How are Happ Competitions supposed to be mounted in a metal CP?

[MaximRecoil]

I have mine mounted at their full height, which means there is a white nylon spacer on the shaft and I have the E-clip on the lowermost groove.

They work fine like that but are they supposed to be shorter in a metal CP? What are the other two higher-up E-clip grooves used for? I tried removing the nylon spacer from the shaft which made it so the shaft would sit lower but then the actuator didn't line up with any of the 3 E-clip grooves. The square actuator wouldn't push up far enough to uncover the uppermost E-clip groove, and the middle E-clip groove could have been used but there would have been about 1/8" of play between it and the actuator.

[TheShanMan]

I was wondering the same thing. I bought some happ joysticks about 9 years ago that are really close in appearance but seem not to be sold anymore, and those had 2 shafts depending on whether you have a metal or wood cp. Fortunately my reason for buying these new competition ones are player 3 and 4 controls, which I implemented as separate wooden cp boxes that plug into my cab with db9 connectors, so in my case it's not relevant but I wondered about this nonetheless since my main cp is metal.

[TheShanMan]

Since no one has given a better answer yet, you could always get some spacers from a hardware store for the bolts to go through between the cp and the joystick.

[MaximRecoil]

Since no one has given a better answer yet, you could always get some spacers from a hardware store for the bolts to go through between the cp and the joystick.

Yeah, that would work. I'm just wondering if they are supposed to be mounted lower in a metal CP or not; and also, what the two extra E-clip grooves are for if there doesn't seem to be any way to use them.

[MaximRecoil]

I called Happ technical support and asked if there was a different way of mounting the Competition in a metal CP than in a wooden CP and he said "Yes, you use the shorter nylon spacer and the upper E-ring groove." I told him that mine only came with one spacer and it was a long one. So he checked and sure enough, they only come with one spacer. So then he thought maybe you were supposed to leave the spacer off altogether. I told him that doesn't work either, because the actuator slides right past the 2nd E-ring groove. He looked through his materials on the matter, couldn't find anything useful, other than it saying "for wood and metal control panels"; at which point he said, "I guess they are just expecting you to live with the extra height of the joystick when mounted in a metal control panel."

He also didn't know what the 3rd (uppermost) E-ring groove was for either.

A shorter nylon spacer would work if there was one. Maybe they ditched it to save money. He suggested cutting the existing long spacer down but I'd rather not do that.

[TheShanMan]

Obviously mine didn't come with an extra spacer either. Maybe you'll get lucky and the hardware store will have a spacer that fits the shaft perfectly, rather than spacing at the mounting points. Too bad the guy didn't offer to send you some extra spacers to cut so you could avoid cutting the ones that came with the sticks.

While their oversight on this is disappointing, it's hard to complain too much about an $8 joystick! Let us know what your solution ends up being.

[NoOne=NBA=]

I've custom trimmed the spacers on mine to adjust the Groovy Game Gear shafts I have to exactly the height I wanted.

They are very easy to Dremel, or you can grind them down on a belt sander.
Just watch your fingers. I don't want to be resposible for you missing parts of them.

The other option is to cut your own E-clip grooves with a Dremel.
You just need to make them straight, and the same depth as the existing ones.
Using tape to mark the space off an existing groove will let you know where you need to be.