500 tail bearings keep wearing prematurely

[avoidthedog]

hey guys. brand new 500l with carbon blades and after 10 flights the tail pitch slider bearings (all the little flanged ones (there are 6 total) wore out and developed a ton of play. So much play i had 4+degrees of pitch slop and the tail wouldnt hold. put new bearings, tail shaft, and pitch slider on. 20 flights later its developing slop in the bearings again.

running vbar and have my tail endpoints set correctly. im not getting any wag or vibrations that i can see. tail moves buttery smooth by hand with zero binding. any ideas? i must be doing something wrong as my 450L and 550L never had this issue

[avoidthedog]

Align must be cheaping out on their new kits. Swashplate developed a fingernails thickness of up and down slop. Head dampers wore out very quick as well

[Kap'n Krunch]

could you post pictures or a video of the worn condition ?

[Relisys190]

I purchased an align swash once. brand new. Sent it back because of slop and ended up going I2 swash. Never looked back. I really like my KDE slider system. very slop free. Just a suggestion.

But being you have a NEW heli. It shouldnt have any slop like that.

[nbells]

Originally Posted by avoidthedog

Align must be cheaping out on their new kits. Swashplate developed a fingernails thickness of up and down slop. Head dampers wore out very quick as well

Ive never had a problem and I have over 300 flights on mine, maybe you have another underlying problem that's causing premature wear ?

[avoidthedog]

Will get some pics up today. Thats what im trying to figure out, if there is any underlying problem causing all this wear. Ive built and flown my trex 700 450l and 550l for hundreds of flights and they never had the swash or those small flanged tail bearings wear out

[KSHeli]

I've had four different Align swashplates and they all have up and down play in them, one even got to the point that I might have been able to separate and get the bearing out, but I chose to put a little gear Loc-tite retainer on and press back together still works fine and has a small amount of play. heli flies fine for me.

[d423,150x,300x,500x]

Im not saying this is ur problem but my 500l tail case had bolts that were to long,making it impossible to fully tighten it up. They would bottom out b4 it was tight,i could slightly wiggle the whole unit with my hand. I only noticed because of the high speed wag when the gov was really put to work. I used new bolts with pan heads n spacers to correct. U could also simply grind the bolt down smaller. I got over 100 hard flights on this bird after fixing tail and main gear mesh. I am verry pleased and its holding up well!

[nbells]

Its not a good position to be in having a number of things playing up at once !. If I was you I would concentrate on the tail issue first.

But since you say that you have already replaced the bearings, shaft, tail slider and that your tail is vibe free its a bit of a puzzle !

All I can suggest is that you try stripping the tail right down and setting up the mesh on the tai gears first and ensure that the bolts mentioned by d423 are done up right. As you piece each part together ensure proper fit and alignment.

Let us know how it goes

[avoidthedog]

Thanks for the help guys! Ill be tearing it down after work and inspecting, let you know what i find. I think d423 may be onto something.

I experience high speed wag when i come out of giant backwards loops. Backed the gain down and it helped but now and then it still pops up

[d423,150x,300x,500x]

Im sure the next batch of 500l will have good gear mesh n the rite size tail case bolts. Atleast i would hope. Lol. Guess thats what we get for being anxious and preordering. Lol.

[avoidthedog]

You were right the tail case bolts were bottoming and i had a small amount of slop. Gonna fly 20 batteries thru it today and see how she holds up lol

[avoidthedog]

Today went good flew 10 packs thru it, however one of the new bearings already developed slop

[Kap'n Krunch]

Originally Posted by avoidthedog

Today went good flew 10 packs thru it, however one of the new bearings already developed slop

then buy some boca's

[avoidthedog]

Couldn't find them on their website

[Ah Clem]

Do you lubricate the bearings periodically?

There is an old wives tail that all shielded bearings in our machines are lubricated from the factory-this is not the case. Bearing life span is directly affected by lubrication (or the lack thereof).

[avoidthedog]

I use scorpion motor bearing oil on everything and lube religiously. My bearings usually last forever on my other trex's. Not the case with the 500

[ahahn]

I don't have this hell, but I was wondering if there needs to be a little play in the torque tube drive. If it is really tight, then the bearings might be being hit by the high spots every revolution. That could cause premature wear on the tail case bearings.

Just a guess of course.

[markxp51]

Your bearings are probably sliding around in the tail case, try a little green thread lock.

[Ah Clem]

"I use scorpion motor bearing oil on everything and lube religiously. My bearings usually last forever on my other trex's."

You are absolutely doing the right thing there sir. Sorry I had to ask-most of the people who post about bearing failure on the forums seem to have never lubricated them.

You are the exception, sir!