TommyWatson

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I have a Futaba 14MZ and I would like to fit some heavier springs to the sticks. Has anyone done this?, and is it an easy job?. I have fitted heavier springs to my Futaba 9ZAP and it was a little difficult but managable.
Any comments would be welcome.

I got my 9ZAP heavy springs from Tony Stilman.

Regards

rc4flying

My Feedback: (21)

Tom,

It is doable, but I think, a little more tricky then on the 9Z.
There are no circuit boards to mess with, so that is easy. The new designed gimbals are the thing that I found tricky. I did mine and two others, but it took being patient.
I found that when you unhook the spring,(Arrow points to spring location), there is a little piece that will drop out of the gimbal from the lower end of the spring attachment. If it does, it takes a little patience to get it back in and held in place. I found that I had to make up a piece of fine music wire with a little "L" bend so as to reach in and hold the little part that the lower part of the spring is hooked up to until you can get the next spring hooked back up.
The springs from Tony Stillman will work, but a couple I had were just a bit too long. If you got them, I would get 2 sets to make sure you had ones to fit.

Just what I found when doing mine, but I now have had them on for close to 2 yrs, and love it better then the soft springs.

Hope this helps.

TommyWatson

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G'Day Joe,

Thanks for the picture. I was concerned that there were some cct boards to lift off like the 9Z. It looks ok and I will probably give it a go. I have emailed Tony to see if he will do the job, but having a look at your picture I will probably try it myself.
I live in Australia and the local Futaba service guy did not want to attempt it. This was some time aga and he had probably not even had the back off a 14MZ. Any tricks to get the back off?.

I have got used to the stiff springs now and don't like to fly with soft springs.


Thanks

rc4flying

My Feedback: (21)

Tom, G'Day to you

I love the stiff springs in all my TX going back to my Pattern flying days in the early 80's. First time I flew the 14 with the stock springs, I thought, who in the he** is flying this plane. Stiff springs were put in and I was back to normal.

As for getting the back off, there are 4 screws on the bottom. 4 screws on the antenna mount and the 2 screws for the top switch blocks. After you pull up the top switch block, of which I left all the wires attached to as well as the antenna mount, looking from the back, you will find 2 very tiny black screws if I remember that on the outside corners just inside the side slider and 2 silver screws just to the inside of the handle mount. The battery should have been removed and the module is remove, the back should lift right off, Just be aware that I think ther are 2-3 little plugs that will need to be inplugged. All different sizes so you can't mix that up. One additonal thing, watch for the small washers used in the switch block screws.
That all that I can think of at this time.

Good Luck. Just be patient with the springs.

Have a good day.

TommyWatson

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Hi Joe,


It has been a while but I finally got around to fitting the heavy springs to my 14MZ. Your instructions were perfect and I did the job in about 1/2 hour. I have not been using the 14MZ since I got it. I fly my jets with my 9ZAP. I have converted the 14MZ to 2.4 Ghz and this is what spurred me on to fit the sprngs.

Thanks again

TeamMuir1

My Feedback: (-1)

Please post what springs did you use and were did you buy them?
Iwant the very same for my 14mz.
any help would be appreciated..

TommyWatson

My Feedback: (1)

Hi,
I got the springs from Tony Stilman (Radio South)

www.radiosouthrc.com/


Radio South Heavy Duty Transmitter Stick Springs (3/pkg)

Heavy Duty stick springs to replace stock springs in most all transmitters. 3 in a package. RAD1200
$6.50
$6.50

Qty:



It is a reasonably easy job to fit them, see the post above.
I could not fly very well with the soft springs
Regards