I had a little bit of a nose over problem with my EXI 500 a couple of weeks ago. To get it flying again I replaced the main blades. Had to they were both broken. Replaced the main shaft and spindle just because they were in a crash. They both look OK but I replaced them anyway. I replaced the frame base because it broke at the rear LG attach points, both-sides. I also had a broken ball link. When I replaced the ball link I adjusted it like the trex 500 manual shows and it turned out that it was way short because the link was way shorter than the stock link. This mismatched link cause a huge vibe when I spooled it up. Major lesson learned on that little FUBAR. Always check your blade pitch when you replace a ball link.

Once I got the vibe problem diagnosed and fixed I flew it and the blade tracking was way off. Landed, made the adjustment to bring the high blade down and they swapped. The high blade was now the low blade by about the same amount. Landed and noticed that I had a lot of rocking motion in the head. So I thought that maybe the head had been damaged in my nose over. Bought a new Align head. It is tight on the shaft with no rocking. Fly it, and the blades are slightly off track. Land and make one adjustment and it is pretty darn good.

I can't fly it today because our good friend Issac has the weather pretty screwed up. It is hot and real windy with a threat of some rain. Maybe it will calm down this evening.

I am very happy to have my 500 back in flying condition. It was terrible having it on the bench and not airworthy.

RWW

ps. I bought one of these Greaser tools. It worked great!!! http://www.ronlund.com/rcheli-prod/TOOLLU/GREASER.html

Originally Posted by Melnic

What is hot?
Where.
If you touch it near the top on the plate that does not rotate, that's usually the hottest point. Hovering sucks about 50% power so it's gonna get warm at the least.
140F is so hot that you can't keep your fingers there more than say a second or two.
Anything less than that is pretty much normal for the bell and you can get hotter than that for the top.

So it's not unusual for the motor to be really hot to the touch. Thank you Melnic.

Originally Posted by biker dude

So it's not unusual for the motor to be really hot to the touch. Thank you Melnic.

So...the over heating motor burned up on me yesterday.

out of money so the bank is tanked.

Anyone out there got a used motor for a 500 they don't need anymore?

Bummer BD. I am in the same kinda financial bizbag so I can not help you out. Spare motors are not something I would have laying around anyway. Sorry for your predicament.

I just got my EXI 500 back in the sky on Saturday after its little tumble in the grass. I replaced the main shaft, feathering shaft, main rotor head piece, main blade grips, top main shaft bearing and main rotor blades. So I put out a little bit of cash myself.

I just came in from flying it in the driveway. This heli is quickly becoming my favorite.

Setting blade tracking is turning into a nightmare though. I make a turn of adjustment and the blades swap position, the high one goes low and the low one goes high. No matter which link I adjust I get this swap. If I did not value my hair so much I would be pulling it out for sure. Us older gents have that kinda love affair with our hair.

Other than this tracking issue the machine is flying nice. It just hangs in a hover pretty much hands off. I am still pretty much a noob so I don't do much forward flight. I need more space for that. I did go to a local FF on Saturday afternoon for the first time. I think I will go back on Wednesday afternoon, weather permitting, and see if I can get permission to fly there again. I met some real nice guys the other day, one of which was flying a Nitro 700. Sweet heli.

RWW

Originally Posted by biker dude

So...the over heating motor burned up on me yesterday.

out of money so the bank is tanked.

Anyone out there got a used motor for a 500 they don't need anymore?

For a test motor I picked up one of these last week. Flew it around only a few times. And it did just fine. ( again i only picked it up for a tester motor and it was cheap ) Im tempted to send it to you. But wow do i hate standing in las vegas mail room lines. Anyways its about the cheapest 500 heli motor i could find @ 1700 kv. 3 day shipping http://www.ebay.com/itm/Free-Ship-Ho...item27caff2cd1

Originally Posted by whitehedr

Bummer BD. I am in the same kinda financial bizbag so I can not help you out. Spare motors are not something I would have laying around anyway. Sorry for your predicament.

I just got my EXI 500 back in the sky on Saturday after its little tumble in the grass. I replaced the main shaft, feathering shaft, main rotor head piece, main blade grips, top main shaft bearing and main rotor blades. So I put out a little bit of cash myself.

I just came in from flying it in the driveway. This heli is quickly becoming my favorite.

Setting blade tracking is turning into a nightmare though. I make a turn of adjustment and the blades swap position, the high one goes low and the low one goes high. No matter which link I adjust I get this swap. If I did not value my hair so much I would be pulling it out for sure. Us older gents have that kinda love affair with our hair.

Other than this tracking issue the machine is flying nice. It just hangs in a hover pretty much hands off. I am still pretty much a noob so I don't do much forward flight. I need more space for that. I did go to a local FF on Saturday afternoon for the first time. I think I will go back on Wednesday afternoon, weather permitting, and see if I can get permission to fly there again. I met some real nice guys the other day, one of which was flying a Nitro 700. Sweet heli.

