Understanding one-way bearings (http://www.runryder.

com/helicopter/t55473p1/)

Posted by Augusto on 07-18-2003 04:21 AM:

I finally decided that instead of sitting here watching people unsuccessfully trying to solve
problems with one-way bearings I should stop procrastinating and write a post with
drawings and pictures to share with other people what I have learned to make sure the
one-way bearings work correctly in my helis.
As illustrative examples I take a look at three examples. The Freya auto hub, the Raptor
auto-hub and the infamous KSJ starter wand with the one-way bearing.
This explanation applies to most helis and devices such as starter wands that use one-way
bearings. I have had one-way bearing issues with several of my helis in one way or
another other helis and there are several posts in here where people keep having
problems with their one-way bearings in almost every brand of heli under the sun. In most
cases is not as much a problem with their units as it is more of a consequence of a lack of
understanding of how they work. Hopefully this post will bring some better understanding
of how the one-way bearings work on our helis and it will help us assemble and adjust
them correctly.
1) The Freya one-way:
Initially, during the first couple of weeks I had my X-Spec, I blew a few one-way bearings
(auto hub one way clutch bearings) making them slip after a few real hard flights. To
prevent being grounded by this problem in the middle of a weekend I bought a few of them
to keep them in my toolbox just in case.
The problem was that the bearing case developed a micro-fracture (not easy to see to the
plain eye) and under torque load the case started to expand so the rollers wouldn't be able
to lock against the center shaft sleeve with enough force hence the slipping.
Concerned with why this was happening, I started thinking about it and then I realized what
the “why” was. As a matter of fact once I understood it, it became pretty simple to fix.
From past experiences with metal parts I knew micro fractures are usually some problem
with metal fatigue induced by repetitive loads in the section that kept developing the micro-
fracture.
Looking at the geometry of the one-way bearing I realized that being securely fixed it
wouldn't work the way it needed to for this application. A one-way bearing is a self-
centering and self aligning device that without the self centering feature won't work
correctly. I'm of course referring to the shaft in the middle being able to find its center when
rotated inside a one-way bearing. That's what I was used to look for but in this case I had
to look at it from a different perspective.
The problem that initially baffled me in this case was that according to what I was looking,
the shaft wouldn't be able to find its center because the shaft (or sleeve) is held centered
in place respective to the hub by the two ball bearings on top and below it.
Initially I thought that to make it a bit lose as I needed I would need to find a way to
introduce some play such as replace the ball bearings with something less precise such as
brass or Teflon bushings. I also though of other more involved and complicated solutions
but then I realized that in this case the solution was to think of it in a different way and
instead of expecting to see the center shaft find its center I should expect to see the outer
casing find its center.
This is the reason why:
When you look at the way a one-way bearing works you realize that it's nothing more than
a bunch of roller pins that when rotated “climb” the bearing case “walls” pushing the center
shaft away from the walls. This “climbing” and consequently the pressure they exert on the
center shaft is the reason why they lock. When rotated in the opposite way they “climb-
down” releasing the center shaft from the grip.

