450 Feathering shaft tightness

[callsign4223]

High guys, quick question about tightening down the screws that hold the blade grips to the feathering shaft. I was having blade tracking issues and my grips seemed loose so I went out and bought some replacement dampers. The new dampers are quite a bit thicker than the old ones. After putting everything back together, the flybar is very stiff. If I loosen the screws enough for the flybar to move freely, then the blade grips wobble. What am I doing wrong? Should I just tighten it down, and the dampers will break in, or is something else wrong? This is on a blade 400.

Also, should I put locktite on screws with nylon nuts, the blade grip screws are this type.

 

[Tony]

If there is any plastic or nylon, you do not use thread lock. It will eat the plastic. And are you sure you have the dampers pushed all the way in? Are you sure your bearings in the grips are seated?

And just so everyone knows, yes, the dampers were horribly worn out lol. I'm the "Hover Master" and I couldn't even keep it in a hover lol.

 

[callsign4223]

The bearings are seated. The dampers didn't really "push in", they kinda squished out around the edges. They were literally about 3 times thicker than the old ones, even though they were supposed to be direct replacements.

 

[Tony]

Did you make sure there was nothing inside the head block before you put them in? Just making sure here lol. If so, I would lube them up with some lithium grease and put it back together.

 

[callsign4223]

Ok, I see why they put 2 sets of dampers in the package, so newbs like me could screw up one set first. You have to put the dampers into the head block, THEN put the feathering shaft through, not put the dampers on the shaft and pull them in with the screws. After I did that with the first pair I guess they were out of shape and wouldn't fit in the pockets on the head block anymore. Regardless, I have it back together again, the flybar still isn't really loose like before, but it is moving much more freely than earlier. Should it be loose that it can just flop up and down?

 

[Tony]

I always make sure mine would flop around, but a little tight won't hurt anything with the weights you have on it.

 

[callsign4223]

So, you don't tighten the screws down until their snug, you use them as the adjustment for the flybar?

- - - Updated - - -

Ok, I think at this point it is a matter of breaking them in, the flybar feels like it is loosening up as I work it.

 

[Tony]

I make sure everything is tight. If it's not tight, it will come loose in flight and you will crash lol.

 

[Lee]

Are the screws tightening down on the feather shaft or does everything get tight before you get to that point? Do the blade grips turn freely? Can you pull the grips away from the head at all?
There maybe some shims behind the grip bearings. If everything still feels loose after securing down the screws, you may need to add or take away shims to get the perfect fit.

 

[callsign4223]

I can tighten the screws all the way down, but when I do the blade grips are very difficult to move. There are already some shims on it, do I need to remove them?

 

[Lee]

Try removing a shim from each side, and see if that helps. The ideal is to be able to tighten down the feather shaft screw without the bearings binding and no lateral play in the grips. And by "tighten" i mean just nip it tight and let the loctite do the work of holding it. This isn't always possible. Sometimes you need to rely on the loctite to hold the screw at the best position for the bearings to be free, but try to get as close as you can.