soppliger

Guys:

The ball link on one of my blade grips broke and I'm trying to replace them. My question is - how do you get the bearings out of the old blade grips? I've tried placing them in a vice and using a screwdriver and hammer to lightly tap them out, but they didn't budge and I'm afraid I'm going to bend the bearing. According to my manual's exploded view of the parts my grips each have three bearings. The grips I'm replacing are original on the helicopter and the new grips don't have any bearings in the bag - just a grip, a cylindrical bushing and three washers for each grip - one regular washer, one with a shoulder and one that's fairly thick.

Thanks,
Scott

hitman13429

My Feedback: (1)

the new grips u got will probly only be 2 bearing instead oif 3, happened to me and others. AS for getting the bearings out, stick a screw driver and pry them out. Your chances of bending them are slim.

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The bearings are in snug, but not too tight that they can't be removed. What you need is a small enough punch. If you don't have a punch, try a nail, but file off the point. Go in from one end and push the bearing out, tap gently and evenly with a small hammer. Then you will have easy access to the other bearing. Warning, there are two versions of the blade grips. A 2 bearing and a 3 bearing design. Don't accidently try to force 3 bearings into a 2 bearing grip (like I did). When you reassemble the blade grips on the spindle shaft, watch out for lateral slop (looseness) between the blade grips and the hub. Sometimes you have to shim the spindle shaft. Or you can carefully shorten the shaft like I did.
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soppliger

Guys:

I didn't think of using a punch. I placed the grip into a vice, lightly tapped the punch directly into the center of the bearing to seat it, then pulled the bearing right out using the punch. Then repeated for the other side. In other words, rather than push the bearings out, I pulled them by lodging the punch into the openning. The third bearing inside the grip was easily removed by pushing it out with the same punch.

You were correct that the existing grip is a three bearing grip and the replacements are two bearing grips. I guess it's back to the hobby shop!

Thanks for the help guys,
Scott

spv1425

Two questions:

1. If I have the two bearing replacements can I use them or do I need the 3 bearing ones?
2. How do you get the bearings back in the blade grip, not too easy.

Thanks,
spv1425