Hi all
here is my idea for a throttle assembly from old car parts.

These pics show a heater/air  control unit from an old car ,I think a Ford Cortina around the eighties vintage. ( only old farts like myself and Fozzer would remember these old cars !)


These units were used before the cars started having solinoid control air vents in them. This old unit is cable operated and this is what is good for us simpit builders.  



When you strip this unit down what you have left is two levers on a single axis that has a good lever movement - not to soft not to hard - just about right !





What you can do is use the existing cables to connect directly to a sliding type potentiometer, this would then give for example throttle control and prop pitch control.



This unit also has a fan speed control lever. What you can do is remove this completely and with a little use of the right size file you can file the slots out big enough to put a slide type pot straight into the unit.



If you got a number of these unit you could stack them together to make a twin enginge type throttle quadrant.

I would just use a crimp lug to attache the cable to the slide pot with a small nut and bolt with lock tight so the bolt can still turn when the slide is pushed by the cable.

You could also extend the levers quite easily by using a rivet to attach an extension on the lever.  

I have some more ideas on old car parts so stay tuned !

cheers
chuck

chuck,

To quote those beer commercials on US TV:



best,

..john

I will most likely use this unit to make a "cowl flaps " control lever and a "dive brake " control unit as I already have a throttle assembly.

I will post some pics of the final assembly when I get time to build it.

The movement on the levers is firm which is what you want for a throttle. The cables would have to be trimmed to length but that shouldn't be a problem to do.

I will post some info on a POV Hat switch unit I made which gives me a easy way of moving my "eyepoint " control in CFS3. 

cheers
chuck