700 Maingear

[barney]

Hi Bob..any further info on Duncans Maingear stripping.

Think problem with Duncan's model has be found but won't say more until we know it's sorted when Duncan has put a few tanks though it.
The law of sod does say that if it's going to go wrong it will always be at the worst time as we all know:-)

thanks Brian

[Droid]

Don't forget that Rob had an issue with his at the weekend, and looking at the teeth it looked like the main gear hadn't been running fully in contact with the pinion vertically. A few of the machines i looked at had some vertical play in the main gear.....is that normal??

[barney]

Hi Andy yes the main gear can move up down loads on the 700's. If you think about it...a little pinion bearing wear..a little mainshaft bearing wear (since there are only two mainshaft brgs), then a little wobble in the Auto brgs and you can potentially get one big bit of play.

Be very interesting to hear how Duncan O's faired since locating a possible problem..

MMMM could it be Align Link plastic got used here too...LOL..only kidding

[Arky]

Im a little concerned about mine tbo the mesh isn'tas tight as i would like, time will tell

[kerhs]

beginning to wish I never bought one now!!

[ChrisB]

beginning to wish I never bought one now!!

Why,its still a new model,on the whole it is fine and any issues WILL be sorted for sure although Align wont admit anything.

The 700 is probably outselling other 90`s 10 to 1 or something silly,more helis being flown will show a problem area if there is one but i am sure most units are fine.
This happened with the 500 ESC issue,mass hysteria sets in and suddenly every single model is grounded and deemed unsafe to fly.

Good job civil aviation doesnt do this

[moonmanflyer]

beginning to wish I never bought one now!!

I wouldn't worry about it so, the way Duncan was abusing it, there is only a couple of pilots in the uk that can fly to that level and he was one, Steven geralds was ok and his final freestyle round at the 3d champs was amazing and very agressive.
There is bound to be the odd issue here and there, it is a new heli after all.

[kerhs]

I've calmed down now and been out and stroked the 700 and apologised to her..............was venting coz I'm getting fed up of arguing with plankers.

[BobJ]

Hi Barney

I spoke to Wayne (Duncan's Dad) today and it seems Duncan's model is holding up fine now after giving it plenty of abuse all weekend.

It looks like it's the plastic in the pinion gear bearing block compressing over time and obvoiusly the more power you have the quicker this is likely to show up if at all.
The plastic compresses and allows a little sideways movement between the bearing and block so that the pinion can just move a little out of alignment.
Note we are talking about sideways movement developing here not front to back, the torque reaction would cause the pinion to want to push away from the main gear!
Wayne's solution was to skim the faces of the bearing block so they clamp the bearings a little tighter, he also shortened the two hex spacers which pass though this just a fraction so again everything would clamp up tighter.

As I said Duncan flew the model a lot over the weekend and it seems to be holding up fine, to be fair Duncan had well over 150 flights on this model (and you know they wouldn't have been gentle flights!) before the gear went so it's not like the model is under engineered.

Bottom line is if your not giving the 700 large then just go fly, if your flying it hard then even for piece of mind alone you might want to do the above zero cost mod.

Cheers
Bob

[Droid]

How about a little epoxy on the outside of the bearing race then, maybe this will prevent any movement over time??

[barney]

Cheers Bob..At least there is usually some drive left so its not likely to end terminally.

Droid not sure if the epoxy would work as my understanding is the plastic itself has deformed.

By facing the two halves of the brg block and shortening the two alloy spacers the bearing block will be pre-tensionioning the brg. You dont want to overdo this as the frames themselves will be being pulled in a little.

thanks Brian

[Ashley Davis]

metal bearing block then......that won't deform.

[Arky]

metal bearing block then......that won't deform.

lets hope so bring on the bling

[moyesboy]

Edders stripped a main gear on his 700 at the norh notts meet.
Is there a similar problem wih the 600 becuase someone stripped one of them at the north notts meet too.