First Crash - What else should I check?

[AndyC]

Hi,

I had what I thought was a minor groundstrike with the rotor today which destroyed one of the blades. I changed the blades quite quickly, but when I spun it up it was vibrating badly. Looking closely I noticed that the mainshaft was bent and heard a strange noise from the cyclic pitch servo along with limited movement which makes me think I have stripped the servo gears.

My questions are these:

1. What servo would you recommend to replace the damaged one?
2. What other parts should I check for damage before I place the order for replacement parts?

Many thanks,

Andy.

[chemicalbro]

what heli? what servo?
don't replace the whole servo if its just stripped gears. buy a replacement gear set.

[del19_82]

its a blade 400 Alan. check the feathering shaft as well (between the main blade holders). I dont have a 400 but i believe the servo gears are relly cheap!

[del19_82]

ooops double post

[chemicalbro]

lol i guess i should look at what forum stuff is posted in when looking at threads on the main page

[zoombolt]

Hi,

I had what I thought was a minor groundstrike with the rotor today which destroyed one of the blades. I changed the blades quite quickly, but when I spun it up it was vibrating badly. Looking closely I noticed that the mainshaft was bent and heard a strange noise from the cyclic pitch servo along with limited movement which makes me think I have stripped the servo gears.

My questions are these:

1. What servo would you recommend to replace the damaged one?
Get the plastic replacement servo gears for your servo. Granted, the servo's for the Blade 400 are cheaper than most. But view it as something else you know how to fix (cheaper).
2. What other parts should I check for damage before I place the order for replacement parts?
Feathering shaft, flybar, check the teeth on your main gears & make sure you've not lost some of those. Oh, and check both jesus bolts - one for the head & one for the main gears, as believe it or not, these can bend too.
Many thanks,



Andy.

This is also a useful site: http://www.repairblade400.com/

Good luck Andy.

[matty65]

[quote=AndyC;222452]Hi,

I had what I thought was a minor groundstrike with the rotor today which destroyed one of the blades. I changed the blades quite quickly, but when I spun it up it was vibrating badly. Looking closely I noticed that the mainshaft was bent and heard a strange noise from the cyclic pitch servo along with limited movement which makes me think I have stripped the servo gears.

My questions are these:

1. What servo would you recommend to replace the damaged one?
2. What other parts should I check for damage before I place the order for replacement parts?

Many thanks,


the main parts to break or bend due to crash are

blades
main shaft
feathering shaft
flybar
blade grips
main boom
tail shaft
skids etc
stripped servo gears
main cause for vibration is more than likely main shaft bent


http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...ain+shaft&aq=f



check out this and all the other repair videos on u tube

good luck
matt

[Boggy]

the main shaft will almost certainly be bent,they rarely survive!!
if you can change just the servo gears(about £1.99) if you need to change the servo then fit the same type dont mix'n'match them!
check the feathering shaft by removing one blade,extend the other straight out and with a hex driver turn the shaft, if its bent the tip of the extended blade will rise and fall.
check the tail rotor shaft is not bent also.
the rest of the damage you should be able to see

double check every thing before you spool up the heli and recheck before flight

and thats the first crash over and done!!

[gramey]

Sorry to hear about your mishap, I think people have covered the usual suspects re likely damaged parts. As and when you might want to upgrade the servo's as gear stripping on these appears to be quite a common thing. Most people if they do upgrade go for the Hitec HS65MG servos but as Boggy said don't mix and match, I made that mistake before, so if you change you'll need to doall three on the cyclic's.

[heliTV]

Hi Andy

Sorry to hear about your crash, but chin up we've all been there (me more than most!!)

The servo gears are a doddle to change if you're careful. I stuck with the originals for a long time until 2 got completely trashed in a big crash and then went for Hitecs. The standard servos are fine for learning I reckon.

If you change the gears, be very careful with the wires coming out of the servo case. I'm fairly certain I didn't get the grommet back in properly. i thought it didn't matter, but I now think taht it could have contributed to the big crash as it appears a servo failed in flight...

Feathering shaft is fairly simple too. I think the repairblade site has the tip about using a spare flybar to make sure all the washers etc stay in the same place...

Any problems, post 'em up and there's plenty of us here that can help!!

[jonnyg]

Sorry to hear about your mishap, I think people have covered the usual suspects re likely damaged parts. As and when you might want to upgrade the servo's as gear stripping on these appears to be quite a common thing. Most people if they do upgrade go for the Hitec HS65MG servos but as Boggy said don't mix and match, I made that mistake before, so if you change you'll need to doall three on the cyclic's.

had a bit of a prang today myself wind took it and ended up wrecking both blades, blade holders, feathing shaft and main shaft, boom looks a bit suspect but after replacing parts and upgrading to the hitecs seems ok, gotta say tho, the hitecs make a hell of a difference they centre and react so much quicker than the stock, highly recommended

[AndyC]

Thanks for all the useful replies guys.

The reason I asked about replacing the servo was that I didn't know the gears were replaceable, so your advice has saved me a few quid.

I plan to put the macro lens on my camera and take some close ups of how everything goes together before I take anything apart. I also think the repair videos will get a good viewing before I start.

Once again, many thanks for all your replies,

Andy.