The 214 in its’ original incarnation was a real piece of sh!t. The build quality was horrendous. The pull pins in the Cherry rivets were dropping out. The transmission deck was out of a Huey and it had the same vibratory problems as the Huey that resulted in cracking.
The vibration was so extreme that the trannie deck contacted a small oil transfer line on the engine causing it to fracture with the attendant loss of oil.
The transmission was mounted on a Nodamatic suspension, which allowed the transmission to move in relation to the engine. This relative movement caused the short shaft couplings to pump grease. This grease would plate out on the inlet bell of the engine and attract sand and other small debris. This build up of FOD on the inlet bell caused a combustion instability, which caused compressor stalls, which resulted in a lot of maintenance and the change-out of many dynamic components.
The rotors were a bitch to balance and even with Chadwick-Helmuth it still took several hours. The rotorheads were almost impossible to balance using the Marvel balancer. In most cases the allowable balance weights were not able to bring the rotorheads into balance.
Finally the masts would magnetize and cause the standby compasses to lock up and not move when the aircraft started to maneuver. It also effected the VORs.
