Clutch
Swing Arms
There have been several clutch swingarm breaks in the past.
The 1st one known of outside of RotorWay to our knowledge is Ronnie's ship in Nova Scotia.
|
Exec |
Factory Swing Arm |
Hours |
N- |
Ronnie |
He said he called RotorWay when it happened and that Tom Smith told him they had a had some failures on the factory ships themselves and they were working on a better part but at the time they didn't have much to offer.
Ronnie has had 2 swingarm breaks
The 2nd
one was on
a ship owned by John Spurling during one of Homer Bells fly ins.
|
11/96 Exec 90 |
Chromed Factory Swing Arm |
---Hours |
N- |
John Spurling Oklahoma |
John
didn't think much about it at the time
because
the swing arm that
was installed on the ship
was
chromed by the previous owner
which
we all know is a dumb thing to do to a working structural part.
The 3rd
one
belonged to a fellow named David Stewart in Texas.
I
may be wrong but I think David's broke at the frame mount.
|
11/99 |
30mm spherical |
---Hours |
N- |
David Stewart |
As time went on more ships began having this same trouble.
RotorWay, while not actually admitting there was a problem with the swing arms came out with an upgraded swing arm. But that swing arm didn't seem to solve the problem.
The latest finger pointing (Nov 2001) is directed toward John Spurling's Pro Drive Electric Clutch but that's going to be a pretty difficult item to nail down due to the fact that almost every ship out there flying has one installed on it.
Somehow folks are forgot this problem arose long ago and with factory setups before the Pro Drive Clutch was even thought of much less installed on anyones ships. Until someone takes the time and effort to hunt down and database the issue fact is it's all hearsay so Donna and I are in running in wait and see mode until it happens.
There are all kinds of opinions going around and the only substantial information thus far to come of any of it is that the swing arms from RotorWay are made in a manner that allows them to easily fatigue. When there welded together at the Rotorway factory they weld it together in random steps that allows the welds and parts of the metal cool at different rates. At the end of that process its considered finished and put on the parts shelf ready for shipping. They omit a process that could make a substantial difference on the swingarm called Normalizing. That's a heat treating process that when (from what I gather) the complete arm is brought up to a certain temperature and then allowed to cool at a controlled rate. There's also what they call an MR factor to be considered which is a measurement for the hardness of the metal being used.
John Spurling at Pro-Drive addressed this problem and come up with what he feels is the best swingarm possible meaning its manufactured as good as it can be.
Its made from
the correct metal, welded in the best format possible and at the end
of that process its normalized under the proper conditions. Only time
will tell if its a fix for sure but what we do know is John has made
every effort possible so were putting our faith in him and his product.
There's alot
more to this seemly simple item
and the best
anyone can do is take a serious look at everyone's products with an
open mind and
take YOUR
best shot.
|
4/02 Exec 162F |
Factory 2nd Version Swing Arm |
30 Hours |
N- |
Chris Stevens |
While at
Sun 'N Fun in 2002 a ship owned by Chris Stevens from Tulsa, Oklahoma,
had one of
RotorWays new improved swing arms fail during the fly in.
It had just under 30 hours on it and the fact that it and the entire drive train was correctly installed and aligned pointed the finger directly at the swing arm.
On June 2nd of 2002 we installed one of Pro-Drives new swingarms.
Pro-Drive Swing Arm
|
|
|
Cost $300
For more
information contact:
John Spurling, Pres.
Route 3, Box
12 C
Cleveland, OK
74020, USA
Tel. (918) 243-7635
Fax: (918) 243-7882
Email:
flyapro@aol.com
https://www.flyapro.com
Last Update Feb
6th 2005
END
