T-rex 450 pro V2 serious tail bearing problem

[marke]

Originally Posted by trexpro

it seems I am not alone with this problem !!

It is a serious design issue of the blade grips on the 450 pro version or it's a low quality bearing problem?

All the stress and force is on the outer bearing (2x5x2.5), the only way to solve this problem for good is to use thrust bearings! the second best solution is to use high quality bearings, but those bearings are expensive and should also be checked regularly.

Anyway the use of a radial bearing with such axial loads is not good!

maybe someone knows if a replacement tail (or blade gips) with thrust bearings exists that fits the 450 pro, or are there thrust bearings that fit in the original Align 450 pro blade grips?

Regards danny

hello -i am building a brand new 450 Pro for a customer and the kit is the V2- is every one replacing the bearings in tail grips? also can any one tell me if EFLIGHT bearings are any better then Align? my LHS only has the outer bearings from EFLIGHT.

thank you for any help on this

[Spork01]

the align replacement bearings are working fine on mine. I believe it may be the factory assembly when they are putting the tail together that is causing the problem.

[trexpro]

Originally Posted by marke

hello -i am building a brand new 450 Pro for a customer and the kit is the V2- is every one replacing the bearings in tail grips? also can any one tell me if EFLIGHT bearings are any better then Align? my LHS only has the outer bearings from EFLIGHT.

thank you for any help on this

I repaired my 450 tail, bearings are replaced with Protos bearings, so far so good I also upgraded my tail rotor control arm set.

i also agree with Spork01, the assemble of the bearings must be done exactly.

Dont over tighten the screws af the blade grips and be careful with loctite!

[marke]

I just took apart the original bearing and they only have 6 balls in the bearing the extra bearings i have contain 7 balls- i am not sure of the manufature but i feel 7 are better then 6-also they seem to have less slop. ill let you know how they work

[trexpro]

Originally Posted by marke

I just took apart the original bearing and they only have 6 balls in the bearing the extra bearings i have contain 7 balls- i am not sure of the manufature but i feel 7 are better then 6-also they seem to have less slop. ill let you know how they work

Very strange that you have a difference in balls

[marke]

Originally Posted by trexpro

Very strange that you have a difference in balls

i removed the shield from the Align bearings and there are 6 vs the unknown bearing i have that have 7--i wounder how many are in the boca bearings??

[trexpro]

Originally Posted by marke

i removed the shield from the Align bearings and there are 6 vs the unknown bearing i have that have 7--i wounder how many are in the boca bearings??

I never removed the shield from a boca bearing!
I have replaced my tail blade grip bearings with Protos bearings and I can say that they felt a lot better than the Align bearings, more robust and the feeling is smoother.
And the Protos bearings are cheaper than the Boca bearings

[tdrnmartin]

A side question of sorts - does it matter what level of bearing, ie crome vs stainless vs ceramic? or is it fair to say that just about any level of after market (from boca for example) would still be a better choice than stock align? I'm thinking this is more of a "good enough to do the job" type question as i can't aford to replace all my align heli bearings with ceramic bearings and I'm not convinced that i need to. Most of the align bearings i have are still working just fine. (Non-pro v2)

[trexpro]

Originally Posted by tdrnmartin

A side question of sorts - does it matter what level of bearing, ie crome vs stainless vs ceramic? or is it fair to say that just about any level of after market (from boca for example) would still be a better choice than stock align? I'm thinking this is more of a "good enough to do the job" type question as i can't aford to replace all my align heli bearings with ceramic bearings and I'm not convinced that i need to. Most of the align bearings i have are still working just fine. (Non-pro v2)

I definitely think Align bearings are of a lower quality than, for example a Boca bearing.
but am also convinced that in many cases they work just fine, therefore i don't replace all my Align bearings only those which I think is necessary like the tail bearings and main shaft bearings. For example, in my 550 the main shaft bearings (Align) were within a few flights completely run dry and worn, so i replaced them with Boca ceramic.

Not every type of bearing is suitable for a particular function. A ceramic bearing remains cooler at higher speeds and a stainless steel bearing is more resistant to axial forces (concerns radial bearings).
Therefore a bearing must be well suited and of a certain quality for his purpose in a certain part of the helicopter.

[lancedoze]

Just ordered boca bearings just blew out my tail and barely saved the bird. Align needs to do something different. If you want to be the best you should be the best.

[Zorgnot]

I had the same issue with my HK450TT pro. I'm waiting for the bearings in the mail.

[isogloss3d]

In addition to Boca bearings, I've had good success with the upgraded bearings from helidirect. There's also rcbearings.com which I've yet to try but have heard good things.

[shadco]

Wouldn't you know the only thing tight on my new kit was the tail grip bolts, no locktite but gorilla tight.

I took them apart the bearings seem ok but I'm not sure I want to take the chance.

[RyanB]

This is getting ridiculous... I just replaced my tail bearings for the second time this week (using boca) and the smaller outer bearing broke (center race pulled half way through) again while test hovering. Now I know that your not supposed to over tighten them, so I didn't crank them, but I did snug them up. Can someone please explain just how tight these are supposed to be? Like holding the allen wrench with two fingers or something? Am I supposed to just turn them until they stop and let the loctite hold it? Seems sketcy to me but at this point I'll try anything.

So sad, I had at least 60+ perfect flights on this thing then after a small crash I can't even get a whole flight without a bearing failure.

[wangotaco]

I thought I should chime in. I had the same failure on my 450. Brand new build. Could not get the tail to hold. On the ground it would act like everything was working ok. In the air the tail just wouldn't hold. Many different symptoms. After disassembly of the tail it was apparent that the bearings were shot. I couldn't get the bearings at the lhs, but, I got a new tail. Everything is working really good right now.

A previous poster noticed that the bearings were glued in. I noticed that as well. Very difficult to get out the bigger pieces (the smaller ones just fell right out)..

This was a frustrating problem. I tried everything before taking the tail apart (flip grips, new tail servo, changing ball distance). I'm glad this thread was there to find my problem!

[matt713]

I experienced the bearing failure this afternoon on my new pro V2. Was on my 6th overall flight today and about 3 minutes into my flight out of no where my tail started to wag very bad. I have been so happy with the way this tail has been so solid during the first 5 flights (especially coming from a blade 450 which the tail was so unstable and why I purchased an align) that I thought to myself OH NO.... Not another tail problem with this heli too!

So after looking at things I found that one of my tail grip bearings disintegrated (the 5x2.5) I am happy that I found the problem and thankful I didn't crash cause I'm a noob and throwing any other unexpected obstacles during me flying usually does not end up in my favor!! Lol

[Mac796]

Align should biy this junker back. Im going on my second set of tail bearings. I crashed when the tail locked up the first time.

[trexpro]

Sorry to hear Mac 796,
I replaced them with Protos bearings, so far so good
But be careful, the assemble of the bearings must be done exactly.
Dont over tighten the screws af the blade grips and be careful with loctite!

I now check after every flight my tail blade grips (my confidence in this tail configuration is no longer what it was)

regards Danny

[flynot2000]

read the threads and so decided to inspect/replace before it happened, and in removing the first one, it just disintegrated, and I don't think I saw all of the little bearings in there either. I heated up the second before extraction (used gas stove, lol) and the second one came out whole, but I chucked it anyways. Replaced the inners also, we'll see how long they last. Have nice new bearings coming for the parts bag soon too.

[yosemite]

just saw this thread and same thing happened to me on the new v2 tail i got in a kit
https://www.helifreak.com/showthread.php?t=383723