Keep eating starter shafts

[colemn615]

Hey everyone,

I have been experiencing nitro blues lately. I have a Synergy N7 which I have owned for a year and a half. I flew about 3 gallons through my 105hzr before my first starter shaft rounded out (also rounded out my hex adapter. I replaced both and after maybe a gallon I have rounded out another starter shaft today. I will probably assume that I have messed up my hex adapter as well.

What I am using:
Starter Sullivan on 4s Link
Starter wand: Heli-max link

I must be using the wrong technique when starting. I know that sometime I pull it out before it has completely stopped spinning.



Thoughts?

[smwht]

Worth checking to see if the start shaft is hardened properly, if it isn't it'll deform and chew things up.

[halfcab]

Do you truly need the torque and rpm's of 4 cells with that starter motor?

3 cells has been working for me over the past two years (many case's of 22.5 fuel and several clutch linings). When installing the hex adapters I do crank down on the set screws.

[Rodney Kirstine]

I have been using a Dynatron on 4S with my N7 for three years and still have the original starter adapter in the N7. My starter wand doesn't have a OWB, either. You mention that sometimes it's still spinning when you pull it out. Is the starter still under power when you do that or it's off but just hasn't stopped spinning?

[colemn615]

Lots of replies. I use 4s because it also starts a rather large engine which it's used to do sometimes at the field. I figured that 4s was enough to start th 105, 6s is just plain overkill.

As far as not letting it stop spinning it's something that I believe I need to make sure I do.

Please keep in mind when this happens I replace both the starter shaft and the hex adapter. Let me tell you unless I want to sell my soul and get a starter shaft that says Goblin they are getting harder to find. Also the hex adapter was pretty rare the last time I had to get one. It looks like they are back in stock now though.

One thing that I did notice was that I had some resistance with the clutch stack. Usually when I spin the main gear it spins very easily. This time it felt like the clutch was engaged a bit. Later in the day while I was packing it up it was spinning easily again. So do I have something also wrong with my clutch stack that is potentially causing the issue?

[colemn615]

Originally Posted by smwht

Worth checking to see if the start shaft is hardened properly, if it isn't it'll deform and chew things up.

How do you tell?

[smwht]

If it's deforming it probably isn't hardened, but you can take a file and run it across the shaft. If it's hard the file won't bite into the metal and will just skate across instead. Iirc the start coupler is hardened, so you can compare to that.

[boogie12]

It's your starter wand. I had one of them on my hobbico starter powered by a 3s pack and it stripped in about two weeks starting a 55hz-r.

[colemn615]

Which one do you use now?

[boogie12]

Originally Posted by colemn615

Which one do you use now?

To be honest I don't even remember what brand it is that I have I've had it for a long time. It looks similar to the helimax one you linked but mine does not have a one-way bearing. Your best option would be the Sullivan start shaft or find a 6mm hex key that is long enough and modify it to work with your existing starter shaft coupler.

[DUCDOC]

surprisingly enough I have 3 full seasons on this little gem which is probably the only good thing I ever bought from HK. At least I think that's where it came from...maybe FleaBay...It looks very similar to both of these wands...

https://hobbyking.com/en_us/6mm-heli...n-one-way.html

[colemn615]

Yeah I did a few things. First I gave up on HeliMax starter wands. I ordered the align shaft replacement to from Amain to see if it will fit the HeliMax cup. If that doesn't fit, I somewhat sold my soul and bought the SAB starter wand. I plan to scrape the ick off of it.

[Chris Sexton]

Guys I'll be honest with you I am not a huge fan of the solid mount starter wands like the Sullivan. They are great when they're true but if they get tweaked at all they'll do nothing but destroy start shafts and a hex nuts. I prefer the Heli max or similar ones that go into the rubber cup. The rubber acts the shop absorber and if the wind gets a little out of square the cup eats the vibration not the hex adaptor.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[justinspicer]

I agree with Chris. I have a 4 year old RJX stater wand. Fits in the rubber cup on my satrter. It also doesn't have a one way.

My setup is a Torqmaster 180, RJX wand, 4s lipo.

[Dennis P]

I had one of these for years and it still looked great after years of starting my helis. They still look the same so hopefully they are made out of the same materials.
http://www.heli-world.com/catalogsea...ult/?q=CN0427M

[colemn615]

Well after many, many starts on that SAB wand I still don't have issues. I still feel a little dirty using it though haha.

[flyalan]

Probably a clutch stack alignment problem.
I had this issue years ago on an original N5 that I acquired second hand.
It turned out the engine spacers were omitted and that was causing just enough of a misalignment. Added the shims and all was well.

Cheers
Alan