Play in Servo

[moray]

Having rediscorvered my raptor 30 (not been used for 3 years), i decided to give it a clean up.
In the process of checking it over i noticed that both of the servos for the cyclic, appear to have play on the output shaft.
This is far more noticable in the Aileron servo (about 0.5mm at the end of
the servo horn/arm). The Elevator servo isn't as bad, but there is still
noticable play. All servos are Futaba S3001. Is this normal for these
servos, or is this something i should be concerned about?

[Stuart]

Hi,

I haven't got any 3001's to check against but I do have some new JR's and no movement is present as I would expect. Your servo's should real hold true within reason, otherwise you'll constantly be fighting the controls which will wear out the servo's even quicker.

I'd take off the gearing housing and check the gears if well worn I'd either change them or just buy some new one's there only about 10.00 each or if you want some extra power get some JR591's the same spec as the S9202's (40+) but only about 15.00.

Upload some pics into your gallery of your Raptor.

[moray]

That's what i would of thought, however this raptor has only ever had a 1/2 gallon of fuel through it. So i wouldn't of thought the servos would of worn that quick.

I bought a couple 9252s of ebay from philip henderson, which I'll probably use. I was thinking about putting one on the rudder (gy502 gyro), which should be a big improvement over the 3001 which is on it just now, and maybe use that 3001 on the aileron, just to keep things matched until I get it flying.

Upload some pics into your gallery of your Raptor

That reminds me, I took some pics off the raptor before I cleaned. I'll put them in the gallery so you can see what 3 years of being in a dusty shed does.

Thanks
Moray

[Stuart]

Get some pictures uploaded once you've got her ship shape

[moray]

Just been out and installed a 9252 on the rudder, and swapped the 3001 onto the aileron. Something I noticed when changing the old 3001, was that there was quite a bit of lift on the output shaft (ie. you could pull it up and down), whereas all the other servos you couldn't.

All I need to do now, is remember how to adjust the gain on the gyro. I'm pretty sure the new servo will need a bit more than 50% before the tail starts wagging. Also discovered the rudder linkage was binding due to some dried castor oil on the tail shaft/slider. Some fresh oil cured it though.

[Stuart]

I'd pull the casing off the servo and check out the gears against another to make sure nothing is missing. You don't want any teeth to brake off while fyling believe me, I had it happen once on my pitch servo on my R50 that was a challenge to get back down to ground safely.

[moray]

I took the casing of last night after i posted that message, however everything looks ok. All teeth seemed to be there. I don't plan on using the servo in a heli again, however it may find a home in a rc car.

[moray]

As the weather is a bit too windy today, and I had nothing else to do. I decided to strip the 3001 servo down again.
Having stripped the servo down, I made up a small spacer for under the bottom bush for the output shaft (The plastic cover from futaba servo packets is the ideal thickness). Rebuilt the servo and 90% of the play has been cured. All lift in the shaft is gone, however there is still a bit rotational play, which I guess is prolly play in the gears.
Now just to find something to try it in.