Had my first owb go on my E5.

[James F]

I found the owb extremely resistant to rotating when I did some maintainance on the heli as I was getting ready to put the stretch parts on it.  Glad I found it while changing the pinion.  Swapped it for a new one and all is good.  I tried greasing it with some owb lube but it did not want to loosen up.  Easier and cheaper in the long run to replace it.

[Bob Heybrock]

James, well done on catching that before it turned into more of a problem. I find myself regularly rotating my main gear while checking backlash, especially in the summer but that also gives me an opportunity to verify the condition of the one-way-bearing too. I'm not familiar with a OWB grease, I've always used a very light oil.

Sounds like you got things all sorted out but let us know if it is a continuing problem and enjoy your stretched version.

Bob

[steffgiguere]

I agree good catch.
I always check the OWB on my preflights every day I go out to fly. Should at least have a look at them on a regular basis plus after every crash. On my E5 (has 651 flights on it) never needed to changed it out yet.
On my E6 and E7 had to change after a crash, but by then each heli had close to 900 flights on them.

Any way it's a good thing that you posted this information, might help others notice that preflight inspections are very important to prevent crashes. 

[James F]

I hope so.  I would hate to be wasting my time with them lol.  It is a good habit to get in to.  Before each trip out I check all the ball links, servo horns, pretty much every moving part. 

I have seen people never check anything and then freak out when a bad part let's go in flight.  For me the owb was in a used frame I picked up so it was flown hard (by a team ikon pilot).  Having my parts laying around from my original kit made it easy to do a quick swap.  Though admittedly I put it in upside down after checking it right before putting it in.  I think I flipped it when I set it down to pick up a tool that fell.  Easy fix lol.

[Matt Botos]

+1 on the light oil.

Grease can cause the pins to stick.