Swash height troubleshooting

[BostonBullit]

new heli pilot here, I picked up a used MSR and have been trying to get the hang of things (coming from the air hogs havoc I got for my 5yo, bit different). Anyway, after much crashing I've developed some vibration and after trying the basics (swash level tool, blade grips, etc) I decided to just rebuild most of the assembly. Yesterday I put on a new main rotor shaft, anti-rotation guide, main rotor hub, and blade grips. the main blades and tail rotor blade where replaced a short while ago. So now that everything is back together I have a problem with the swash guide pin popping out of the guide, it seems that the swash is just riding too high on the rotor shaft. now when the right stick is put all the way upper left corner the pin pops straight out of the guide every time. I've seen pics of other peoples MSRs and their swash sits a lot lower...WTF did I assemble incorrectly???

question #2: how do the brass feathering pin washers stay in place? mine fly off as soon as the rotor spins up! as you can see from the first pic they aren't there at the moment.

and for basic flight troubleshooting - she always wants to head to the left (looking tail in)

any help is greatly appreciated!

[CocoSantango]

Ok, where to start. Your feathering shaft should be going THROUGH the grips which is why your washers fly off. The feathering shaft is the axis on which the blades can rotate, yours cannot do that because the grips are sitting on the feathering shaft instead of being wrapped around it. Take the grips off, make sure there are O-rings stuffed into the rotor head, put the feathering shaft through the head and the O-rings, put the washers back on and then reinstall the grips.
Your swash is too high because your servo pushrods are almost completely unscrewed. Pop them off of the swash arms, and screw them back down.
After seeing these pics, I would take the entire rotor head assembly apart and then put it back together correctly, because from what I can see there are a few issues.

[BostonBullit]

Originally Posted by CocoSantango

Ok, where to start. Your feathering shaft should be going THROUGH the grips which is why your washers fly off. The feathering shaft is the axis on which the blades can rotate, yours cannot do that because the grips are sitting on the feathering shaft instead of being wrapped around it. Take the grips off, make sure there are O-rings stuffed into the rotor head, put the feathering shaft through the head and the O-rings, put the washers back on and then reinstall the grips.
Your swash is too high because your servo pushrods are almost completely unscrewed. Pop them off of the swash arms, and screw them back down.
After seeing these pics, I would take the entire rotor head assembly apart and then put it back together correctly, because from what I can see there are a few issues.

well there ya go then, I figured I had it put together bass askwards. . I'll do as you say and report back. thanks for the quick reply!

[BostonBullit]

Mr CocoSantango T you are THE MAN. I got the thing reassembled properly which lets the blade grips sit lower which lets the swash sit lower which lets me move the servo rod ends lower. to it all level by eye and fired her up: hovering 2' off the ground on the first try! finally acts like the one in Great Planes! of course I got a bit ahead of myself and ended up crashing but now that I know what I was doing wrong I can get things re-aligned and up and running again.

thanks for pointing out my worse than rookie mistake.

[hydro_pyro]

Wow. I've never seen that before.

Once the grips are taken apart and installed correctly, you should be able to re-assemble it and re-trim the links.