Sloppy head. Is this normal? Video of mine showing how much play. Let me know!

[Squiggy Wigginz]

Sloppy head. Is this normal? Video of mine showing how much play. Let me know! (0 min 51 sec)

Here's the weird thing right, it's put together correctly. I'm assuming this is normal for this head?

I'm a flybar guy. This is my first FBL Head assembly and I really want to nail this build.

[Don S]

Sloppy what?

[Tachead]

I don't fly Align but, I assume you have to shim the head to take up the slop. Someone who flys Align will chime in I am sure.

[psylence519]

I don't have any DFC models, but I'd be shocked if it's supposed to be like that.

Are there any washers included that you maybe forgot to slip in? I know you say it's assembled correctly but, well, something's screwy.

[Bonkievan]

Hi Squiggy,

As the previous poster said, "are you sure you have it together properly?''

A new DFC head assay' should not have that much lateral play (after several flights, maybe. But thats a different thread....lol).
Is it just one Blade grip moving or are both lead, lag on the spindle?

I would dis-assemble the thrust bearing assay' to double check the groupsets have the Thrust race, washers oriented correctly and to ensure all are seated correctly, including bearings

[quinn]

I have an align 700 and used to have 600. Never had one like that.

[Squiggy Wigginz]

It didn't seem right to me. Maybe I'll take it apart again tomorrow. But far as I know, it's set up correctly.

Guess it doesn't really matter since the blades are spinning outward at 180 degrees.

[quinn]

The feathering shaft is going to choose one way or the other to bottom out so it could cause a wobble. Nothing is keeping it evenly spaced

[Bonkievan]

Originally Posted by Squiggy Wigginz

Guess it doesn't really matter since the blades are spinning outward at 180 degrees.

It will if there's an equipment failure due to uneven loads.
You don't want the spindle/blades ejecting

Best to double check.

[Fooferdoggie]

my 130x had some slop but not that much. it always tells you you missed something.

[quinn]

Some other brands of helis come with thin spacers to take up slack. Not align, there should just be 1 washer on each side of the head block. If you have both of those installed, there's really not anything else you could have done wrong. It seems like you had at least a millimeter of play which is a lot. I'm assuming you made sure the spindle bolts were all the way tight. One time I brought my heli in after a flight and had a couple mm play from one of the bolts getting loose, but there was no wobble in flight so it could possibly be alright but it still doesn't make sense. Seems to be an issue with one of the parts, but you won't know which one. Could be spindle, dampeners, head block, or grips

[Crowbar]

This is too much. The grips may move up and down a bit (flapping action), but shouldn't move apart from each other along the feathering shaft.

Check if you used the right length screws on the feathering shaft (too ling screw won't go in as far), and if one of the shims inside the grip fell out while building. You have to screw in the screws quite tight on a DFC head, to the point where the grips actually don't rotate down due to gravity. When you spool up the first time, it grinds the plastic dampener enough to make it silky smooth with no slop.

I wouldn't fly like that, I had a similar play on the 450 once and after 1 flights, there was quite a lot of play and the bolt basically came out of the feathering shaft itself.

[Luigi_tuga]

I would shim that head.
With that kind of slop, dampers are too loose and don't make their work as they should.
Some 0.2mm shims are handy for this.

[Bob O]

Originally Posted by Luigi_tuga

I would shim that head.
With that kind of slop, dampers are too loose and don't make their work as they should.
Some 0.2mm shims are handy for this.

+1

No way I would not fly any heli with slop in the head like that. You're just asking for a mechanical failure.

Like others have said.....either there's a washer missing, spindle bolts too long, or you just need to shim it.

[Squiggy Wigginz]

Originally Posted by quinn

Some other brands of helis come with thin spacers to take up slack. Not align, there should just be 1 washer on each side of the head block. If you have both of those installed, there's really not anything else you could have done wrong. It seems like you had at least a millimeter of play which is a lot. I'm assuming you made sure the spindle bolts were all the way tight. One time I brought my heli in after a flight and had a couple mm play from one of the bolts getting loose, but there was no wobble in flight so it could possibly be alright but it still doesn't make sense. Seems to be an issue with one of the parts, but you won't know which one. Could be spindle, dampeners, head block, or grips

I'm going to take it back apart and put in a couple new dampers (I have spares of nearly everything).

[nickt919]

Make sure the grip bolts are all the way tight. I had the same problem with mine until I tightened down a little harder on the bolts.

[3dmac]

Should be No Play at all like that. That amount would occur if the bearing spacer was missing between the damper and inner blade grip bearing.
When all is correct and tightened It will be SOLID.

[Abenn]

Once when I was assembling a head one of the washers got snagged on the shoulder on the feathering shaft, instead of sliding down onto the wider part of the shaft. That prevented things going in as far as they should, even though the bolt seemed to be fully tightened down.

[Phil79]

I also had the same problem with the same head. But also, with the main blades on, i had play when moving blades up and down when grabing blades from the tips. But it was more play on one of the main blade grips. You have to check if the play is in both main grips. I replaced the main grip, and improved a lot, but still had lateral play has you show on your video. So i shimed the feathering shaft 0.25mm on both sides. Now i have minimal play. So in my case it was a defective main grip, with a lot slop on the inside.
First try to shim the feathering shaft to have a tighter adjustment, or if you dont want to shim, use extra spacers on both sides. If you get rid of the lateral slop with this, now check that you dont have to much up and down play has i had.

[tomtheman]

I have the same thing with my head.