Tail squeak

[Greg Jackson]

When doing my pre-flight checks while giving rudder inputs quickly back and forth I heard a slight squeak.
I heard this a couple of days ago but then all the rain came in.  Yesterday I put some oil on the tail shaft but did one flight today before it started raining again and it's still slightly there.  What is it?

[Greg Jackson]

So I guess this is normal.

[Brandon Bartolomucci]

Sorry for the delay in response. I had the same sound on my N5c tail slider and found two areas where the squeak came from. The first was the slider assembly on the tail shaft. A nice coating in Tri-Flow oil took care of that one but not just once. I coated before each flight for about 4 or 5 flights and it seemed to work in ok. The second place was the actual carbon rod where it went through the supports. I applied literally one drop of Tri-Flow to the tight areas on each support guide and was able to get rid of it that way.

What I would also do in your case is check for any binding of the slider, control arm, and blade grips themselves. In particular check how tight you have the bolt that holds on the "L" shaped control arm at the tail. Something has to be rubbing something else to make a squeak and it may just be the simple lubrication or it could be something over torqued.


Regards,
Brandon Bartolomucci
Sent from my iPhone

[Magman Mike]

What Brandon said.  Tri-Flow can be found at all bicycle shops.

[Ross Lawton]

Hi,

As Brandon has mentioned, the tail output shaft could be dry and require a drop of oil for lubrication. The same goes for the tail pushrod guides, the teflon sleeve stops any wear but just by the movememnt of the rod though the guides can sometimes cause a squeak.

It might be worth disconnecting the servo to make sure everything is smooth and free just in case something has tightened up causing the squeak. If this does'nt cure it then i would also recommend removing the tail rotor and slider assembly and making sure the output shaft is clean from any dirt.

Hope this helps,

Cheers,
Ross

[Greg Jackson]

When I move things by hand it is as smooth as it has always been.  BUT, I did put triflo on each day before heading to the field, but haven't in maybe 15-20 flights.  As I said before I finally did but it didn't help too much so I will do it before the next 4 flights so it can work in.  Also, I wil put it on the teflon, its probably been 40 flights since I've done that.  If that doesn't work then I will go further with the blade holders, but will check how tight the L is today.  Maybe I'll get in a flight, but wednesday is my busiest and longest day and they are talking about 10-20 mph winds which isn't fun.  And its still cloudy and I start losing orientation with this canopy that matches the sky when its cloudy. 

[Greg Jackson]

First I did the tail shaft again, still a little.  Then the pushrod (teflon)  Squeak gone.  That was the culprit.  Thanks for the help!