Fixed!

Well, it took a while but my heli is fixed!! The problem was that the upper bearing in the tail pulley assembly had worn and was grinding

As you can see, the upper bearing block is one piece solid aluminum so in order to take the shaft out, I had to resort to heating the pulley with a propane torch.

The tail pulley is located just behind the main shaft so removing it required taking the entire rear of the helicopter apart. While everything was apart, I decided to do some of the upgrades I had been holding off until my "first crash"

Changed the tail boom to carbon fiber and moved the tail servo to the left side of the boom (to protect it from blade strikes). Also added a Deans whip antenna.


Added a ferrite ring between the ESC and RX




Added a flanged tail-belt guide to the tail case which should help keep the belt from sliding side to side.




Took it up at lunch time and everything works perfectly! Whoo Hoo!