Tight Feathering Shaft

[tbirg]

I took the plunge at the Gathering last weekend and bought a 700(thank you Bally's Atlantic City).

I started building the bird the last night and the feathering shaft is super tight on the bearing in the blade grips. I was finally able to get the feather shaft in place(almost had to get a hammer though). But now one blade grip is moving freely but the the other is stiffer.

Anyone else having this issue? Did I get a bum feathering shaft?

[Mercuriell]

Doesn't sound right - are you sure your bearings are seated absolutely square in the grips - I would have checked the bearings on the shaft before assembly make sure there's no problem there but I guess one of your bearings isn't seated quite right !

[tbirg]

The bearings are not cocked....the shaft just seems to be to big.

[cbdane]

Originally Posted by tbirg

The bearings are not cocked....the shaft just seems to be to big.

The biggest issue that I had with assembly was the fact that the hole in the spacer washers was very near the diameter of the feathering shaft making them tricky to slide into place.

Something doesn't make sense about one of your grips not rotating freely. The grip rotates with the outer races of the radial bearings and should not be affected by an over-sized feather shaft that is a tight fit on the inner race. That is, unless during installation, you hammered or pressed in such a way as to damage the bearing.

If you ever have to place forces on a bearing to seat it into place and these forces are transmitted through the balls, i.e. pressing on the outer race to move the inner race along a shaft or pressing the inner race to move the outer race into a pocket, then the balls indent into the races and leave the bearing notchy and it is ruined. In a severe case, a bearing can also be forced into a mis-sized part causing the inner race to expand or the outer race to compress, leaving it tight and unable to freely rotate. However, this usually requires a mechanical press or (heaven forbid) a hammer.

Just some thoughts.

[Gary L]

Are the thrust bearings installed correctly ?

[HeliSmith]

Take it back apart. I had the same problem for me I could see which oval plastic insert thing was not as deep. Turning it over fixed it right up.