Hey Spiro
 

You ever find out what that squealing noise was from? Guess what, I had the same problem develope about the noise. It seems to me that the clutch bell pinion hole is wore out on mine or the engine shaft it slides over. I checked mine after getting some real nasty sounding vibrating squealing noise. Sound like clutch wass slipping It had an awful lot of play on the shaft not just side to side but also sliding up and down. What i did was took the starter cone off and grinded the flat a little longer so I can slide the starter cone up just a tad bit more enough to get rid of the up and down play. That helped alot but my clutch bell or shaft is still worn. One or both the parts may have to be replaced. The teeth on the clutchbell pinion are so worn they look like knife blades. They are sharp. Im sure that isnt good for the main spur gear. It may be causing a digging effect. Ive filed the sharp edges down once before on this clutch bell and doubt if I can get away with doing it again. It compromises the gear mesh. Im crippling this thing along until some parts come in at my LHS. Guess Ill be putting some grease on the shaft instead of oil. I normally havent been lubing that shaft. If i would have it would have prolonged things from wearing out.

Hey Spiro
 

Ed,

I believe you are correct about the source of the squealing sound. I can reproduce the sound and effect by hand spinning the clutch bell on the engine, with the engine removed from the heli. It is defiantly the clutch bell vibrating.

I do not think that greasing the shaft is a long term solution. I found that either grease or oil would get rid of the squeal, but only for a few tanks of fuel. After a few tanks, the dripping goop pretty much washed out all of my grease and oil.

I also do not think this is a problem due to your worn parts. I was able to get the vibration to happen with all brand new parts, all old parts, and a mixture of new and old parts. This includes new/old clutch bells, new/old clutch shafts, new/old washers, new/old clutch shoes.

I do not know if vertical play in the clutch bell has an effect on the squealing or not. I attempt to set the bell up with as little vertical play as possible while still being able to freely turn. As such I can not practically experiment with less vertical play, and using more vertical play seems to make getting the mesh with the (always wobbly) main spur gear even more difficult.

In short I have no solution for this. I also suspected my fuel, but reproduced the effect using several different fuels. Keep me posted if you find a solution that works.

For what it is worth,
Spiro

ps: for all those who might be interested:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/showthread...96&forumid=192]

Hey Spiro
 

Youre right about the grease and oil bit. I just do it to cripple it along. I do have somewhat a solution that may work and has worked for me in the past. You may want to tighten up the gear mesh a little. My gear teeth on my clutch bell are so worn that I wouldnt do it on mine. Im waiting on a new clutch bell to come in. The gear teeth as they are right now if I tighten up my gear mesh may cut into and gouge my spur gear teeth. In times past, I have made the meshing of the gears tighter and that seemed to do away with that vibration. Right now I can turn my clutch bell on my engine and get that wierd vibrating of the clutch bell. Im pretty sure Ive just about squeezed all the life out of my Clutch bell as I could.

Hey Spiro
 

Darth,

I just got off the phone with Paul at LiteMachines. My replacement engine is on its way :)

I also asked him about the clutch bell squeal. He was familiar with this problem and suggested the following:

Remove the clutch shaft from the engine and clutch assembly.
Coat the surface of the shaft in oil or LiteLube.
Thoroughly sand the oiled surface of the shaft via twisting and sliding the clutch shaft in fine sandpaper.
Keep oiling the shaft while sanding, effectively sand the oil “into” the steel.
It is not important to remove all sanding marks or scratches, the shaft surface will still be very smooth.

He also suggests running more vertical play with the clutch bell, rather than less. His suggestion was between 1/8” and 1/16” of slop. I told him I was running about 0.015” and he thought I should loosen this up to 1/16”.

He made no suggestions involving the gear mesh. He did suggest that the squealing could be caused by a small burr on the shaft, which the sanding would cure, or an improperly oil treated shaft, which the oil/sanding would cure.


For what it is worth,
Spiro

Hey Spiro
 

Today i was out flying my Helicopter. i noticed some really poor performance. the engine just didnt seem right. last night i put it up because of poor engine performance. I know i need a new clutch bell but something wasnt right. After monkeying around with used wore out clutch bells I had laying around, I took a closer look at my heli today. I found that all my engine mounting bolts had worked loose :eek: They were so loose a couple nuts and bolts could be spun with no resistance. I dont think there was a snug bolt out of the six used to mount the engine. Just letting you guys know, check those bolts every now and then. After going through and tightening all the bolts, I noticed that the engine performance improved greatly(I still need a clutch bell). As much flying as i do i guess I have to check the engine mounting bolts more often. More goofing around, I had both my vehicles in my drive way There was about four feet between the two vehicles. I was flying around in front of the house and decided why not fly in between the two vehicles straight into the garage. I crusied in at a real slow fwd flight path. It was as smooth as silk. Stayed low enough to miss the vehicles side mirrors. i would assume i would have got spooked and wrecked but It was really neat and precised. Now That would have been a video moment. i may try that again one day and get it on video. ( If I cant duplicate it, it still would make for an interesting video) :D . I really love the stability my bird has. Dont think Ill be going back with the stock configuration. This is awesome. Hope you guys are having as much fun as I am. Im wearing out parts gotta replace some things. Heli gettin a real workout. :cool: