General greasing bearings
- Thread starter gaurdian
- Start date
Lee
Well-Known Member
I'm not so sure about lubing your bearings.
I think repacking your bearings with grease is going to be impossible unless you remove them.
And who's going to remove all there bearings every 10 flights.
So what are you going to use? A light 3 in 1 oil? I think that will just help to flush out what real grease is in there already.
It will also encourage dust and dirt to stick to the bearings and cause them to wear even more.
My Warp has been running for nearly two years with almost daily flights.
It has main bearings, tail bearings, belt tensioner bearings, and DFC arm bearings.
All of these are still running as smooth as when I got them. Ditto for my old 600.
Only ones I replaced were the tail bearings, due to a bad vibration.
Since fixing that issue, the new bearings have worked fine.
My philosophy is, run them until they start to see a bit of play in them, and replace.
Now this is for sealed bearings.
Thrust bearings in the blade grips or any open bearings are a different matter.
They should be greased regularly (couple of months if you fly a lot)
I'm not disagreeing with Tonys methods, you will get many opinions for both options, I'm sure.
I think repacking your bearings with grease is going to be impossible unless you remove them.
And who's going to remove all there bearings every 10 flights.
So what are you going to use? A light 3 in 1 oil? I think that will just help to flush out what real grease is in there already.
It will also encourage dust and dirt to stick to the bearings and cause them to wear even more.
My Warp has been running for nearly two years with almost daily flights.
It has main bearings, tail bearings, belt tensioner bearings, and DFC arm bearings.
All of these are still running as smooth as when I got them. Ditto for my old 600.
Only ones I replaced were the tail bearings, due to a bad vibration.
Since fixing that issue, the new bearings have worked fine.
My philosophy is, run them until they start to see a bit of play in them, and replace.
Now this is for sealed bearings.
Thrust bearings in the blade grips or any open bearings are a different matter.
They should be greased regularly (couple of months if you fly a lot)
I'm not disagreeing with Tonys methods, you will get many opinions for both options, I'm sure.
Graham Lawrie
Well-Known Member
My twopeneth
As an Engineer to trade I have worked with bearings all my working life. Lee is correct, repacking thrust bearings is fine.
Main shaft and tail bearings tend to be double ZZ which denotes zinc seals( classified as sealed for life, which is ambiguous, as it is bearing life and not infinity).
I have only been in this hobby 2 years and already as Lee due to vibration changed bearings out.
I have done this on all my helis a few times due to crashes and wear. The more you fly the more you wear
Like all things it comes down to maintenance and how you run these things. I have found the smaller 450 goes through more than the 600. Possibly my flying, but lately as my skills have got better they are all flying the same and the maintenance has increased.
Checking bearings can be done in position for play between the shaft and bearing or by moving the bearing between your fingers and feeling for notches or grinding. The bearing should always feel smooth to turn.
Again from a noobies point of view, without background skills this is hard to do. So back to the original question. Rule of thumb, if its not broke don't fix it. If you have play or vibration change it out. The key is remembering what it was like new, number of flights .
I have precision measuring equipment where I can measure bearing and shaft tolerances so I know its worn(the geek part of me).
Dirt ingression as Lee mentions, where he flies in dry dusty conditions is always possible, but generally misalignment, water, overheating and degradation through wear are what will kill your bearing.
Hope this helps..........steps off pedestal
As an Engineer to trade I have worked with bearings all my working life. Lee is correct, repacking thrust bearings is fine.
Main shaft and tail bearings tend to be double ZZ which denotes zinc seals( classified as sealed for life, which is ambiguous, as it is bearing life and not infinity).
I have only been in this hobby 2 years and already as Lee due to vibration changed bearings out.
I have done this on all my helis a few times due to crashes and wear. The more you fly the more you wear
Like all things it comes down to maintenance and how you run these things. I have found the smaller 450 goes through more than the 600. Possibly my flying, but lately as my skills have got better they are all flying the same and the maintenance has increased.
Checking bearings can be done in position for play between the shaft and bearing or by moving the bearing between your fingers and feeling for notches or grinding. The bearing should always feel smooth to turn.
Again from a noobies point of view, without background skills this is hard to do. So back to the original question. Rule of thumb, if its not broke don't fix it. If you have play or vibration change it out. The key is remembering what it was like new, number of flights .
I have precision measuring equipment where I can measure bearing and shaft tolerances so I know its worn(the geek part of me).
Dirt ingression as Lee mentions, where he flies in dry dusty conditions is always possible, but generally misalignment, water, overheating and degradation through wear are what will kill your bearing.
Hope this helps
..........steps off pedestal
murankar
Staff member
As for oiling it just depends on how hard you are on the frame. If you fly sport then you might get away with 20 to 40 flights before oiling, if you smack fly then maybe 10 to 20 flights.
If you see dirt on the bearings i would pull that one bearing inspect it. If it feels like its binding a little i will clean with break cleaner, reoil and check for smooth operation. If it spins free and smooth when i am done i reassemble.
My motor is different, when ever i remember to oil it i do it. I oil those two bearings the most frequent. They have yet to fail.
Sent from my LG-E980 using Forum Runner
If you see dirt on the bearings i would pull that one bearing inspect it. If it feels like its binding a little i will clean with break cleaner, reoil and check for smooth operation. If it spins free and smooth when i am done i reassemble.
My motor is different, when ever i remember to oil it i do it. I oil those two bearings the most frequent. They have yet to fail.
Sent from my LG-E980 using Forum Runner
Slobberdog
Well-Known Member
I use helioptions nano particle bearing lube on all my heli's, it makes the bearings run very smooth