Esky Big Lama - Inner Shaft Replacement Tips?

[Solitaire]

Actually, the outer shaft and gear don't come apart and are removed through the bottom. As you've already found out, where they punch the holes through the shaft for screw placement is where it gets caught.

You may want to check the balance of the stabilizer and also the blades. Those areas could be the cause of your "wobble".

TriFlow is definitely a better lubricant. I can't comment on WD40, other than reading somewhere that it's not suitable. Even some 3in1 oil would be an alternative.

[davidm]

Thanks, that would explain my trouble with the outer shaft. In a way, I'm glad I didn't bother to replace it - I had my most spectacular crash yet over the weekend! I way trying a new location with a lot more space, and the wind caught it while it was fairly high and blew it over. It hit the ground before I'd regained control!

I'm impressed with how resilient they are with that kind of crash though - it hit the ground with quite a crunch, but 'only' bent the flybar, snapped a blade and cracked the canopy and a couple of its shoring points. Body is repaired (and attached) with tape for now, and I've done some more (lower!) flying.

Thanks for the tips.

David

[Solitaire]

Yep, that's one of the things we forget to tell newbie coax owners..."don't fly too high". I think we've all found out the hard way. Some of us have even lost complete helis, never to return.

[davidm]

Sept 13, 2010 7:57:33 GMT -6 Solitaire said:

Yep, that's one of the things we forget to tell newbie coax owners..."don't fly too high". I think we've all found out the hard way. Some of us have even lost complete helis, never to return.

It's not a mistake I'll be making again (well, not for a week or two, at least!)... :-)

I wonder whether I could have pulled it out of the dive if I'd reacted quickly enough - I suspect not given how fast it fell. Presumably the non-coaxial '3D' helis are more manoeuvrable in these kinds of situations in addition to not suffering from blade strikes?

Despite my crashes, I'm finding this a very addictive hobby. Perhaps a Honeybee CP3 next...

[captjay08]

Guys I have one more question, I am trying to replace the Gear and Shaft Set B and I was wondering how to do it when it comes in from the mail? Do I just have to unscrew everything and will it just slide down?

[Solitaire]

Set screw(s) in lower gear loosened and gear removed so inner shaft A can be slid up through the top. Top rotors and stab can stay attached. Remove top bearing set collar. Then undo links from swash and loosen lower hub set screws to remove hub. Gear and shaft B can then be pulled out the bottom. Both shafts will likely stick at the bearings and both shafts have two bearings each.

This will all become clearer once you get into it.

[captjay08]

I've gotten and installed xtreme productions gears A and B with outer shaft for the big lama. But the problem is it wiggles so bad. I've checked the gears and they are lock tight to the pinions. I've tried to loosen it a little and same thing happens. Can you guys help me with this? I waited a week and a half for this parts and got me grounded that long and it's kinda frustrating to see it fly like this.

here is the video:

[Solitaire]

Wow, that thing has the DT's.
Check both your gears for out-of-round. You should be able to determine this by rotating both rotors independently and feeling for some stiffness. Other than that (and it's hard to tell from the side view), back off your gain a tad. It could be gyro related.

[captjay08]

Hi Solitaire! Yeah I've checked the gears and they are both fine. So you think this would be the gyro? I'm really not ready to spend and even planning to buy anymore stuff for the lama. So this will be a bad news for me.

But how would we know if it's the gyro?

[Solitaire]

Jay

I don't think you need any parts (well, other than an airframe) . If the gears are smooth, then adjust the gyro gain on the 3in1 down just a bit and see if that helps. It may be adjusted too high which will make the tail wag rapidly. As I say, a bit hard to tell from the video as it's a side shot and there's no airframe attached.

[captjay08]

Got the problem already. It was the cnc upgrade that I bought from rtf-heli. I don't know if it's unbalance or something but after 1 day of adjustments I was so p*ssed that I just thought of maybe the blades or the cnc was unbalance or the problem. Changed it back to stock plastic blade holders upper and lower then in my amazement, the wiggle was gone.

So I guess it was the cnc that caused the problem and which I feel really bad coz I taught it was an upgrade. I've tried to email rtf-heli about this but still no response. And I guess they won't accpet it if I return it coz' I've had the cnc for almost 2 weeks since I got it from mail and I only had the chance to fly it when my gears came from the mail that I bought from another store after 2 weeks.

Thanks for your response Solitaire.

[Raygun]

I hate to throw a wrench in the fire but I do not believe it was totally the cnc upgrades that caused the problem rather there is something binding in the upgrade or out of alignment I have put a few of the really cheap aluminum parts together and have found even those have problems that can be corrected. The thing to do is put on one part at a time and find which one is doing that to you. Once you find it look real close and see what the difference is between it and lets say a stock one you can make it work.. Ray

[captjay08]

It's alright I guess. I'm happy with how the lama flies right now. It's stable and I can trim it out properly. I can now do no fingers in the controls and it hovers for about 10 seconds. So I really don't mind the $30 lost I guess...

[Solitaire]

Good that you've found the problem. 9 out of 10 reasons for a jumpy heli is due to an imbalance somewhere.

Personally, I find the stock BL blade grips do just fine. I'm using the stockers on the top rotor on my second BL and I've hit all kinds of stuff where blades have broken but the blade grips are still going strong. They're quite beefy, actually.

If you're certain the CNC stuff you got from RTF is faulty, I'm sure he'll make good for it.

[davidm]

I've had my ESky Big Lama for a couple of months and (with help from the kind people of this forum) made numerous repairs during that time.

I recently had a new problem, for once apparently not related to a crash: while flying, the tail would twitch suddenly, and occasionally there would be a loss of power and the heli would come down. I assumed that one of my motors was one its way out, and ordered replacements. (I thought it was the one for the lower blades, but ordered both just in case.)

I've now replaced both motors, but I now have worse behaviour. I know I haven't caused it, because I saw it before I replaced the motors too (while trying to work out which was at fault) and assumed that the motor was failing more...

The heli will fly for 20ish seconds (still sometimes showing the tail twitch), but it then appears to lose power and starts spinning to the right - as if the lower blades are not spinning fast enough. No amount of stick-left can correct it.

I've also noticed that sometimes when increasing throttle, rather than the blades starting to spin gradually as normal, the lower blades will start with a jerk. When this happens, the top blades will not start without the lower blades either - the top blades refuse to move faster than the lower blades. However, usually this doesn't happen - both sets of blades can be started slowly and independently. The spinning and power loss always happens.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Could a failing motor have damaged my receiver? Perhaps I just need a new battery?

Thanks in advance,

David