glydrjocky

I knew I shouldnt have let the thought slip into my head.................I knew I should have never thunk it...............but I did..........and it happened[:@]

So I set my Shuttle ZX on the ground and as I attached the igniter to my remote start, I said to myself " I wonder how long this ancient rope starter is gonna hold up".......

I gave it a couple of tugs, the engine lit and settled into a perfect purrrring idle, except for one minor problem...........I now had about 300 feet of unretracted starter rope wrapped around every thing. So I gave it a little tug and in went half way in, then another tug and it all came back out....... I really wanted to fly and the non-reasonable part of my subconscious started coming up with shade tree ideas of what to do with the rope[>:], so before things got out of hand I shut it down and headed for the bench.

Now I flipped the heli on its side and as I'm pulling the 4 housing screws I'm reminded of something I read about these units not being servicable and that OS recommends you just buy a new one. In fact, OS says they dont even sell the parts to fix it and its a sealed unit that you cant even work on...........

FACT: They are telling us a little white lie to keep us from popping that spring out with explosive force and wearing it like a deranged Slinky... I'm sure there were a few lawyers involved in this decision.

Anyway, I take the unit apart and find that the tip of the outer most coil where it locks into a little slot in the pulley has finally given up the ghost and busted off. Feeling like I'm playing a game of Operation, without the buzzer or batteries, I gently lift out the broken spring tip and then carefully attempt to remove the coil spring so that I can bend a new locking tip on a fresh part of the spring........... No problem right? Just like a Homelite chain saw right?

I tried to lift it out carefully...........easy............gently........ .........


SPROING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![:-] WOW!!! There's flipp'n spring everywhere now, How do they fit all that spring into that tiny pulley... I proceeded to rebend the tip of the spring and then used the next 45 minutes to wind this dinner plate size main spring mess back down to the size of a 50 cent piece and shoehorn it back into the rope starter pulley. With the new tip nestled nicely in its spot and the pulley in place I began the painstaking trial and error process of tensioning the spring so the rope finally retracts completley. I also found the rope was frayed and about to break so I cut and retied it.

To make a long story short, I was able to get another flight in before the end of the day. The Shuttle performed flawlessly and I managed to miss the cow on the runway on landing so I'd say all in all it was a great day!!!!

I'm amazed at how simple it was to fix this rope stater and even more amazed that OS is afraid to let you know its repairable.

Happy Hovers all, I hope you all had as eventful of a day as I had!

T

nitrohog

Good to know. My OS .32 on my ShuttleZ has the recoil starter on it and I love it. Mine is getting up there in years too, its probably about 15 years old.

glydrjocky

I think you can still purchase the complete recoil unit from Tower for $45 or so but I was able to get myself back in the air with a sound field repair using common field box tools in less than an hour. Good to know for future reference. The insides of this unit are really quite well designed and if I'd have had more time I would have taken a few step by step pictures. It actually goes together like any Briggs & Stratton or Homelite recoil assembly, basic small engine repair stuff. The starter input shaft is supported by a bearing in the aft engine housing and thankfully had no radial play, strangely I feel better knowing what's hiding under that cover. One more of lifes little mystery's solved!

T