RWW

I was having this very same problem 2 weeks ago getting my align 500e blade tracking down..No matter what i did it would just not hold coming out of idle up 1-2...so the end result was buying the hard orange kbdd 500 dampers..Got those and blade tracking was spot on once again..So if your still having this problem consider kbdd orange dampers.

Originally Posted by whitehedr

Bummer BD. I am in the same kinda financial bizbag so I can not help you out. Spare motors are not something I would have laying around anyway. Sorry for your predicament.

I just got my EXI 500 back in the sky on Saturday after its little tumble in the grass. I replaced the main shaft, feathering shaft, main rotor head piece, main blade grips, top main shaft bearing and main rotor blades. So I put out a little bit of cash myself.

I just came in from flying it in the driveway. This heli is quickly becoming my favorite.

Setting blade tracking is turning into a nightmare though. I make a turn of adjustment and the blades swap position, the high one goes low and the low one goes high. No matter which link I adjust I get this swap. If I did not value my hair so much I would be pulling it out for sure. Us older gents have that kinda love affair with our hair.

Other than this tracking issue the machine is flying nice. It just hangs in a hover pretty much hands off. I am still pretty much a noob so I don't do much forward flight. I need more space for that. I did go to a local FF on Saturday afternoon for the first time. I think I will go back on Wednesday afternoon, weather permitting, and see if I can get permission to fly there again. I met some real nice guys the other day, one of which was flying a Nitro 700. Sweet heli.

RWW

The tracking is probably the dampers in the feathering shaft, or a bad feathering shaft. I love mine too , so much smoother than the 450 .

Originally Posted by jombo

The tracking is probably the dampers in the feathering shaft, or a bad feathering shaft. I love mine too , so much smoother than the 450 .

The feathering shaft is new. I'll see if I can find some of those KBDD

Originally Posted by Stixx44

I was having this very same problem 2 weeks ago getting my align 500e blade tracking down..No matter what i did it would just not hold coming out of idle up 1-2...so the end result was buying the hard orange kbdd 500 dampers..Got those and blade tracking was spot on once again..So if your still having this problem consider kbdd orange dampers.

Thanks, dampers should be cheaper than trying a different set of blades. I'll google kbdd dampers and see what comes up.

RWW

..i have some of those KBDD "orange" dampners in my EXI's head, and the hardness holds the blade tracking pretty well on this Hughes Defender and it's 4400 lipo....

Originally Posted by Stixx44

For a test motor I picked up one of these last week. Flew it around only a few times. And it did just fine. ( again i only picked it up for a tester motor and it was cheap ) Im tempted to send it to you. But wow do i hate standing in las vegas mail room lines. Anyways its about the cheapest 500 heli motor i could find @ 1700 kv. 3 day shipping http://www.ebay.com/itm/Free-Ship-Ho...item27caff2cd1

Hi Thanks for your offer.

I can understand about hating to standing in lines at the post office too though.

If you decide that you want to do it let me know and I'll send you my address.

Bryan

Originally Posted by whitehedr

Bummer BD. I am in the same kinda financial bizbag so I can not help you out. Spare motors are not something I would have laying around anyway. Sorry for your predicament.

I just got my EXI 500 back in the sky on Saturday after its little tumble in the grass. I replaced the main shaft, feathering shaft, main rotor head piece, main blade grips, top main shaft bearing and main rotor blades. So I put out a little bit of cash myself.

I just came in from flying it in the driveway. This heli is quickly becoming my favorite.

Setting blade tracking is turning into a nightmare though. I make a turn of adjustment and the blades swap position, the high one goes low and the low one goes high. No matter which link I adjust I get this swap. If I did not value my hair so much I would be pulling it out for sure. Us older gents have that kinda love affair with our hair.

Other than this tracking issue the machine is flying nice. It just hangs in a hover pretty much hands off. I am still pretty much a noob so I don't do much forward flight. I need more space for that. I did go to a local FF on Saturday afternoon for the first time. I think I will go back on Wednesday afternoon, weather permitting, and see if I can get permission to fly there again. I met some real nice guys the other day, one of which was flying a Nitro 700. Sweet heli.

RWW

Hi RWW, I'm sorry to hear your dealing with crappy finances too. It's all over I guess.

Right before my motor went I was having problems with the tracking too. I was just getting ready to put the feathering shaft sleeve back in. I forgot to put in in the last time I had things apart. I thought that might have been the problem.

Anyway, thanks everyone.

BD

Originally Posted by MRFASTPHIL

..i have some of those KBDD "orange" dampners in my EXI's head, and the hardness holds the blade tracking pretty well on this Hughes Defender and it's 4400 lipo....

That's an awesome looking heli!

This is what the inside looks like. This motor was dinged at the bottom but didn't look like it was that bad. I guess the damage was much worse on the inside.

I'm thinking the magnets may have been cracked. The motor was getting really hot but I didn't think it was going to burn up on me.

I got the heli used so I guess that's just the chance I had to take.

What motor is that biker-dude ? looks like the hobbymate 1700kv