Esky Big Lama - Inner Shaft Replacement Tips?

[jg]

Hello everyone,
Newbie, first-timer with lots of .
The past few years learning to fly has been fun,costly, and frustrating.
Seams to be cheaper to buy a new heli. than to replace receivers when they fail.
I have had no luck adjusting a 4 in 1 on my lama v4 and now it seams that the 3 in 1 on BL is wandering out of adjustment.
How do you adj. them? What's the procedure?
Can anyone help?

thanks
JG

[Dave]

Welcome aboard JG.
I don't have a BL myself but we do have a couple of guys here that do and I am sure they can be some help with your problem.
I hope you enjoy your time here, these are some great guys and they love to help the guy that needs help. Just hang in there they will answer your question.

Dave

[Raygun]

Hi and welcome there is a pot marked sensitivity you turn that slightly till you see a difference but if this has just started and it has been OK till now you may have a motor on its way out. Just turn the pot probably to increase + but after you get the turn arrested if it starts again look into new motors.. Ray

[Solitaire]

Welcome to our little group, jg.

Ray made a good point about if the helis were working well before, then it's not likely an adjustment problem. Usually, those 4in1's and 3in 1's don't really go out of adjustment once they are set.

As mentioned, motors wearing out or some slippage in the drive train. The inner shaft on the Lama4 is held at the bottom with two screws that go into plastic. I've had those screws loosen up a bit which will let the gear slip slightly. This will make the heli yaw. Check to make sure everything is tight and there is even mesh on both motor/gear assemblies.

Good luck and let us know how you make out.

[jg]

Thanks Guys for the info.
I had to adj. BL proportional a little. Read somewhere battery has to be disconnected
every time you make an adjustment. So I gave it a try, all is good now.
The lama 4 turned out to be a bad (bran new) motor. Swapped out motors,and trying to adjust 4in 1. I'll get back to you on how that works out.
Thanks again,
JG

[Solitaire]

Almost there, jg. Sounds like you have it figured.
And yes, the battery needs to be reconnected after every controller adjustment. We just forgot to tell you that part.

[flytilludie]

Hey Guys,

I've got an Esky Big Lama that I just love, but which experiences blade strike pretty consistently with any moderate 'jockeying' of the sticks. I'm told that the only real remedy for this problem is to replace the inner shaft (the one with the balance bar bracket on top) with something 15 - 25mm longer. Has anyone on this forum attempted such a replacement and can they describe how this is done for me, on this particular heli?

Many thanks in advance,
flytilludie.

[Dave]

Hey fly and welcome to the forum.

Hope you don't mind the move but your post will get a lot more replies over here.

Enjoy the forum.

Dave

[ronp]

Fly, welcome. I also have a Big Lama and it is not a big deal to replace the inner shaft. First of all you need to get an extended shaft. Secondly I don't know if you have the stock one piece body or if you did some upgrades and installed a regular canopy and tail boom on. If you haven't you should really think about it. It makes thing a lot easier when you do not have to remove the entire head both upper and lower just to get the body off.
Anyway what you need to do in either situation is to remove the blades, upper. Remove the body, if you have the stock fuselage. remove the cap on the flybar holder and disconnect the linkage that connects the flybar to the upper blade holder. Next step is to remove the upper blade holder.
Now you are ready to remove the shaft. the inner shaft connects to the lower gear at the bottom of the heli. There are 2 set screws on the lower gear, loosen them with a 1.5 mm hex driver, now just pull the shaft out. Repeat the process in reverse to put everything back together.
There are a lot of great guys on this forum who have a lot more knowledge and experience than me. They are more than happy to help out so don't bee afraid to ask. This is a great forum.
Also go to RTF's site, RTFheli.com. He sell all upgrades for the big Lama as well as other heli's. You can see the Lama with the separate canopy and tail boom. Hope this helped some.. ronp

[ronp]

This is the correct address for RTF's site, http://www.rtf-heli.com:

[Raygun]

The BEST material to buy is go to Hobby Lobby and buy a 3mm music wire or piano wire you will not find anything stronger or straighter. I assume you have the metal head assembly if so polish the 3mm piano wire with some #400 wet/dry sandpaper till the bearings easily slide down the shaft cut the shaft off anywhere from 3/4" to 1" longer than stock using a dremel with a slicing disk and then grind a couple of flat spots for the set screws. You cannot cut this material with anything but a grinder. Then go to radio shack and buy a tubular stand off one that can be drilled out to 3mm. Drill it out intall the head tighten the setscrew put on your tube spacer on then install it on to the aircraft. Ray

[svdl]

I replaced my inner shaft with the extreme extended shaft. i struggled to get out the old inner shaft but I got it done. At the same time I replaced the stock blades with extreme blue blades.

Since I have done these mods, I have a problem. When I want my heli to go forward, it tilts a bit left and when I go backwards it goes a bit right, Why is this??

Thanks!!

[Raygun]

Your swashplate is not level this happens when you work on them or change things sometimes. Power it up after it is ready move the swash trims to the center and then check and see if the swash is square with the shaft if not pull off the ball link on the servo and adjust till level. Also check your CG.. Ray

[Dave]

svdl,
Just wanted to stop in on the thread and welcome you to the forum. It sounds like Ray is on the right trail to your problem.

You will find a bunch of great guys here that just love to offer advise and 90% of the time they hit it on the head the first time.

If I can ever assist you please do not hesitate to call on me.

Dave

[svdl]

Thanks guys, I'll try it. I am still a newby to the whole heli business, but i was not flying too bad before this prob.

Thanks Dave, You guys really have a great thing going here>


I don't mean to sound stupid, but what is a CG