[Lyle Swallows]

just a friendly reminder to inspect those slider balls, as noted theres been a history of these seizing from being too tight or bad lubrication. i like the idea of drilling grease holes to lubricate both the slider and the shaft from the rotating swashplate. how many have done this? i did get the specs for the plating from Robin aswell as ordered a new sliderball from her as its nearly cheaper than getting it replated for me considering there are no electroplating services in Alaska it seems...

good news is my Mast is corrosion free with no signs of pitting!

[Graeme Smith]

I do a mod to get grease into the slider ball, a grease zerk is fitted to the rotating swash plate locating the zerk so it aligns with the large gap in the slider ball then I drill 4 small holes in that slider ball recess then reassemble and with a very light weight grease I pump in to fill the recess  (which lubricates the entire slider ball area) keep pumping and the grease then is forced out via the 4 small holes into the rotor shaft itself thus greasing the rotor shaft.

[Lyle Swallows]

I do a mod to get grease into the slider ball, a grease zerk is fitted to the rotating swash plate locating the zerk so it aligns with the large gap in the slider ball then I drill 4 small holes in that slider ball recess then reassemble and with a very light weight grease I pump in to fill the recess  (which lubricates the entire slider ball area) keep pumping and the grease then is forced out via the 4 small holes into the rotor shaft itself thus greasing the rotor shaft.

i saw your pictures in a previous thread! thank you for them and i intend to do the same, i have also seen Dimitri's helicopter have a grease zerk for the swashplate bearing on the non rotating ring,

i suppose this needs the newer E49-3522 bearing where as mine is the E49-3521 bearing. i dont know the physical differences but this is what he said, Robin is waiting to hear back about swashplate bearings too. big fan of keeping things greased... my new slider ball should be here tomorrow.

[Homer Bell]

I recently wrote up something on the slider ball on ROG. To not get to technical, my theory is that many are running their blades with too much down pressure on the pitch links causing excess wear on the top of the slider ball. Those of you that are running two springs are causing even more pressure that you don’t feel at the stick. All blades come from the factory with the trailing edge adjusted for several pounds of down stick pressure that needs to be adjusted out. I’ve flown many new ships and everyone of them needed reflextrailing edge adjusted.
If you can’t let go of the collective stick in a hover and have it just slowly go down , your pressure is to high in my opinion . The collective linkage has a tremendous mechanical advantage. What you feel at the throttle grip is multiplied several times at the slider ball.

[Lyle Swallows]

I really appreciate your tip on collective pressure! Collective Spring rigging on R22's is one of my pet-peeves when flying R22's. i can definitely see that translating into excessive slider ball wear. My slider ball in the above pictures has never flown. the plating is flaking off at the very tip that is "exposed" sitting under the swashplate boot. i believe the aluminum under the plating started to oxidize and break down allowing the plating to separate. new slider ball fixed that. i initially thought i got lucky with my Main shaft when i gave it a quick wipe down it looked good. however after a thorough cleaning i did have minimal pitting but a few too deep i couldnt remove with out blending out substantially. about .010"-.020" at the deepest.. so i am in the market for a new Mast which i believe Robin has a handful being made.