FLAP
Key Veteran
Location: Michigan
| OK, no one asked but here are some symptoms be careful of. I think everyone routinely does the 'spin the maingear with your thumb' check, right. You are looking for smooth spinning, no drag from clutch bell gear to main gear and from tail pinion to main gear. If it feels funny, you look for bad mesh etc.
A couple of months ago my main gear felt like it had sand in it right after a flight. Spinning the gear with a thumb and it would get very tight in one spot and clear up and then get tight again as it was spun further around. The problem went completely away after the helo sat for awhile and would be smooth again.
I got tired of dealing with it and as I was spinning it on the bench, noticed it would get rough at the same point of rotation on the tail drive. So, pulled the tail boom. The pin that holds the receiving part of the tail drive was coming out and machinging a nice deep groove on the inside of the tail boom, almost all the way through. Cause - the set screw that kept the pin in the center of the output shaft was not tight enough. I will post the photos tomorrow.
Hope this helps someone in the future. Its also definitely a good idea to do periodic inspections for this type of thing...not to mention to investigate things a little sooner than I did when things don't feel right! |
