G4 / E820 swashplate woes

[Si Goodchild]

Guys,

Tonight I started the build on my new E820 kit bought from Midland Helicopters last week. All was going well until I went to screw the balls on to the fixed portion of the swashplate only to find that the rear-most ball wouldn't tighten because there is insufficient thread in the aluminium machining. Upon inspection it would appear that the clearance hole has been drilled too large. Basically the M2.5 ball link can be pushed into the thread and then pretty much fall out again. The other 2 threaded portions for the forward arms appear to be okay and are tapped to M3.0

Problem is, a new swashplate is an alarming £65 at Midland Helis and my worry is that they may think it was my fault, even though the thread is clearly not cross threaded and there's no sign of over-tightening with stripped threads, so I'm not sure what my chances are of getting a replacement under warranty/guarantee.

So, what should I do? Press for a free replacement or attempt a repair? There's no scope for adding a nut to the swashplate to secure the ball link, so I'm stuck with either trying some sort of mega adhesive to fill the hole and form a female thread or tap out the hole to M3.0 and find a replacement 6.0mm ball with a M3.0 thread. No idea if such a thing exists!

Help please!

Si Gm

[GIXERMAN]

i would speak to midlands first, then you can make a decision after that. if to tap out or not.

[Planehazza]

Could just be a manufacturing error. I know they use odd sizes on the swash so the wrong part has likely been bundled in the kit. Don't buy anything until you've spoken to the retailer. Midlands are very active on here, as are you, so it might help in your favour that it's not build error etc. What I'm trying to say is that Midlands will know you're not some regular guy that's going in blind.

[Bavers777]

I'm positive if you send it back to Midlands they will warranty it for you. Be warned all the balls are prone to snapping - don't over tighten them as they will break (how do I know?) well I had the same problem with one of the servo arm balls and I know someone else who had a ball snap off on the swash as well? We have just asked for midlands to order some of the balls as a spare part as ripoff max never had them as a spare so it would have been a new swash and new servo arm from my perspective. Any way when it's built you will have one beautiful machine, let me tell you...

[10x]

Hello Bavers
The balls are available as part number pv1379 for ball a and ball b and pv0643 as swash and link balls.

[Bavers777]

Hi mate, yes I know the part numbers exist but no uk company had them on their stock list so we had to get midlands and ripmax to create the sku's and order some etc. this didn't surprise me personally as you rightly pointed out parts are expensive and balls are cheap lol

[woodsta888]

Si,

The rear elevator ball is a different size and there is only 1 in the pack. I'm thinking you are meaning part (10) at the bottom of page 6 in tthe E820 manual? This should have M3 thread whilst all the ball part (5) have M2.5. Not using one of those my accident are you?

Not trying to teach you to suck eggs by the way but we'll start with the obvious. E820 is a great heli.

[Si Goodchild]

Si,

The rear elevator ball is a different size and there is only 1 in the pack. I'm thinking you are meaning part (10) at the bottom of page 6 in tthe E820 manual? This should have M3 thread whilst all the ball part (5) have M2.5. Not using one of those my accident are you?

Not trying to teach you to suck eggs by the way but we'll start with the obvious. E820 is a great heli.

You have identified exactly the right part (10) but my components are not the size you suggest. The rear ball (part 10, 1 off) has what appears to be an M2.5 thread and has an outside diameter of 2.35mm on my digital calipers. The threaded hole it is intended to go in to is visibly smaller that the other 2 which are tapped properly to M3.0. The smaller hole will not take an M3.0 bolt. The 2 off balls on extension posts (part 9) also have an M3.0 thread (outside diameter 2.85mm) and screw in nicely.

I haven't measured the smaller balls used on teh rotating part of the swashplate, but be assured that I am not mixing the parts up!
Glad to hear the heli is a good one. I have a Scorpion 5035-410kv that I intend to run on 12s 5000mah and an 11t pinion. Hoping to go for the biggest blades that the batteries can handle without bogging: Align 800s or Edge 813s. I know a lot of folks use 780s but I'm not a 3D flyer and I'm using a low gear ratio throughout the power system (ie 12s, 410kv and a small pinion).

Si G

[Si Goodchild]

PS - I haven't measured the smaller balls used on the rotating portion of the swashplate, but be assured that I am not mixing up the parts bag as these balls are a lot smaller in daimeter than the larger ones used on the fixed portion of the swashplate (ball diameter 6mm).

[woodsta888]

MUst be a dodgy swash then as you originally thought. Shame as Maj has whole G4 head for sale this week for a steal. But you should be able to swap it no problem with midlands.

Annoying but you can carry on and build the rest. I run the Align 800's which have a 70mm chord compared to teh Edge 815's that have 60mm. I use the 12T pinion with a KDE 700XF 395Kv on 12s 5000Mah.

Dunno if you have built any of the TT stuff before but Nick MAxwell does some excellent build videos for the G4 helis especially helpful was the bevel gear setting mesh on youtube. Simone Zunterer does some build vids with English subtitles when the Thunder Tiger instructions have you head scratching.

Hope you get it flying soon.

[Si Goodchild]

Awesome advice guys, many thanks.

Spoke to Matt at Midlands who told me to send it in for a replacement which I'll be doing first thing tomorrow!

cheers,

Si G

[Bavers777]

Glad your getting sorted.

[RotorBlade]

Me too!

KT

[Si Goodchild]

I need to very publicly thank Midland Helis for making this easy and responding quickly. I spoke to Matt on Wednesday evening and sent the dodgy swashplate on Thursday. On Saturday morning the replacement arrived with no quibble. Wow, that's fast.

All sorted now, so many thanks Midland Helis!

[Bavers777]

Have faith, quality heli that...