Assembling the HK FBL head ?'s

[jabu32]

ordered everything hopefully will be here this week.

[Luvmyhelis]

I am def in 100% agreement with Scott on this one. Those orange dampeners clean up a lot of problems the other ones bring into the mix. Yeah they are expensive overpriced ripoffs for tiny little 10c plastic pieces. But the performance is the best out of all the half dozen aftermarket dampeners I tried.
All the other dampeners I tried except these had varying flight issues.

The stock ones are abysmal.
When running the stock dampeners, yeah, the heli flies. But you are fighting it. Kinda hard to describe. Slow and lazy head response. Like waaaay to much expo. And they start fracturing right off the bat. Plus you cannot get precise head symmitry out of them from side to side. Which induces off balance vibes. Then bump up the hs and the head vibrates like a mother.
Don't skimp here as it is the very heart of the fbl head. The head is never more efficient than what is supporting the fs, which is what keeps the blades tracking straight.

Orange baby, orange!

Great loooong boring vid! Shoot, I can balance and assemble the entire head even changing out so so parts in 20 to 25min. Unless the grips are way out of whack. Like all the aligns lately. And trust me, when and if you use stock dampeners you will rebalance your head again just because of them.
I agree the thrust bearings are hit and miss. But they work. I keep forgetting I have tons of other thrust bearings I use when spotting factory junky stuff. With align you have to.

And as far as the HK swash balls go, you must use them when using their swash stab arms. The holes in those arms and grip links are slightly oversized to fit those nasty to install 2 peice oversized balls. If you use stock align balls here the connections will be loose! Been there done that.

[jabu32]

i ordered the cnc swash, kbdd dampeners, and align balls. can i still use the hk arms that came with the head? also, in the vid he puts a washer between the two bearing in the followers. should i do that too?

[scott s]

yes you use the swash driver arms that came with the head. A washer between the 2 small flanged bearings on the swash driver arms is not needed . I think he says in the vid that it is up to you. I would not waste my time hunting down a washer that wont bind on the outer race of the bearings. Did not need it on my rjx version, heck it did not come with any anyway's
Also I agree with the guy on the vid that the trust washers (between damper and main grip bearing) that come with the hk head are a bad design and will only allow so much compression of the damper before they will bind against the center hub. That is why he suggested and I suggested the rex 450 pro trust washers that I gave you a link for. I use them in conjunction with the kbdd dampers. I have not had to change my dampers yet and I must have around 300 + flights on my custom stretch 400

[jabu32]

oh i ordered those 450 pro thrust washers too.

[jabu32]

got the head together!! that swash works well. i just swapped the balls that connect to the arms for the ones that came with the HK head and it a worked great. i tried to swap the balls for the linkage but they kept popping off. i ordered the align balls but they are not in yet. i also swapped the balls for the servos for the stock ones. the pillow ball on the swash is very tight but i think it will loosen up from use.

the only problem i had a lot of binding in those flanged bearing in the swash followers. so i pulled them apart and put an extra washer i had (one that is for the screw for the feathering shaft) between them. this worked perfectly.

[butterfingers]

Nice! Have you put it in the air yet? I'm still setting mine up. Too many projects....

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[jabu32]

i am waiting to get some aligh balls in. do i also need align ball links???

if you look at the pic the links pop off if the swash is at an angle. im not sure if im pushing the angle to far. i havent hooked it up to my heli yet to check cause i want to go fly it this weekend. also the pillow ball on the swash is extremely tight. it takes a lot of force to move it around and im afaid it will cause a servo to strip.

[butterfingers]

I noticed the same thing on mine too. I'm wondering how far the swash actually has to tilt though. Hook up the servos without the fbl controller and check the ail and ele pitches. I'm going to finish setting it up this weekend and will take pictures.

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[jabu32]

that what i didnt know (if swash will move at that angle) i will install it after i take it out this weekend. if you have the HK head i recommend using those washers between the two bearings. its very smooth now. w/o them one was notchy and the other binded.

[Luvmyhelis]

What I did on one of my first HK/Rjx fbl head setups here was to slightly sand the lower inside link edge down that binds against the swash at full swash angles. It works and is free. Never had one pop after that. Even at my obscene headspeed tests later. Also you may need to file down the outer swash servo ball arm elbows down on that swash. The servo to swash links bind there, and they pop off. I have pics on my mod in my original build thread. I ended up using a diff swash later since the center hub was too low on this to perform adequately. Post 89.
https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=312382&page=9

[jabu32]

im going to throw it on and see if it will pop off. where you using the supplied HK balls and links? thats what im using. not sure if the align balls would be better.

[Luvmyhelis]

Originally Posted by jabu32

im going to throw it on and see if it will pop off. where you using the supplied HK balls and links? thats what im using. not sure if the align balls would be better.

Yes, I am. However I have also used longer ball bolts and spacers under the actual ball itself to pull the links out away from the inner swash. This same problem plagues all the fbl kits when you run high swash angles. I can hit 16/16 without problems on my current design. Look close, you will see that I undercut the outer swash ball support arms, and added a spacer under the HK balls themselves.

[jabu32]

I put it in the heli today. Added some washers to the balls and it seemed fine. Didn't spin it up. I did notice my esc and servos got pretty damn hot. The pillow ball in the swash is way too tight. Doesn't freely move. May contact cnc and see what they say. I tried to loosen it for like 1hr and didn't do anything. Tried to add some oil and nothing.

[Luvmyhelis]

Easy way to break those is is to fire up the heli without blades, hold the swash at an angle just before binding and let it go through a pack or two. This way you aren't stressing the servo gears and it forces the ball to seat. Some are that way. My cnc heli swashes were all tight. Now they are perfect.
Unlike my align pro and Exi versions that were whore sloppy. I even had the balls drop out of my pro swashes during setup hovers.

Just lube them as you go.

[scott s]

I would take a tight swash center pivot ball any day to a sloppy one aka, well don't want to start an argument there either. The center ball as stated by luvmyhelis is sooo easy to break in

[jabu32]

I will try to loosen it up after flying today. Thanks for the help guys. I did pick up some of those align balls and some blade ones. Going to see what works best.

[Luvmyhelis]

Originally Posted by scott s

I would take a tight swash center pivot ball any day to a sloppy one

Agreed,
If I remember correctly both you and I have commented on this in previous posts last year.
Hoping you get better bro!

[LawnDartHeli]

I bought two of the HK fbl heads (one for crash parts) and Ive read the notes here. I already have the orange kbdd dampeners, I ordered the Align thrust washers, my problem is the Align feathering shaft? Is there a particular one and wheres the best place to find them? Ive been looking, but not sure if Im seeing what I need.

[Luvmyhelis]

Get the pro feathering shaft.