King III resurection ?

[Arrrrr-C Pirate]

Hi guys, I have a KingIII that I bought used with tons of spare parts.
I spooled it up a few times but never got it off the ground.
Finally started looking at things a little closer and figured out the tail rotor had sticky slider sleeve (?). Then the next time I spooled it up, the main rotor motor went full throttle on it's own. Think I read somewhere this could be due to FET failure.
Since I've learned the basics of cp flying on the mcpx, I'd like to try to get this baby in the air this spring. Just throwing this out there for thoughts/ comments/ ideas.
Thanks,
Greybeard Arrrr...

[likeakite]

A sticky slider is pretty common, and thery HAVE to be butter smooth. Try some 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper to take the "glaze" of new tail shafts and slider. Sometimes even a tail that was super smooth can begin to bind a little. Disconnect the control rod from the tail and then you can move the tail mechanism by hand...even the slightest bit of sticking or binding will cause a problem. Keeping the tail rotor mechanically working perfectly will require regular inspections and maintnance. Most folks do a full Pre & Post flight inspection.

As far as the motor spooling up unexpectedly.....try to rebind your tx and rx, then turn on the tx BEFORE plugging in a new heli battery. Turn off the tx AFTER unplugging your heli battery , that should fix that issue. Also, every time you plug up a new battery, be sure the rx lite is solid and NOT blinking before flying. If its flashing, unplug the heli battery, turn off the tx....turn the tx back on, and then plug in the battery. It MAY fly ok with the rx lite flashing, or it may not. Need a solid lite on the rx before every flight. Have fun

[Arrrrr-C Pirate]

Thanks for the tips man ! I'll check that out. Maybe no new parts necessary. That'd be good.

[DanMcN]

I know this will be strange and the motor will not start but,,, to set the speed control. Battery disconnected put the transmitter at full throttle connect the battery, you should hear four beeps. After the beeps pull the throttle to idle and you should hear three more. The motor will now start. That sets the motor speed control. If your not comfortable take the blades off before doing this.

Also make sure in idle-up 1, hover knob at centered and throttle mid stick your blades and paddles are 0 pitch.

On a earlier post I wrote a lengthy post on rigging.

[Arrrrr-C Pirate]

Thanks, I have wondered about running the moter w/o blades.

[likeakite]

Not all speed controllers use the High-low throttle stick to set the throttle limits. Be carefull the 1st time you do this. You should check your manuel or instruction sheet to be certain thats how the esc "sets" high and low stick. It does not hurt to spool the motor up without blades, OR you could also back the motor/ pinion away from the maingear.

If you want to check out how the electronics are working but not take a chance of the motor powering up, just unplug one of the motor wires from the esc connector, and the motor will not run when the battery is plugged in, but all the electronics will do their normal thing.

[Arrrrr-C Pirate]

First of all, thanks for the responses.
I secured the heli to a table yesterday, turned on the tx, plugged a fully charged batt to the heli. This is what happened.
1. gyro blinkes a couple of times then went to solid red.
2. Main rotor servos did their little dance.
3. motor jerked slightly three times.
4. Gyro and reciever lights went out.
Next I unplugged the motor wires, disconnected the rod from the tail servo and plugged the battery back in. The gyro blinked, went solid, the main rotor servos danced, but the tail servo just got hot and smelled hot.
Seems like I need 1 new servo at the least ?
I've found the manual on disk that I downloaded a year or two ago..
I'll start studying on that I guess.
I'll update as I progress (assuming that I make progress).
Thanks again.

[likeakite]

Yep, sounds like the rudder servo cooked..next thing is to figure out why. Will it still move if rotated by hand with no "skipping" of the gears?

Good move getting the manual. It will explain how everything is supposed to be put together and set up. If its like my manual, it can be a little hard to understand, and there was some incorrect info somewhere, just dont remember where, For the most part, the manual will have the answer to any questions, and the exploded assembly pictues are also a big help. Dive right in.

[DanMcN]

Doing any power on rigging or maintenance, unplug the red and blue motor wires. The stock esky controller the motor wires have to be plugged in while setting the ESC. Try swapping servos and see if one of those work.

[shahram72]

Originally Posted by likeakite

Also, every time you plug up a new battery, be sure the rx lite is solid and NOT blinking before flying. If its flashing, unplug the heli battery, turn off the tx....turn the tx back on, and then plug in the battery. It MAY fly ok with the rx lite flashing, or it may not. Need a solid lite on the rx before every flight. Have fun

What's the deal with this. I only have this issue with Spektrum, but not with my Turnigy radio. It's bound, but it flashes if it's not the first time powering up the Rx. Maybe the flash is just to let you know when you land that you had a brownout. But your advice is good, but does not apply to all brands.

I have an Esky King IV brand new in the box but am afraid to fly it until I get a parts heli to go with it, and learn to fly because it's very twitchy from what I hear. The King 3 is the same heli, right?

[DanMcN]

The gyro light will stay on when the gyro is in heading hold mode center stick, it will blink in duel rate mode or when in a turn. It also my blink after binding if you power off the heli and not shut off the radio before powering up the heli again or there is a problem. The problem with my KB3 is I now use a dx7 and 7000 receiver, the gyro light will stay on in low throttle then at mid stick it will blink going into duel rate. The transmitter center stick dead band seems too narrow and goes from HH to DR and is hard to control. the esky transmitter and receiver had no problem.

It is twitchy, buy spares of main, blade grip cross shafts, tail booms, main gear and motor gears. The plastic covered woody blades don't last,,, replace with the xtreme plastic ones.

Good luck!!!

[tednturanski]

Hi Arrrrr-C Pirate. How is your King coming? I just finished some mystifying work on mine and have it back in the air now. I'm very interested in what you find out about yours, so please keep us posted.
Sincerely,
Ted in Michigan