Now the trick to understand why a secured one-way bearing where neither the outer case
or the center shaft are allowed to move won't function or will develop problems is to realize
that at the very beginning and for a very short period of time until the one-way bearing
locks all the roller pins are free and ONLY ONE roller starts the effect by being in contact
with both the shaft and the case wall.
When rotated this roller starts “climbing” its own case wall and by doing so it “pushes” the
shaft towards the center but you can also see it as the roller pushing the wall or climbing
plane away from the shaft. This pushing away makes the whole outer case move away
from that first roller pin point of contact and at the same time it brings the opposite side of
the outer case closer to the shaft until the opposite roller starts the contact between its wall
and its side of the center shaft.
Keep in mind that in the above drawing the outer case off center offset is a greatly
exaggerated to illustrate the point. In real life the case is off-center only a few thousands of
an inch. Also the “climbing planes” are not that steep. They only need to bit a couple of
degrees in inclination for them to work. As a matter of fact the lower the inclination the
greater the pressure exerted on the center shaft. Also in many cases there's not even a
need for a climb, the geometry of a hexagon shaped outer case gives enough climbing
effect for it to work so bear with me and look at the drawings as more illustrative than
engineering accurate.
This produces a sort of “embracing” effect among all the roller pins that makes all the pins
climb their respective “walls” and start pushing against the center shaft until there's no
more climbing possible at which point the bearing locks into its one-way effect.
Now to understand the problem I was having you need to imagine that either the outer
case is not allowed to move freely or it is severely restricted from movement. The result is
that the particular roller whose side of the bearing case (wall) is closer to the center shaft
will always be the first to be in contact but won’t be able to push the outer case away
making it be under a lot more pressure than the other ones. If you repeat this over and
over it will subject that single wall spot to excessive and repetitive flexing and consequently
it will develop a fatigue crack. This problem is exacerbated when using a metal hub
because they're more rigid than the plastic ones. In both cases, whether it is metal or
plastic, a rigidly or even semi-rigidly mounted one-way bearing will ultimately develop a
crack when flown real hard over and over.
I imagine this is why the design engineers put some play into the fitting of the bearing and I
kept misunderstanding it as a lose fit. Then we the American lunatic pilots started
playing pogo stick with our helis bouncing them hard on power pitch takeoffs, piro hovers,
piro tic-tocs or any of that crazy pitch pumping we do, so some more freedom of
movement of the bearing case is required especially for 91 sized motors and their new
higher power levels.
To fix the problem I just had to find a way to let the one-way bearing case move more
freely so it could center itself when engaged distributing the load among all roller pins
equally and lock in it's ideal center every time. Doing so would prevent one of the rollers
from getting the entire load over and over. The solution was amazingly simple.
ENTER GREASE
Those extra loads force the issue of making sure that extra play works under even the
more stressful conditions. To do so just pack a lot of grease (I used white tri-flow grease)
around the outside of the bearing case so that you guarantee it's lubricated enough so that
it can move freely when it needs to find its center.
The one-way bearing below should be completely surrounded with grease on the outside
to allow it to "float" when installed inside the hub.
This problem happened mostly when I was flying it real hard. I don’t have direct experience
with the 60 versions but I don't believe that a 60 size engine would have enough torque to
break them as often. The 91 engines have considerable more power and consequently we
fly them harder and harder subjecting parts to a lot more abuse than before.
This is something I have done and it worked for me. I went from blowing them frequently to
never ever again. I also told some friends in other states about this mod with excellent
results and a few weeks ago I also told it to one of the guys that I fly with and so far it also
seems to have fixed the problem for him. Lucky enough for him I had one of those extra
bearings I had bought for myself that I hadn’t had any use for again . I have also found
that this assembly tip works both for the metal and the plastic hub.
Now for the perfectionists even though this is not required for it to work you can also use
some 400 grit sanding paper to sand the sharp edges of the “fingers” that holds the one-
way bearing case in place to make it even easier for the grease to let it move freely.

2) The Raptor one-way bearing:

As an example of a different approach the Raptor also uses a one-way bearing with a
sleeve centered by two brass bushings. In the case of this bearing the brass bushings
usually have a bit of play already so the lock should be solid from the begining. If it's not a
little bit of wear in the bushings gives a bit more play making it more solid.
3) The infamous KSJ starter wand:
Most people that bought the KSJ starter wand have found that after only a few uses the
wand stops working and the one-way bearing fails to lock.
In the case of the KSJ wand you have a shaft being held in the middle by two bearings just
like the Freya metal hub does but unlike the Freya hub the bearing itself is not allowed any
play for self-centering. What happens is that once there is a bit of wear in the shaft the
bearings stop working because the roller pins fail to start the centering effect since neither
the shaft nor the casing are allowed to move.
Using the concepts explained above and unless it's really worn-out, you can get it back to
work. The idea is to allow for some play so that the shaft can move a little bit inside the
one-way bearing making it engage into a lock.
The way to do it is to take one of the bearings off and allow the wand to rest on only one of
the ball bearings and on the one-way bearing.
Here you can see the back ball bearing and the shaft that goes inside the one-way
bearing.
Here's the front bearing. Between the two of them the shaft is securely held in the center of
the one-way bearing not allowing it to do the required self-centering to engage into a lock.
Here's the one-way bearing. As it can be seen the one-way bearing is also firmly held in
place so unlike the Freya hub no play for the one-way bearing is allowed.
Using a torch to heat the unit it can be easily dissasembled.
The front unit it taken out and now there's enough play in the shaft fo it to move inside the
one-way bearing and find it's center. Re assemble the unit and remember that since now
there's nothing to prevent the wand to be pushed inwards you need to supply some spacer
such as a few washer in front ot the starter motor shaft the so it will hold the shaft in place
by pushing it from behind. After this modification the unit now is back in service.

