Thunder Tiger Raptor 50 Owners Thread

Please dicuss your Raptor 50 helicopter here.

HeliTown's Raptor 50 Link Page
http://www.helitown.com/Raptor50.html

[Vera]

Regarding the auto one-way bearing and the thrust bearings: I greased them both with "white lithium" grease. Ok, so I'm not big on reading directions, so the resulting guilt trip drove me to take it apart. I cleaned the bearings and put the official Raptor one-way bearing grease there and the official thrust bearing grease there. Having done that, I'm not told by Raptor owners that I should only use Tri-Fow in the one way. Oh no... gotta take that apart again. And I read somewhere that I should use silicone grease in the thrust bearings. Egads... gotta take that apart again too.

Or do I? I heard one fellow say he didn't put grease anywhere. I can't help feeling that won't work out too well. I read another article saying that the Union 76 grease was the best to use.... I may not have that name right, but something like that. Anyway, there's no Union stuff around here.

I bought some "Lubriplate EMB Polymer grease", part #L0148-098. It says:

"A long lasting, water resistant, polymer type grease formulated especially for the lubrication of electric motor and fan bearings, ball and roller bearings. Works well over a wide temperature range".

I also bought a greaser and one day I'll be about the task of regreasing this thing... if I don't total it first. Before I do that, I'm wondering about the rest of the bearings... will this Lubriplate be ok?

I don't wanna spend the rest of my days changing the grease in my one-way and thrust bearings. I'm gonna spend about a week trying to gather info and then I'm just gonna go with something... donno what.

I'm all ears/eyes... please give input.

[swatson144]

My experience with grease which is pretty extensive indicates that some greases are better than others for some uses. Unless you are dealing in the extremes of pressure or temp (and we aren't) we are looking for a non fiberous, smooth grease with a long life (it be in the catagory of HS bearing grease) . The lithium grease you installed will last for a good while before it becomes a waxy goop stuck between the needles/balls and doing nothing. *later edit* to avoid confusion I realize you changed the WLG for the OEM grease I am not insinuating the OEM grease will solidify.

At this point the only thing I'd do is run a couple gallons of nitro through it and keep it in mind for a boring day in the not too distant future. I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong because of something I don't know about your bearings.

Use what the manufacturer recommends. Once you get into the right class of grease you have reached a point of diminishing returns for something more exotic.

If I was the manufacturer I'd sell "red mobile" in little teeny tubs and turn a 45$ can of grease into 4500$. :lol:

Some plastics are affected by long term exposure to petroleum products in that case halocarbon or some other premium "silicone grease" would be the best choice.

Steve

[G-MRM]

So true Steve, you will be fine with what you used, I used a top quality automotive grease and if I am lucky in a years time I will service clean and renew the grease, if unlucky it will be replaced after a crash :roll:

Wheel bearings on 200mph racing car will need the correct type for sure !

The heli's one way bearing only works on a spin down / auto, when being driven by the engine it is locked and thus don't move !