Virtual1
Senior Heliman
Location: Waterloo, Iowa - USA
| I just fixed that problem on my R50. Most of the ball links on the Raptor are all a bit tight, and some are downright stubborn. I loosened them up by gently squeezing the plastic links with a pliers while they were on the ball, a little at a time, until the link was free to move on the ball and fall with gravity, but no slop. (done with the other end of the link disconnected) Don't try this until you have a few spare links onhand, in case you slip and chow one, (I did once) or over-squeeze and get a link that has play in it.
The harder issue was the elevator arms. ("A" links) They are stiff, brittle, and thin. What worse combination could you hope for from a critical plastic part? They can be squeezed too, but they're so thin and brittle I don't think I'd trust them afterwards. I had one crack the first time I put it on with a ball link pliers. The stick you get on the ball link is nothing compared to the stickyness of the A-link with its seesaw. The pin has a death-grip on the seesaw and the A-link. You'd have to ream out the holes in the A-links (not the seesaw!) to cure this. My solution was considerably more expensive, but solves all kinds of problems: replace it with the aluminum elevator set. ($80!!) The A-links you get have standard replaceable links on them and zero friction on their pin. Well, not zero. The A's were machined very close to the seesaw, but still stuck just a hair. I scraped across the flat with an x-acto knife to remove the few microns of raise on the edges to make it perfectly free with no slop. Be prepared to rip the heli apart to install the seesaw. I was just barely able to pop it into place after loosening up half the frame screws and opening the frame 1/4". Keep an eye on the four small c-clips, they like to play hide-n-seek.
Lastly, be sure you don't tie the wires back too tight on the servo that's inside the elevator arm, that wire has to flex as the elevator arm is moved up and down.
Once you get these things done, the flybar will fall to one side or the other unless you have the blades perfectly squarely extended, and the elevator arm will fall down when you disconnect it from the servo... it's then that you know things are friction-free.  |