Comments
There are several schools of thought as to what system is better. Some prefer ball bearing
supported sleeves because they feel that under load the main gear plane has no possibility
to lose it's perpendicularity with respect to the main shaft creating misalignment in the gear
mesh with the driving pinion. Others prefer the simplicity of the brass bushings. I believe
that as long as there's play both systems are good. The reason for my belief is based on
the observation that one-way bearings are not only radially self centering as explained
above but also axially self-aligning devices. In other words a Hub with only a roller pin
based one-way bearing and without either bushings or bearing will not only self-center but
also self-align with the center shaft because when engaged all the roller pins being straight
cylinders will force the hub to align parallel with the center shaft. Being this the case the
wear on the bushings will be limited to the initial wear and not continue to increase
afterwards.
Notes:
This is an extremely over-simplified explanation. The actual operation of a one-way
bearing from a strict engineering point of view is a lot more complicated but the principles
explained here are the same. There are several factors such as surface roughness, brinell
hardness coefficients, torsional shear and all kind of details that determine additional
factors. For instance when I say there's only one pin in contact I don't mean it literaly what
I mean is that there's only one that has significant force being applied to it while others
have negligible force but they might still be in contact. If I start making all kind of side note
explanations the post loses its purpose of being clear to most people. In most cases the
pre-loaded pins should engage correctly but as the pre-load wears and becomes less solid
the described play becomes more important. There are other issues to consider such as
the fact that in most cases there's a pre-load in the roller pins to start the contact, there are
also cases where the pins are not circular cilinders but pre-loaded pivoting lips with a
progressive curve shape that gives them a transition from fast engagement to high force
but in all cases the same principles explained here apply so the post still works as a
guideline to understand and rectify problems commonly found.

Conclusion:
When faced with a one-way bearing issue understanding the way a one-way bearing
works will allow you to make the right diagnostic and it will also give you the knowledge
required to devise a solution or a corrrection. Most issues with one-way bearing are easy
to resolve. Just think how the concepts explained above apply to your particular problem
and you will probably be able to figure out a simple solution.

Augusto.
Avant FX & Avant EFX

Posted by FastR1Red on 07-18-2003 04:34 AM:

Augusto,,
Excellent!!!!!Thanks very much for the article, very informative.
Can I have permission to reprint in the club newsletter???? With credits to you of
course..

Posted by bluefronted on 07-18-2003 04:41 AM:

As usual AUGUSTO , you go all out for this hobby.
thanks
Posted by Steve Campbell on 07-18-2003 04:50 AM:
Most informative. Excellent work.
One question, and one comment:
What's the difference between a Sprague bearing and a Torrington bearing?
I was told that a medium-viscosity oil was better on these roller bearings, because grease
could "pack up" in one spot and "throw" one or more of the roller pins. And this is a
commonly-held belief in the heli community.
I've never had one fail, on over a dozen helicopters and a tired old KSJ adapter just like in
your photos. I use a petroleum-based particulate gun oil; i.e., one that has teflon particles
in suspension, like the popular Break-Free/Tri-Flow (both are the same stuff- different
label).
Steve

Posted by WMac on 07-18-2003 05:20 AM:

Really interesting post Augusto.
Now where's that grease.....
Will

Beep Beep! One Road Travel, with Dominic Byrne!

Posted by stardotstar on 07-18-2003 06:45 AM:

Excellent Augusto. Thank you.

Posted by Doug on 07-18-2003 07:56 AM:

Nice job, great illustrations and pictures

Posted by davehour on 07-18-2003 08:24 AM:

Terrific information. Thanks Augusto!

Posted by z11355 on 07-18-2003 08:50 AM:

The other machine are Robbe's.
Of course, just to throw some gasoline
on the smoldering fire, the Robbe one
(in this price list) is $27, about 20% more
than MA. In the NEW pricelist, it rockets
up to $38, almost 50% more.

http://www.ronlund.com/Merchant2/me...duct_Code=S4448

Posted by Obsessive on 07-18-2003 08:54 AM:

Folks may also find a more general "bearing" trip of discovery here:
http://science.howstuffworks.com/bearing3.htm
and Z, just sell the dang Robbe or crash less often

Posted by z11355 on 07-18-2003 08:58 AM:

Probably the former instead of the latter.

