gaui xes cnc head aarrrrgh!

[istandalone]

i've been trying all day to get my cnc head apart to do some PM on the bearings and what not. i can't for the life of me get the bearings out of the blade grips even after heating them. the screws that hold the pitch link on the grip itself also will not budge even with alot of heat. who has taken their gaui cnc head apart? i know the bearings should come out easily but the screws even finless could not get out. he rounded his out too. for a head that msrp's for almost $300 this should not happen. gaui is going to get an email from me, although i don't suspect they'll help at all. i'm going to attach the vid where finless shows his screw rounded out so they know there is a problem. i heated it enough to break even red loctite so idk what the hell they've affixed them with. but this sucks really bad because if i need to replace the bearings or that pitch link i'm in trouble, and new cnc grips aren't cheap. i just can't get over a head costing this much giving this much grief.
do you guys think gaui will do anything for me, and bob too because i'm going to mention that he had the same problems.

[GatoVolador]

I have the same problem. In fact I was never able to get the bearings out to check for grease in the initial build either (and, yes, I heated them). I might possibly be flying mine dry -- not sure -- but I didn't want to f-up the grips trying to get them out to check. Yes, Gaui needs to address these press-fit bearings. In my opinion they should be removeable without heating the grips. At least the thrust bearings would be donig something then....

[GatoVolador]

BTW, I was able to get the screws out of the grip arms. You just need more leverage that's all -- try using an allen wrench instead of a hex driver.

[istandalone]

ok i'm kinda glad to hear that i'm not the only one who couldn't remove the bearings. as far as the screws go, i'm using decent size T-handle hex wrench. snap-on so they weren't cheap! i emailed readyheli hoping they can provide me with the name of an english speaking rep at gaui, and i'm hoping more people that are having this problem chime in so i can attach this thread to an email to gaui.

[istandalone]

here is the email that ready sent to me (at 4:06pm on a saturday no less!) yesterday. i'd like anyone who's having problems with any of the above mentioned issues to PLEASE POST. i want gaui to know it's an issue and not an isolated incident.

Michael:

I want you to contact Paul at GAUI.

He will remedy this. Tell him I sent you.

his email address is: gaui@gaui.com.tw

Please followup and tell me what happened.

It should not be this difficult, i agree 100%.

Thank you for allowing us to serve your heli needs.
--------------------------
Ready Heli
www.readyheli.com

[slo_dave]

Same here.
Tried it on one grip with a fair amount of direct heat and they would not budge. If I had a replacement bearing in hand I would have used some more force but I did not want to go there so I said the heck with it and just hope they have grease. Poor design and very frustrating.

[istandalone]

i'm going to email gaui right now. depending on how they reply, i'd like to give them the names and emails of all of you that have had problems. is that cool with you guys? if it is, pm me your email. or if you'd rather i'll give you the email and name of the dude at gaui that's going to take care of this (hopefully!)

[mjdee14]

Not sure if the Lunar New Year is over yet...no one answers any E mails.

I heated the heck out of mine...no help.

What I really want to know is if the Thrust bearings are really doing anything?

They are loose between the inner and out main bearings....if neither the inner or the outer can move...then there is no way of transfering the thrust to the thrust bearings.

i know Bob F questioned it also in his VID.

I thought they had better engineers than that !!

[Pinecone]

The inner race of the outer bearing can move slightly, so that should allow the thrust bearing to do its job.

I got mine out to check for grease. I used a heat gun and IR thermometer and got the grips up to 200 - 220F. Then I used tapped the outer bearing out like Bob's video shows. I did screw up on of the thrust bearing cages doing this a second time. Don't ask.

[mjdee14]

To get them out, I put them both in the oven at 350 deg for about an hour. IO let them sit on the side of a corning ware dish...too them out and tapped on a magazine and they all fell out....hard to tell if there was any grease,,,because I would have melted it out.

To put back together I'll put the bearings in the freezer and reheat the grips....

Also...there is a spacer between the two bearings and i assume the clearance is such thatthe inner races of both bearings will touch the spacer and thrust bearing...thus transferring the thrust load.....

I was also able to remove both levers with no problem, seemed like there was a little loctite on it.

maybe they aren't so dumb after all, just a different way of doing it...

Mike D

[istandalone]

well last night i got my bearings out. i guess if you go at it thinking it's already broken so no more damage can come, you'll get it. so the bearings are out, but still i've stripped the same allen screws that bob did. gaui did get back to me, and this is what they said

Dear Mike,

Thanks for the information about the products, would you please send it
back to me? I will check
and fix the problem for you, I will ship them back to you in one week
after I received it, and you
may get it in 5~7 days after my shipping, please also give me your
correct address and contact
phone while you send it back to me. It is welcome for any further
inquiry.

