Thanks to everyone who posted a reply. I'm slowly working through things. If the weather cooperates we should have a go tommorrow.
I was a bit peeved the other day and ranting a bit. It's mainly not so much about the current situation but really just the symptom of a lot of festering frustration with MD going back a couple years. That said there are some good people with the company and John Kerr and Chris deserve kudos for their help with offering solutions. Contrary to Cyclic's opinions I have great affinity for the bird and find it to be a great machine to work on especially in a field environment. Maybe one of these days I'll offer some polite constructive criticism relative to my frustration with the company. Till then I do wish them the best.
Hughes500: Yep had lots of problems with the o/c and bungee with the HTC blades. Someone on the line at MD told me last year that -2 deg (across the full tab) and nuetral o/c and bungee will give nuetral collective. I've tried it and it does work but the tabs don't seem to like the -2 and try to reflex a bit. An great mech in Panama (Policia {sp?}) got me using -1 (full tab length) and that seems to be the best compromise. It gets close on collective adjustment and gives enough down twist to the blades that you don't have to screw the p/c links all the way in to get auto rpm up. I've used that for a few years now and have been very happy. Fortunately I have 4 MD blades and only one HTC on this machine and everything is very predictable. I've had lots of problems with the HTC blades from chordwise CG issues to erratic track. An essential fix if using the HTC blades is to at least fair the inboard edge of the abrasion strip to the skin with filler or epoxy. That edge seems to generate some kind of aerodynamic disturbance (vortex?) that makes tracking a bear. If you've ever made a tab bend only to see another blade move in a weird way you know what I mean. I've seen guys fair the whole strip but I don't know how effective it is. One thing I do know is that taco style strip certainly robs a good deal of payload. If you ever get a chance to see an old MD blade notice how the abrasion strip is smoothly faired into the skin. I hear MD has their own blades in production flight test right now so happy days may be near again.
MaxTork: Swashplate is good, just had it out, inspected and lubed 100 hours ago and checked again before installing the head.
Skidbiter: Checked the scissors again and it's a little bit stiff. I've had them that stiff before and it didn't cause a problem but I'm going to try to loosen it up. Problem is, at the head there are no shims just a bushing. The only way to loosen it up is to back off the bolt which allows the bolt to turn a bit in the assembly. Can't say I'm wild about that. If anyone has any other suggestions please let me know.
Hughes500: Checked the head balance. It was good but I'm not too concerned about that as the whole disk (of which the head is a part) is balanced at the end. At this point the whole disk system is .04ips. I started with nominal dampers, -1 tabs and left the links as is since the old auto rpm was good. We've swappped blades, dampers and p/c links between ships before and the track and balance did not change except for a slight lateral difference so I'd have to disagree with your statement about how track and balance cannot be related from the old head to the new.
RVDT: I think you may be right about the droop stops being set too high. I did notice even in a hover that a couple blades would occasionally go out of track when the pilot moved the cyclic around to maintain hover. I never thought it could be so high as to have an impact in flight. I also always assumed the factory had a jig to set that at overhaul so I never bothered to check it at install. I'll have help in the morning to check where they are.
Cyclic: Good info. Actually I don't find T&B on the 500 that mysterious. It does make sense (well most of the
time) Lateral is due to a mass imbalance across the disk and is corrected by sweep or weight. It should be done once all else is finished. Vertical is due to aerodynamic (lift) dissymetry across the disk. Track is not necessarily an indication of balanced lift. That's why it's sometimes necessary to move a blade out of track in order to reduce vertical. I did replace the mylar tape with stainless so I do suspect it may be causing a slight lift imbalance from what I had before so I may have to link one or two blades to reduce vertical but I guarantee it's not the source of the shudder. I'm using the MicroVibe. If I had the database option I'd post what I have for feedback
Scissorlink: Yep, doused it down with Tri-flow.
SASless: Checked all the linkages as it's just going through annual. Replaced the five lower and one upper p/c link bearings.
Anyway, thanks to everyone for your input. Results to follow...