I'm having a season like the one you
had early on.

Posted by Heli-Driver on 07-18-2003 09:07 AM:

I always thought a Sprag bearing was a shouldered bearing like Augusto shows in his
photos, they roll upward and tighten in one direction..
I thought Torrington bearings had a spring steel arm in it to keep the rollers tight or free
depending on the rotation direction.
I know one thing for sure.... The one way bearings in MA are some of the best I've seen.

Raymond
Predator Gasser SE/231 X 2
Century Helicopters

Posted by WMac on 07-18-2003 11:40 AM:

So how does the Sprag (?) bearing in the previous link work, it seems there are pressure
pads that press against the shaft by means of a spring, is that how it works and if it is
wouldn't it slip under high load?
Will

Beep Beep! One Road Travel, with Dominic Byrne!

Posted by Auger on 07-18-2003 12:11 PM:

Hi,
The spring is there to create friction between the sprags and the shaft/sleave they ride on.
Look at inside ends of the sprags, the friction / rotation of the sprags one direction will slip
and the other direction the sprags are designed to climb themselves closing down the id
until it locks the shaft / sleeve. Rotation of the carrier & sprags plays a part in this as well
but that is the general idea of how they work.
The main benefit is the pressure is on the Sprague themselves instead of an outward
pressure on the housing as Augusto has shown above.
Crunch all you want, they will make more. Please use rr's pm feature to contact me.

Posted by WMac on 07-18-2003 01:40 PM:

Thanks for enlightening me Auger !
Will
Beep Beep! One Road Travel, with Dominic Byrne!

Posted by irq on 07-18-2003 02:08 PM:

I think some of you are confused.. Augusto is talking about putting grease on the outside of
the bearing, i.e. between the block that is holding the bearing and the bearing itself. NOT
between the shaft going into the bearing and the inside of the bearing itself.
And thanks, Augusto

Posted by sharam on 07-18-2003 02:18 PM:

Nice Job Augusto. Thank you.

Posted by Jagboy69 on 07-18-2003 03:13 PM:

Thanks for the hard work... see who needs to buy the crappy heli magazine when I learn
more here on RR.... Nice job explaining how this interesting little bearing works..
Thanks, Jason
Jason /// Sceadu50/9chp WWW.Jagboy69.com

Posted by Augusto on 07-18-2003 03:23 PM:

David I think you might be right.
I have found the Sprague terminology used in the one-way bearings.
I'm going to check on that. In the meantime and to prevent confusion I changed it all to
one-way bearings.
Augusto.
Avant FX & Avant EFX

Posted by Sar on 07-18-2003 03:26 PM:

This should go into the RR articles section.. oh wait, there isn't one
---
Jon Caywood
http://www.thaltech.com

Posted by Taipan on 07-18-2003 09:24 PM:

Hmmm
The one-way in my X-Spec hub fits so tightly I have to tap it in with a hammer.
Isn't that meant to stop the sides of the bearing from flexing & fatiguing?
Btw, that hub & bearing was from my WC'99 - only 3 months flying with an OS61 then
another 3 in the OS91 X-Spec before slipping. Found 7 hairline fractures, one on each
side!
One more & I woulda had a full house.

Posted by jrice45516 on 07-18-2003 11:06 PM:

Deleted. The following post enlightened me.
Dances With Woofs
Posted by Augusto on 07-19-2003 12:43 AM:
This is why I was reluctant to post the info. I just don't want to get into long discussions
about it. I would ask for people to take as sharing info from my personal experience and
take it or leave it. If it works for you great otherwise just disregard it.
jrice,
irq says that because we tried it in his heli and it also worked so he's familiar with the fact
that the grease goes around the bearing case.
I think you may be misunderstanding what I'm trying to explain.
First, and to make sure we are talking about the same thing, the one-way bearing I'm
talking about doesn't fit tight in my X-Spec hub. As a matter of fact when I take the ball
bearing off it falls off the hub by itself.
Also you mention it locking. In my case it wasn't looking it was slipping.
Contrary to what you're saying a "floating" one-way bearing can work.
To illustrate how the principle works take a look at the following two diagrams.
Just imagine that the one-way bearing had some extra flaps that allowed it to hit the walls
of an outer hub where it's floating.
As it engages, the bearing case (green) will freely rotate but only until the flaps hit the walls