Regards

Paul

Paul

TSH GAUI

No.118,Ren Ai Road,Pa-Li Hsiang,Taipei Hsien 249,Taiwan,R.O.C
Phone:+886-2-86305567
Fax: +886-2-26105567
Email: gaui@gaui.com.tw
Web: http://www.gaui.com.tw

that's fine and dandy, but i can say that i'm not going to send my head in to taiwan every time it needs serviceing. i'm going to send my grips in, with the explicit instructions to remove the problem screws and send the grips back to me un-assembled with new screws so i can put them together. so, do all of you who pm'd me your email want to send yours in? or should i just pm you the email of this paul dude @ gaui? i'm going to reply to that email and request a pre-paid shipping label, but i doubt i'll be getting one of those.

[Pinecone]

For reinstalling the bearings I picked up a piece of Al tubing at the LHS. Fits nicely and pushes the outer race only. Heat the grip up to about 200 - 220, bearing room temp, and the bearing push right in.

[istandalone]

too late. ruined the bearings. it's a piss poor design anyhow. the thrust bearings do absolutely squat. i'm pretty turned off with gaui right now, as they haven't answered my 2nd email and the first email i had a response in two hours. on a sunday. so i can get past the bearing issue, but the pitch links allen holes are rounder then round right now.

[istandalone]

here are two emails, one from ready and one from gaui about how we can get the cnc grip bearing issue/ pitch arm issues resolved without each of us having to spend an arm and leg to ship the parts to taiwan.
readyheli email-
Mike:

Please update me where you are at with getting your GAUI parts remedied. Would you like to ship them to Ready Heli, where we will forward them to Taiwan on your behalf?


John

gaui email-
Dear John,

Mike told me that there are some customers had the same problem as he
got, and it is quite
difficult for shipping it back to Taiwan even though I can repair it
for free, would you please
gather the defect parts of customers and ship them back to me, I will
fix the problem but I must
to check which is the better way for improvement.

Thanks and best regards

Paul

TSH GAUI

No.118,Ren Ai Road,Pa-Li Hsiang,Taipei Hsien 249,Taiwan,R.O.C
Phone:+886-2-86305567
Fax: +886-2-26105567

[ke6d]

Originally Posted by GatoVolador

I have the same problem. In fact I was never able to get the bearings out to check for grease in the initial build either (and, yes, I heated them). I might possibly be flying mine dry -- not sure -- but I didn't want to f-up the grips trying to get them out to check. Yes, Gaui needs to address these press-fit bearings. In my opinion they should be removeable without heating the grips. At least the thrust bearings would be donig something then....

Curious mind wants to know... Why are a lot people take the grips apart even after the Hurricane is already flying? Is it the urge to see how easily they can be taken apart or just the need to lubricate everything? When I first got my XES, I took time to go through every single metal to metal screw (whatever screw I could open) and reloctite them.

I have 100 flights over the last couple months. Not a single screw had been loosen up. I lubricate the bushings everyday that I fly and the belt once in a while.

My Hurricane XES has been running like a clock so far. I will worry about getting the screws/bearings out of the grips the next time I crash and need to work on that area.

Cheers,

Dan

[istandalone]

then i'd send in your grips to readyheli and they will forward them to gaui. just write a specific note saying just remove the screws and that's it. there is the rumor that most of these cnc grips come without the thrust bearings being lubed. i believe that gaui is lubing them, but the grease is getting burnt/evaporated out during the heating of the grips to press the bearings in. i could be wrong though. i know one thing, gaui and readyheli have both bent over backward to work the bugs out of this problem and i could not be happier with my 550 and the service they are providing. i'm especially impressed with readyheli being that it's not their problem.

[ukgroucho]

hmm I've never disassembled my CNC grips - other than replacing feathering shafts - and after 60 - 70 flights with some reasonable duress I have no issue so far...

I expect that the bearings will need replacing at some point ... so I'm kinda dreading that now.
Is there a process (or email contact) for getting this stuff sorted if we hit issues.... us 'overseas' folks tend to get left out. The Gaui CNC stuff was pretty pricey (at least when I bought it) so I'd like to see some reasonable value from it.

[Pinecone]

You don't have to remove the pitch arm screws to pull the bearings to lube them.

I figure, if I can't get them out, there is no reason to screw with them. And if yo bed one, unless you can buy just the arm, you have to replace the entire grip anyway, so again, why bother?

[istandalone]

why bother? are you serious? these things are built to be abused, which means replacment parts and PM. no, you don't need to remove the arms to lube the bearings but christ, for $ these heads cost, screws are removable. if they weren't supposed to be taken apart then they should have tig welded them on, or freakin rivited them. to me, a removable fastener that can't be removed is a big problem, and needs to be addressed by manufacterer. just because it's not broke now and doesn't need to be removed now, doesn't mean that in the future i'll not need to work on it for whatever reason. and could bet that the time i do need to remove that screw i'll not be able to do it, or won't have a torch with me to do it anyhow. i'd rather have the opposite problem any day- not having the factory threadlock screws. at least i can remedy that in a second without needing a blow torch and an allen wrench that can stand to have 200lbs exerted on it lol.

[mjdee14]

http://www.readyheli.com/204630_CNC_...0_p/204630.htm

The arms can be had above....so it would be good to be able to remove them, don't know why, but I have two metal heads and I was able to remove the srews on both....so thins is not a problem on all heads.

Mike D