Replacing the Trex 600n tailboom brace
Written by Rob Turnbull Monday, 05 November 2007 00:00
Tailboom braceThis article covers replacing a tail boom brace on the Trex600n.
Here's a couple of pictures of the replacement boom stay parts.
The tailboom braces are a simple item to fix, but you need to get everything ready around you so that the final stage of fitting to the heli can be done before the epoxy glue, used to stick the aluminium ends to the carbon rod, goes off - allowing you to get them lined up and perfectly positioned on the heli.
The first step is to remove any remnants of the part to be replaced from the heli. The only remaining part in my case was a sheared aluminium end attached to the rear of the sideframes - the rest of the brace had vanished.
The frame end of the tailboom brace is mounted using a hex bolt, which goes through the sideframe and into the frame stiffener. The horizontal fin end of the brace is mounted using a cross head screw.
This is where having everything ready comes in. We want to glue both ends onto the rod, and then fix it to the helicopter before the epoxy goes off. If you are using 5 minute epoxy, you'd better be quick!
Items needed:
- Hex driver for the bolt into the sideframes
- Threadlock for that bolt
- Cross head screwdriver for the screw into the horizontal fin mount
- CA glue for that screw
- Epoxy glue, something to mix it on (like the packet top from the replacement parts), and a mixing stick
- The carbon rod, fixings and washers
- Some tissue to wipe off excess epoxy
I usually sand the end of the carbon rod lightly to give the epoxy something more to grip onto. Then I mix up some epoxy glue and fit the aluminium ends one by one.
After you push the rod into the aluminium end, wipe off the excess epoxy glue for a neat finish.
Epoxy both aluminium ends to the carbon rod, and then mount the boom stay onto the heli. Use threadlock on the hex head bolt and screw it firmly into the aluminium frame spacer in the rear of the heli.
Use CA glue on the screw in the other end of the rod and screw that firmly into the horizontal fin mount.
Unless you assembled this very slowly, allowing the glue to go off, attaching the assembled rod to the heli will ensure that the ends are rotated to exactly the right angle (i.e. inline in this case) and that the rod is set to exactly the right length from mounting point to mounting point.
Job done!
The replacement aluminium fittings no longer have a hole in them - pictures will illustrate the difference, see the hole in the right picture (from the original kit) and the lack of a hole in the new replacement item on the left.
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