Once in touch with the wall the bearing will lock in place and transfer the force to the outer
hub or as in the case of helis the hub would be the one transferring the force to the shaft.
This is a common mechanical device used in machines. The only difference is that they
use rubber around the green area to make it into a dampened one way clutch.
As you can see the floating of the bearing doesn't prevent the transmission of the axial
force. In the case I described before the outer flaps are replaced by the flat areas where
the outer case rests.
Taipan,
I don't know if the one you are using from the W99 is the same I'm using. In my case it fits
pretty lose. I also talked today to ja1010 and his is also lose and the one irq replaced was
also lose. Maybe they become lose after a few flights, I don't know, I can only talk about
the ones I've seen.
Augusto.
Avant FX & Avant EFX

Posted by Taipan on 07-19-2003 05:54 AM:

Ta mate
The WC'99 hub I'm using is the 0404-615 auto clutch assembly. The only mod I did to it
was to file down the bottom to fit the DTDS 2nd main gear.
One-way is Hirobo 2500-048 12x16L one-way as for all 10mm main mast auto units. Just
like the one in your pic;

Posted by GMPheli on 07-19-2003 09:14 AM:

Every time I have had an auto bearing fail, it does not slip, it locks itself to the shaft. Upon
disassembly, I always find the plastic needle carrier has a crack in it somewhere. I always
thought that when they fail in this manner, it was because the aluminum hub that the
bearing is pressed into was not able to take the expansion loads, and allowed the one way
bearing to expand too much, thus breaking the carrier. I noticed in MHW, that some
aftermarket co. is selling a steel clamp that fits around the auto hub preventing this
expansion.

Posted by Augusto on 07-19-2003 12:29 PM:

Taipan,
The part# of the metal auto hub you're using is different than the one I'm using. Yours as
you said is part # 0404-615 mine is part # 0414-229. I don't know if there's a difference.
Augusto.
Avant FX & Avant EFX

Posted by yapjy on 07-21-2003 09:58 AM:

Hi,
This is the X-Spec delrin main gear with the metal auto hub.
Where shall I apply the grease?
F3C Singapore Team SIN-113

Posted by jdgee on 07-21-2003 12:07 PM:

Hello Augusto,
Thank you for sharing this information. I hope that you can continue to do so, with other
topics which relate to our hobby. I understand and respect the wish to post a topic and not
care to spend additional time and energy with further debate and instruction. You've done
an excellent job ! To prove my sincerity, I'll offer an option for the folks that did not grasp
the concepts that you put before us .
~~~~~~~~~ option ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Should you have problems with a part that contains a one-way bearing or sprang, order a
new replacment for the worn part . Thank You, Jon

Posted by irq on 07-21-2003 12:16 PM:

yapyj,
Take the sleeve out of the center. Then take the top and the bottom bearing out. Then take
the one way bearing out. Put grease inside what's left of the metal auto hub. Then put it all
back together again.

Posted by TMoore on 07-22-2003 11:14 PM:

The one way bearing on my Freya is a tight fit at the top of the bearing to hub fit due to the
stamping process used to roll the outer case over at each end. If you relieve the milled
slots in the hub so that the bearing has float you will also have to relieve the tops and
bottoms of the hub to clear the upsets in the one way bearing shell. This will give the
bearing more clearance to float and still not impede the bearing from locking against the
hub. In my case I chucked the hub up in a lathe and skimmed a couple of thou out of each
end about .06" back.
The grease will definitely help the one way bearing to float as long as the hub is properly
cleared relative to the swaged surface of the bearing. In my way of thinking this fix only
works for this particular type of one way bearing and won't do much for the auto hubs that
use a round cased one way bearing that is pressed into the hub like the old Futura hubs. In
the case of the Futura hubs the sleeve was too undersized and the bearing locked up.
In this instance, clearance between the auto hub and one way bearing is a good thing.
Nice job Augusto!

Terry

Posted by Billme on 07-23-2003 01:41 PM:

Augusto!
This has been a problem for years concerning the gassers, where most thought they had
engine problems... I run up on this from time to time...It took me a while to catch it
though For those who just can't get the gasser smooth, just run it up on the ground, you
will notice the machine smooth till the pitch starts loading the system...As a matter of fact,
at B’ham get together last weekend I found this problem on a new machine...
I didn't see this like you have described, which is awesome BTW...I just washed them out
and re-oiled them.. This was only a temp fix, because it does come back to haunt me,
hehe
Thank you so very much for opening my eyes a little more with this fantastic article
Many Regards
Bill

Posted by daggit on 09-20-2003 01:31 PM:

Billme
I have not run into any smoothness problems with my gasser but I was wondering about
what you said
Quote
This has been a problem for years concerning the gassers, where most thought they had engine problems... For those
who just can't get the gasser smooth, just run it up on the ground, you will notice the machine smooth till the pitch
starts loading the system.

Are there some tell-tale signs that point towards one-way bearing issues? Is the bearing
slipping and causing the illusion of an engine tuning issue?
Ethan

Posted by Billme on 09-20-2003 05:05 PM:

Its not so much slipping as is its slipping, and crabbing like a light bulb is going off and on
60 times/sec, its hard to see. Anyway, the above example is the only way I could find it
while looking at the horizontal tail- fin. Its more common with the non constant tail hubs
because of the way they are mounted in the hub... In the constant tail drive, the bearing is
fitted more loosely inside with no up and down play in the gear itself when mounted
properly....Since I'm talking about it, when I first got the new constant drive hub, I tried the
Transmission fluid. On the gasser its just slipped, and sounded like a 53 chevy taking off in
2nd gear ...So I cleaned it, and put some Remington lite silicon gun oil with Teflon...It
worked great. Don’t ask me why, because the instructions also recommend transmission
fluid...
Regards,
Bill

Posted by trickle on 09-20-2003 05:33 PM:

Biggest problem I have seen is people hammering the bearing in place. It should either be
pressed in or the aluminum should be heated so that the bearing will slide in. I'd guess if
the aluminum was a loose fit than that would cause problems every time the head was
unloaded and loaded again. I guess the grease dampens this? I'd have it replaced with
one that has a light press fit as per the specifications of the one way. Mine was a light
press fit and no problems so far.

Posted by docramage on 09-20-2003 06:39 PM:

Excellent explanation Augusto.
I too have had trouble with WWBs. In the Raptor the bearing is integral with the clutch, and
following your explanation I suspect it's failure to centre when there is minor mis-alignment
of the engine/clutch/start shaft that causes the problem.
(I think the correspondent who suggested greasing the inside of the bearing was probably
rightly offering a simple solution - surely a thick grease would at least encourage all the
rollers to engage)
My 2ry old Freya has a Torrington bearing as the input for the starter wand - a 6mm
hardened shaft. I feel this is wrong - a bearing with rollers instead of balls fails to work like
a constant-velocity joint, and it is almost inevitable that there will be misalignment with a
hand-held start wand.
Nevertheless, I've replaced the Torrington with a hex, and use a standard hex wand
without an integral one-way bearing. This is better in some ways, in that a ball-ended hex
