Main shaft vertical play?

[bleomycin]

Hi everyone,

I just dropped my main shaft in and with the shoulder and jesus bolts installed there is a bit of vertical play in the main shaft. Am i supposed to leave the shaft pressed all the way down then tighten the top pinch collar leaving that play, or pull the shaft up and tighten the pinch collar to remove it? Pulling it up and tightening the collar seems to add a lot of extra friction that didn't seem right to me. Thanks for any help!

[Ross Lawton]

Hi,

Generally you would want to pull up the mainshaft so the jesus bolt collar with the boss is facing up towards the bearing face, the same goes for the top pinch collar as this will need the boss facing downwards towards the upper bearing face while pulling up on the main shaft.

If your getting a lot of friction, have you checked the orientation of the bearing blocks to make sure the collars are seated against the bearing faces and not onto the actual bearing blocks themselves?

Hope this helps, let us know how you go

Cheers
Ross

[Chris Sexton]

I do exactly what Ross said. Just make sure the two collars have their boss, or extended flat face, oriented correctly. There will be some up and down play. The top collar is designed to take up that space.

There is an alternative, you can take a small shim and place it between the collar and the middle bearing block. Just make sure the shim has a small enough OD so that it contacts the inner race on the bearing without putting pressure on the bearing cup. The E7 has a shim in this position, Part Number 109-110, that can be used but I think that the upper collar is sufficient.

[curmudgeon]

I really like the E5 shaft design.  The E5 shaft is completely cylindrical, so one can easily check for bends or imperfections on a flat glass surface.  I also like the "old school" pinch collar mechanism to remove up/down play much better than other shaft designs  where the shaft has a protrusion in the mid-section which makes it more challenging to test for bends, and rely on shims to take out the up/down play in a time consuming trial-and-error fashion.

[bleomycin]

I think i may have just found my problem. Is the middle bearing block supposed to be flipped in relation to the other two? Is the side you press the bearing into the middle block supposed to be facing down on the middle block and up on the other two? I can't tell on page 9 of the manual when i installed them so i assumed they all are meant to face up, but page 11 and the fact things aren't working so well are leading me to think i installed it wrong?

Here is a pic of my middle block now:

[Chris Sexton]

Yeah that middle bearing is upside down. The collar above the tail drive gear holds the bearing in.

[RichL]

+1 Chris.  If you were to fly it in the current configuration you could potentially push the bearing out of the center bearing block.

Rich

[bleomycin]

Thanks for the help! I reversed the block and things seem better, although my one way bearing has a pretty tight spot in it's rotation. I think i over tightened the bolt and warped it  Hopefully it will be alright for a while...

[RichL]

Thanks for the help! I reversed the block and things seem better, although my one way bearing has a pretty tight spot in it's rotation. I think i over tightened the bolt and warped it  Hopefully it will be alright for a while...

The bolts / nuts running through the lower portion of the main shaft do not need to be tight.  With the nut on them you should be able to move them very slightly with your fingers.  In other words you do not want the bolts to be able to move in and out but, a little rotational movement is desirable.

Rich

[Ross Lawton]

+1 on what Rick said, the securing bolts don't need to be overtight just tightened enopugh up to take up any slop in the bolt/nut.
 
Great to see you found the problem! 

Cheers,
Ross