L500 grips too tight

[Raptorapture]

Decided to get into a larger electric and went with a L500. I'm now remembering all the work I've had to do in the past to get the grips just right. Unfortunately, I'm not succeeding so far with my first Logo.

Basically, I'm having two problems.

One, the main grips I have installed as per the manual and the parts that came with the combo kit. One side is a bit tight and the other super tight. I have pushed the O-rings/dampeners as far into the hub as possible. I have seated the radial bearings as far in and straight as possible. I am pretty sure all parts are in the correct order. I have on one side over did the locktite which I corrected. I thought I had it solved and redid with locktite. I believe that was due to the spindle being further out on one side although I tried my best to make it even on both sides. I have only used the .5mm washer for each side of the hub. I haven't seen any additional ones in the kit. I saw a mention of going with 1mm but havent found the original thread. I noticed that the outer portion of the thrust bearing moves rubbing against the outmost washer. That seems to be a potential source of the friction in addition to the O-rings and I wonder how this design works as most spindle assemblies that I've seen so far (although not many) have the bearings taking the friction as everything that the bolt comes into contact with up to the bearing moves freely from the grip. Should it be in this design that the outer portion of the thrust bearing should move with the bolt thereby requiring enough room inside the grip to spin? Have tried pulling grips apart, not much difference. How smooth/free should I be able to get the assembly once done right? Should the grips fall under their own weight?

Two, same thing with tail grips, except much less tight although notchy.

Thanks in advance for any help on this. Please link to any old threads that would help sort this or provide more background information as I have not been following the Logo forum until recently.

Geoff.

[ToddM]

Geoff - I had the same exact issue on my Logo 500SE build a few months back. I had the darn things apart and rebuilt 5 times, thinking that I had missed a step or mixed around the trhust bearing parts. I mean the grips were tight and notchy. Just didnt seem right. I remembered that it did take some force to seat the thrust bearings in the grips but I hear that most of the folks had similar experience with the tightness. In the end, I ended up swapping out the LOGO thrust bearings with a set of Align bearings from Helidirect and voila....The grips were perfect. They finally were loose enough that they fell under their own weight. I think the tolerance of the Logo TB's are off 1cm , causing the tighness.

[michael88997]

Mine feels great... At first they weren't... I used the spindle to seat all the bearings... Then made sure all 3 dampeners on each side were all the way in, if their not mine didn't seat right and one side was rubbing the head... But once I had all of the dampeners seated it worked great

[Duramax11]

I didnt have any problems with the grip assemblies on mine. One thing you need to check is the two belt tensioner wheels that go in the frame. When I pushed mine in they were extremely notchy. I measured the thickness of the rubber bushings that go on the outside of the bearings and they were 2.4 mm. I sanded the bushings down to 2.3mm and the belt tensioner wheels spun freely with no up and down movement.

[ToddM]

The other thing that may be causing issues is some excess flashing inside the grips from the manufacturing process. You might want to take a look at that as well.

[Raptorapture]

Thanks for the info guys.

I have since reassembled the main grips and managed to get it pretty smooth and no longer tight. I had managed to get the locktite to overflow again on one side. After correcting that I was checking all the tolerances and it appears that the design allows for some room for the thrust bearing section. Somehow after verifying that extra space between the thrust bearings and the bolt, when reassembling things managed to stay that way (but not loose). Also, added grease between the spindle and the dampeners which may have helped as well with respect to the tightness.

On the tail, have managed to get one grip super smooth through reassembly while the other required replacing both radial bearings as I think I forced them too much to get a tight fit. Still a bit notchy on that side most likely due to thrust bearing not 100% smooth when checked separately.

Will let you know once tail thrust bearing replaced. Happy to get this far, can't wait till build complete and in the air! Stocked up on 4400mah batts in anticipation.

BTW - couldn't access the site the last few days due to what looks like DDOS attempts hence the late update. Don't know if there is some preference for access for some users (lcoation based?) as I could see people logged in but couldn't get there myself.

Merry Christmas.

Geoff.

[Raptorapture]

Managed to sort the other tail grip. Didn't need to replace thrust bearing. Turned out the same solution was required, ie. free up enough space between bearings and bolt. Managed to do that after flipping the spindle, ie grips on the spindle and reassembling the tight side. One side has slightly more free play than the other but most important both turn freely without any notchiness!

Geoff.

[ToddM]

Originally Posted by Raptorapture

Managed to sort the other tail grip. Didn't need to replace thrust bearing. Turned out the same solution was required, ie. free up enough space between bearings and bolt. Managed to do that after flipping the spindle, ie grips on the spindle and reassembling the tight side. One side has slightly more free play than the other but most important both turn freely without any notchiness!

Geoff.

+1