does (almost) act as a CVJ, so alignment is not a problem. However it does mean of
course that the shaft is rotating when it is pulled, and it tends to get thrown...(which is OK
as long as it doesn't hit the throttle/collective stick)
What I want to make is a start wand with a ball-ended hex, but that has a one-way bearing
close to the ball. This way one could have a "freewheel" function, but there would only be a
few grams of mass to withdraw on the engine firing. It somehow seems more of an
engineer's solution to have the one-way mechanism where you can see and service it,
rather than expending fuel carrying it as cargo.
Brilliant diagrams!
Incidentally - can you tell me :
With any kind of one-way bearing, if you suddenly accelerate the input shaft to catch up
with an already-rotating output, does this place any more stress on the bearing?
Engagement surely can't take place until both shafts are at (almost) identical speeds. I'm
thinking of the situation where you have landed briefly, throttle at idle and the rotor rpm is
still high-ish, and you then kick in throttle to take off again. Thirty years ago I drove a 1947
Rover with a freewheel function, and it didn't seem to harm that. If it is harmful, shouldn't
our start motors have a "softstart" ?
Philip

Posted by Ivan on 09-20-2003 08:38 PM:

this is why I think the raptors wah wah. side load on the one way bearing causing it to slip,
and the elasticity of the tail belt working against each other make the tail rotor speed up
and slow down and cause wah wah.
one-way bearings don't like side load, as is put on by the tail belt in a raptor.
Ivan
I came, I saw, I hovered

Posted by slant911 on 12-11-2003 06:13 PM:

Awesome post Augusto. I didn't realize how important this post was to me until just
recently

John B. McNamara

Posted by heliman41&1/2 on 12-11-2003 06:38 PM:

Good Lesson.
Augusto, If you have the time, will you give me some info on why my Raptor 50 auto
rotation bearing sticks. What can I do to fix the problem besides replace the hub?
Thanks for the work you put into helping everyone.
Rusty

Posted by Fisherman on 12-18-2003 03:03 AM:

Thanks for sharing.

Posted by IAF on 12-29-2003 01:37 AM:

Thanks Augusto,
I'm going to do the grease thing in my Freya90 and hope I will not loose any more one way
bearing.
Eran.
Why did I choose this hobby?

Posted by Mitz on 10-14-2004 03:39 PM:

I tried the grease!
The grease in my Evo 50 one-way is wonderful. I immediately
noticed an improvement in performance and the rock-solid
proof was the extended time it took to spool down after shut-down.

Dick Sceadu or Don't

Posted by Alistair on 10-15-2004 02:26 AM:

Quote
Understanding one-way bearings

this is easy..... the go one way

squigle

Posted by mrNoodles on 10-15-2004 02:29 AM:

And breaks after X hours of use

Posted by Alistair on 10-15-2004 02:30 AM:

yep, see...... easy
squigle

Posted by Crusty Commie on 10-15-2004 02:39 AM:

Mitz is the EVO one way different to the original Sceadu?, looking at my one-way there is
no way to do the mod without modifying the main gear...thx
I am dsylexia of borg..resistance is fruity...your arse will be laminated

Posted by mrNoodles on 10-15-2004 02:48 AM:

The one-way housing on the EVO is plastic.
You can sand down any eventual sharp edges and apply grease on the outside of the
bearing.
But I guess plastic is doing less harm to the bearing, and less force being applied on it due
to smaller engines.
Wouldnt hurt to try the mod though.

Posted by Crusty Commie on 10-15-2004 03:04 AM:

Noodles, I still cant see how, the bearing is a tight fit, greasing the outside would do
nothing in this case
I am dsylexia of borg..resistance is fruity...your arse will be laminated

Posted by smegs on 11-18-2004 03:01 PM:

Awesome article that's how you write a awesome article.

Posted by hepsibar on 11-18-2004 03:44 PM:

Raptor 60/90 bearing adjustment, gear mesh issues
Excellent explanation! Thank you for this info. Very very interesting and well researched.
A question though for raptor 60/90 owners. If I increase the internal diameter of the bushes
on the 60 hub above and below the bearing to allow some float/ free play of the bearing
will this not affect the gear mesh of main gear & pinion and tail take off gears?
Am I barking up the wrong tree? I realize tolerances in your diagrams are greatly
exaggerated but approx how much play is required to free up my hub - do I ream it out a
little at a time till it does not lock?
From the diagram it seems that the Freya bearing has flats which allow free play in the hub
without allowing the bearing to spin unlike the raptor bearing which appears to be round.

Empty Coffee Cup

Posted by hepsibar on 11-18-2004 05:25 PM:

The point I was trying to make is that from what I perceived Augusto's post on the free hub
auto bearing is that the bearing needs to be able to float around the shaft in order for it to
engage/ disengage smoothly.
The bushes on the raptor hub are there to ensure correct gear mesh but because of this
the auto bearing cannot float about the main shaft therefore is the answer to remove a tiny
amount off the bushes thereby allowing a small amount of free play without adversely
affecting gear mesh? - Reduced lock up problems with increased gear wear!!!
Perhaps someone knows of a Sprague clutch which may fit the raptor with or without
modification.
Or maybe the raptor auto hub is a lost cause.
Empty Coffee Cup

Posted by rstacy on 06-21-2005 01:32 PM:

Augusto,
I just did the bearing mod to my KSJ start shaft.
It did the trick!
Thanks!
Ray

Posted by SubSailor on 04-11-2006 07:32 AM:

Good info, wanted to bump this.
Every little bit helps, well, except when it doesn't.