Extremely stiff swash.

[FLYGUY 11]

It's winter here now so I decided to tear down and inspect my 700. I've flown it for 2 seasons and it's been great! When I built it, I remember the swash ball being pretty tight, but I'm sure it's even tighter now.
Could a few guys please check their machines and comment on how "tight" or "free" the ball pivots in the swash?
Thanks guys!

[rcmarty]

There freakin' tight. Just short of 200 flights on my 800 and no hope of loosening up.

On the bright side there's no slop.

But last winter blues got me thinking there's got to be a way to lighten the load on the servo's.

I stumbled upon a post somewhere talking about it , managed to figure it out with the posters help ( I'd give credit but can't even recall where I read it)

I think most of the issue is the 3 screws that hold the plastic 'ball' retainer in the socket of the swash.
The post was saying that the screws would apply a little pressure at the 3 points throughout the circle and ever so slightly deform the black retainer making it bind/stiffer.

So I loosened up the 3 bolts and found that the swash would move a bit more freely. Then tinkered the rest of the night doing combo's of 1-3 bolt tight , loose , rotating black ring , etc ( I had the time it was snowing .. lol)

So the second night , I decided to sand the black ring down a touch so the screws don't apply as much pressure on the black ring. Limited success , but I was getting better.
Take it slow and test often as not to go too far. I had the sandpaper on the table and did the figure 8 sanding method to make it as even as possible. Turn ball 90 to pop out of ring.

Third night I decided to fit the ball to the ring. Took an old tooth brush that had a rubber handle on it , and wedged it into the center of the ball , chuck up in a drill and held the black ring in my hand and turned center ball. Looking to get a little bit of heat going but not too much. Take it slow and reheat as needed.

After all the tinkering and time consuming fitting the swashes are much better offering a snug resistance with 0 slop.

Logo 800 was first shipment , logo 700 was second shipment to NA

Martin

[galensk]

mine is pretty tight too.. I fly the 700 for a year now.

[RyanW]

Do this at your own risk...

I too had a super tight swash on the first 700 Xxtreme. So much in fact I registered 23A on my BEC!

I found some perfect fitting sockets to support the black delrin type material and the center heim ball. I made sure this would put ZERO load on any portion of the swash- only the center ball and the black surrounding material.

I put this in my arbor press and gently gave it a nudge. Then I flipped it over and did it the other way. The black material will flex and you will feel it give just a tiny bit.

Result- silky smooth. It just needed to be pushed a bit in its 'home'. I don't think this material wears in over time. If they start tight, they typically stay tight.

I think my BEC max current after doing that was 12A.