Proper fat pad alignment

Okay call me a stupid noob, but I'm pretty stumped on this one..

Just installed my fat pads + new censor kit from MPC Stuff. But I couldn't get the little rubber pegs to line up with the holes in the censor sheet... Is there any science to doing that?
OR, are you supposed to take off the (seemingly) adhesive plexiglass on it, then they go in properly? I didn't want to take it off incase it's there for a reason and ruin anything.. That's understandable right?

A quick response from someone wiser than I would be greatly appreciated.

I've not seen any issues with the nipples not lining up with the holes. So you already had the new style metal base and have just replaced the plastic sensor sheet on top of it? Or was this a complete upgrade from the original 'individual' pad sensors, I.e you installed a complete new metal base?

My pad kit come already assembled, with the plastic sensors already stuck to the metal base, and the pads themselves were also already installed, but I have seen an mpcstuff video where the kit is installed in separate pieces.

Could you post some pictures to show the exact problem?

I had the old style metal base, I got the complete upgrade. Fat pads, new censors, new pcb, new metal base, new cork backing. The whole shabang.
All I had to do was swap out the plate and I was done, but I can't get the pegs on the bottom of the pads to fit into the holes on the sensor sheet. Like I said, there is some plexiglass covering the sensors, but I'm not sure if that's supposed to be removed or not.

I'm gonna upload a few pictures for the sake of being thorough..

Here's my MPC just with the faceplate off, you can see the pads are kinda just sitting there, not flush at all.


The little rubber pegs on the bottom don't even really fit into their designated holes on the sensors..


Then if you look closely here, you can see where that plexiglass I'm unsure of taking off is. It covers the entire thing, but I'm just posting this so you can see that it's actually there.


Does that make more sense now? Do you think you could point out what I'm not doing/doing wrong/etc?

Leave the plexiglass, that's part of the sensor array. On the top side of the rubber pads you can see there are holes which are the hollows of the nipples. You need to get the wooden end of a matchstick and poke it through the hole and gently ease the nipple through the corresponding hole in the sensor array. You can use anything thin and blunt ended if you don't have a matchstick, I use a wooden toothpick with the pointed end snipped off, basically avoid anything that might pierce through the rubber.

I'm not sure why the nipples are such a tight squeeze, it was the same with my unit. I assume there's a reason for it otherwise he would have altered the design by now. If you watch the install video on his site he uses a thin screwdriver to push them through, but I feel that risks piercing the rubber as screwdrivers can be a bit sharp.

The stock pads nipples are a bit harder and slightly smaller so just push in fairly easily with your fingers. However once the fat pad nipples are pushed through, they should sit tightly on top of the sensor array.

I hate to be a buzzkill here but MPC Stuff should have talked you out of the cork inserts, the fat pads already have this imbedded in the design ... maybe your problem is that the additional material from the cork is not allowing the pads to sit properly???

The sensor sheet is probably just not totally aligned with the holes in the metal plate.

You can use a knife to carefully cut away the sheet at the holes in the plate; just be careful around the lines that run around in the plastic, those are the electrical connections for the sensors.
The electrical stuff should be pretty far from the holes themselves, so there's not really any risk at all, but it can't hurt to be careful.

I took tutor's advice and used something to poke them in their respective holes, they're all in there now!

Also I took off those cork stickers.. guess that was a waste of what, 15 bucks?

Anyway, thanks for all the help guys! It's great to have people kind enough to help with the simplest problems!

dexnefex wrote:I hate to be a buzzkill here but MPC Stuff should have talked you out of the cork inserts, the fat pads already have this imbedded in the design ...

How would MPC Stuff know why the customer was buying that extra set of corx? For all he knows the customer also has another MPC which run the old style pads, or maybe he was buying the corx for a friend, who knows? Ultimately the fat pad page clearly states that the Corx are not required for the new style Fat pads, so the retailer will assume the customer knows what they are doing.

I also doubt any retailer has the time to micro-analyse orders like that; order comes in, it gets picked, packed and shipped.

MPC-Tutor wrote:I also doubt any retailer has the time to micro-analyse orders like that; order comes in, it gets picked, packed and shipped.

I agree with you there Tutor

MPC-Tutor wrote:Ultimately the fat pad page clearly states that the Corx are not required for the new style Fat pads, so the retailer will assume the customer knows what they are doing.

Yeah I really should've paid closer attention to that.. heh.

Although on a note related note, MPC Stuff has really great customer service. One of my parts (black data wheel) was backordered, so when they get them back in stock they'll be shipping me one free of charge.
Also I spoke via email back and forth and he was able to tell me a lot about when they'll be getting new MPC1K face plates.

So yeah, me buying the cork inserts was just an error on my part.

ok, sorry for the comment I guess