avator
Veteran
Location: New Jersey
My Posts This: Topic Forum | zone8,
You are so right! I have the V2 which is a redesign and it still hits the canopy. I haven't heard yet and wonder if the V3 has the same problem. I wouldn't be surprised. I think the reason that some items are good and some are not is that Century uses different contractors to produce items for the Predator. I was told by a Rep that the carbon frames come from a local contractor in California. Anyway, I'm glad to hear that you found the problems with the frames and corrected them.
Scotter,
I have to agree with you as well with one exception, I've built heli's from Hirobo, Schluter, GMP, MA, Kyosho, and JR and have not experienced so many quality issues as with the Predator. I would go as far as saying I can't remember any quality issues with any of the others regarding parts, only with manuals and maybe a missing screw or nut. I will say, as you did, when you get it right the Predator does fly good. My Predator has also been fairly trouble free for the 8 or 9 months that I have been flying it. I had the clutch to fan button head screws come out even though they were locktited and I had to replace the pitch slider for the tail rotor due to excessive play. Century replaced it, but only after inspecting the old one to make sure I wasn't trying to pull one over on them. Both of these issues showed up within the first couple of tanks.
Funny, I didn't see anywhere in this post where anyone said that the clutch bell failure was caused by torque. Hummm
I think that even though Zone8 aligned the clutch to the bell, as we all know, most of us do this by eye. So there may still be enough of a misalignment to produce a flexing motion that was enough to have caused the bell failure. Just a thought. |
) and if you pass over with your finger you can hardly feel any 'lip' on the cuts so I would exclude any vertical movement which would have cause some edges? With the clutch shoe I don't use the button bolts as per manual I use normal bolts and they did not shear - the shoe is fine altogether.
. Anyway, yes I am reassembling the heli right now and would like very much a final advice from someone - an engineer possibly since experience in this case doesn't count much since this has never happened before - on what to do to avoid a repeat, IF in his/her opinion the failure was caused by poor assembly skills. To recap, right now on the bench I have: clutchshoe dial indicated within 0.002 inch, bell within 0.004 inch, bell perfectly parallel to the frames, no vertical play whatsover, zero pinion/gear mesh but if I turn the gear 180' there is a slight play. Now what else should I check?
