R22 drive belts

[bigruss]

Does anyone know much about the R22 drive belts that have been splitting the back and derailing. I think they are revision x. I know of 2 instances this year. I had a set split when the belts were only 150 hours old. I remember when it happened about 10 years ago and apparently it was because the rubber compound was too soft and it was fixed then. I guess this problem has already been fixed.

[topendtorque]

A bad weekend for rotary aviation in OZ.

It was whispered to me today that one of the five mishaps that I know about was an R22 in West OZ that had a serious altercation with a large tree.
The other blade very nearly took the drivers legs off as it took out the instrument panel on the way down.

Reason for the descent in a not so hospitable environment?
Thirty hour Old drive belts rolled up.

surely not again anyone else?
tet

[muffin]

The drive belts on my R22 have been excessively tight ever since its rebuild 2 years ago. The adjustment is on its end stop and still they turn the blades at start up. I have tried the usual remedies of shutting down with clutch engaged etc and discussed the problem with the factory without any real resolution. I eventually evolved a technique where I engage the clutch motor for about one minute and leave it like that for 30 minutes or so before running it to fully disengaged immediately prior to starting, thus pre stretching the belts. This has given moderate success. However yesterday my starter motor failed by cracking its casting at the ring gear end, no doubt due to the excessive drive train loads over a two year period.

Has anybody found a proper solution to this problem?

[Peter-RB]

Hey Muffin

Get it repaired , sell it and get a bigger thing with no lackey bands, its obviously a Friday afternoon rebuild, Amarmy Night, if you can remember that..!

Peter RB
Lancashire

[heliace]

We experienced this after every rebuild that we did on R22's and R44's. We would leave them engaged overnight giving the belts time to stretch. On some aircraft it took a few nights to get the belts stretched properly.

As an aside, we found that a clutch engagement time of between 48 seconds and one minute meant that the belts were set correctly. The manual allows for a maximum of 90 seconds if I remember correctly.