle (original wire count in the bundle was 17). The upper section of the harness going into the grip was covered with about 7-8 inces of shrink tubing while the remainder was secured with a series of 1 inch pieces of shrink tubing. The overall diameter of the harness was thus reduced in size by about 1/3. The cable should now fit thru a hole about 1/4" to perhaps 5/16". I may allow for a rubber grommet or plastic snap bushing during the final installation as well depending upon hole size.
