Hello. I have heard of others also mentioning losing the balls from the canopy mounts. I am not sure why some folks have trouble with those balls and others like me do not. Batch issue? Operator issue? Just bad luck?
Since you are using the 4.5:1 tail ratio, what head speed are you running? For 550/95 blades, the optimal tail rpm is reported as between 9,500 and 10,000rpm. With the stock 4.0:1 ration, that would yield a head speed of 2,375 and 2,500rpm. With your 4.5:1 ratio, the optimal head speed would be more like 2,111 and 2,222rpm.
Hope you get a lot of flying opportunities with your E5.