Mechanical Fix for Old Wahs

[Joe Kramer]

Hi Folks!

The base and treadle of Vox and Crybaby-type wahs are joined together by a metal shaft that acts as a sort of axle.  The shaft is a simply held in place by a knurled end that is press-fitted into a hole in the treadle.  With my old Thomas wah (circa 1977), over time the knurling and the hole have worn out so the treadle automatically slumps down to the toe position whenever you take your foot off it.  No amount of tightening of the metal strap under the treadle nor of the nylon rack tensioner can cure this, because the hole/knurling are stripped. 

Here's the fix.  The knurling is only on one end of the shaft.  Take a metal punch (or something) and drive the shaft out knurled side first--that is, use the punch on the non-knurled side.  Now, simply flip the shaft around and drive it back in from the other side, so that the knurling is fitted into the side of the treadle where the nice tight hole is (cue coarse jokes).  Please note, to do this operation properly, you will need loosen the nuts holding the metal strap under the treadle, and to do that you will need to lift out the circuit board by taking out the two screws. 

After completing this little fix, now my old slack wah is as tight and responsive as it was the day we first made beautiful music together (cue more coarse jokes).   With any luck we'll keep rockin' for another thirty years ! 

Regards,
Joe

[Chugs]

I have a loose wah treadle. I just tried this but it did not work. In fact, it made the wah treadle looser. Any other suggestions?

[digi2t]

I have a loose wah treadle. I just tried this but it did not work. In fact, it made the wah treadle looser. Any other suggestions?

Three suggestions, one for light use, one for medium use, one for heavy use;

Light use - Devcon metal epoxy. Buff and clean the old hole, fill it, and redrill to spec.

Medium use - Bushing. Find an intermediate size bronze or aluminium bushing (McMaster-Carr catalog is my bible). Drill under-size, and press-fit the bushing in. You may have to use a different size pin though.

Heavy use - Find a machine that offers TIG welding. Fill the hole, and redrill to spec.

P.S. Bullshit quick repair, that will get you through the next show - Push the pin out part way. Use a center punch, and carefully punch points around the edge of the hole, to swage it to a smaller diameter. Push pin back into the swaged hole. WARNING!! This procedure WILL require you to properly repair the hole in the VERY near future.

Good luck,
Dino

[Joe Kramer]

Sorry to hear this didn't work for you.  My wah is over thirty years old now and still working great, so yours must really be shot.   

Other suggestions: Use a hammer and an anvil (or something like it) to pound one end of the shaft slightly out-of-round so that it will lodge more tightly into the hole in the treadle.  A hardened steel chisel could also be used to indent and nick the shaft end and put it out-of-round.  Use eye protection when hammering. 

Use a long carriage bolt (rounded on top, squared-off underneath so that it locks in place) and a cap nut.  This one will probably need some dremel-tooling and hack sawing.

Best of luck!

[amptramp]

Enough of this namby-pamby "repair" work.  Fit the box with these pillow blocks and add the appropriate size of shaft for the wah pedal:



or these:



You could drop the wah pedal off the roof of a five-storey building and have it get run over by your tour van and it would still work.  Works best if you repackage the wah into a cast container like an aluminum oil pan.

[frank_p]

^^  So that is what you put in your satellite stuff Ron ?

[wavley]

If you head into your local Kaman Industries they can help you with bushings, if you're in Tampa ask for Neil, he's a nice guy, a wah enthusiast and knows his balls (bearings), bushings and other such things.

[Beo]

Even superglue will hold it for quite a while. I wouldn't gig with it, but it holds fine for bedroom practice.

[MikeH]

All fine suggestions, but I think the easiest solution would be to find a used dunlop on ebay (I got my last one for around 20 bucks), gut it and use the enclosure.  Then sell the guts.

[runmikeyrun]

where the nice tight hole is 

WHOA!  We're gonna score!!


(sorry, couldn't resist!)