Sticking Fan?

[shaun.kendall]

SO I was flying the Cal5 today and the first flight was fine. I have gained alot of confidence with this thing. However, I shut the heli down and went into work to grab a soda. I came back out and the heli would not start. The starter shaft will not turn in any direction. Everything else seems to rotate smoothly and without binding. Any ideas on where I should concentrate my search when I tear it apart tomorrow? I was thinking that I would start by looking at the fan area. I hope it is an easy fix. I get anxious now when I can not fly. I have even been considering buying a second helicopter. Man, I hope the wife will not notice that there is two where there used to be one. Maybe she will believe it got pregnant and had children?

[Laurens]

Have you used red loctite when screwing the clutch to the crankshaft? I think this unscrewed.

[shaun.kendall]

No, I think that I used blue. So, if the clutch came undone, I imagine I will need a new liner and everything else. Hmm. Nickle and dimes.

[Laurens]

No, all you need is to clean the crankshaft and clutch, and use red loctite to reassemble them.

[shaun.kendall]

Laurens, thanks for your help. I took the heli apart finally and it was just as you said.
After putting everything back together I waited two days to let the loctite cure. Then I waited for the rain to go away. Yesterday, conditions were perfect. Sunny, no wind, beautiful day. I fueled up the heli and started it up. Or tried to. It would not crank over. I took out the glow plug and checked to make sure it was glowing when I put it in my heater. It looked nice and red.
I cranked it over with the glow plug removed and it spun fine. Fuel came out. I was happy that it worked at least as far as that. However, when I put the plug back in, it would ony turn over once or twice before stopping. :arggg:
Do you have any other advice as to what could be causing this? :dontknow All I can think is that it is a compression problem or something wrong with the engine. I am hoping that you will be able to ride to the rescue again with some clear, concise info to help me get this back in the air. A guy at work told me that wrenching on it must be half the fun. I had to disagree, maybe ten percent, but no more than that. :bomb:

[Maxx26]

Sounds like its flooded ! If theres fuel coming out when you turn it over and when you put the plug back in it's hydroloking. and your starter battery could be low.

[shaun.kendall]

Maxx26, that is what I thought at first also. So after trying the starter on my battery with no luck, I tried hooking the starter up to my car with the engine running. The same thing occured. I am going to try a new glow plug in it and take the engine out again and look at it. I am really hoping that it is not a new engine that I need.
What I might need is an aasortment of helis like you have so that I can reduce my downtime.

[Laurens]

Maybe your idle needle is too rich?

I have 3 heli's and they're all down :(

[Maxx26]

That sucks ! So whats got you'r birds grounded laurens ?

[shesha]

shaun.kendall, check your compression, put your finger on the exhaust outlet feel if there is any compression in the engine or not, chances are you took out the sleeve, piston and ring from running lean on the engine.

Also just make sure that your fuel line is not plugged into carb when you do this or your going to flood the engine.

[Cupra]

I had the exact same problem with my caliber 3. First flight was perfect - heli was a breeze to start. The 2nd time I tried to start it the clutch was binding so bad that I could hardly keep the blades still...The problem was actually with the one piece clutch itself. They are shipping these heli's with dud clutches as after I replaced it with a new one the problem was sorted..