Versa Planetary Issues

[TheKeeg]

Has anyone had issues with the planetary gearboxes binding up? We have an RS775 hooked up to a 1:100 reduction for our winch and it randomly binds up and we are unable to turn it at all. I took it apart and nothing is damaged, but I did notice that everything is fine when the bolts holding the stages together are semi-loose, but once you tighten them it starts to bind again. (They were not even tight...just snug). Any suggestions?

[thefro526]

Originally Posted by TheKeeg

Has anyone had issues with the planetary gearboxes binding up? We have an RS775 hooked up to a 1:100 reduction for our winch and it randomly binds up and we are unable to turn it at all. I took it apart and nothing is damaged, but I did notice that everything is fine when the bolts holding the stages together are semi-loose, but once you tighten them it starts to bind again. (They were not even tight...just snug). Any suggestions?

Do you know how old the Versaplanetary is, and if it's running with any sort of motor piloting feature?

We blew up a handful of the 100:1 2013 Spec Versaplanetarys due to a mixture of improper loading and bad motor alignment, but the 2014 Versa's should be significantly better.

Regardless, to get through events last season, we'd often run our versaplanets a little bit loose, and then began retrofitting a spacer that piloted the motor into the input, and that solved many of our problems.

[TheKeeg]

I am pretty sure that are 2014 but not 100%. Did you leave all the bolts loose including the motor mount bolts or just the two that hold the gearbox together?

[Madison]

We've found that there's some axial play in the motor shafts on our 775s -- almost as if they're sprung inside the housing -- and that if the shaft somehow gets moved around, it'll be too long for the input stage and bind against the following stage. That may be what you're seeing happen.

[Adam Freeman]

When is the gearbox binding up? Do you have the motor plate bolted up before the rest of the gearbox is snugged together?

Does the gearbox bind when the motor plate is removed?

There is definitely an assembly process that should be followed to ensure smooth operation of the versa planetaries.

I think you want to have the gearbox assembled completely before assembling the motor plate.

After that, I have tightened the motor plate bolts before tightening up the set screw, otherwise you may be putting some preload on the gears when you tighten up the motor plate.

Not sure if this is the VEXpro recommended process or not, but I have used it to make our gearboxes run smoothly.

[TheKeeg]

Originally Posted by Adam Freeman

When is the gearbox binding up? Do you have the motor plate bolted up before the rest of the gearbox is snugged together?

The motor plate is completely mounted to the motor before I mount it to the rest of the gearbox. Those small bolts that hold the motor plate onto the other stages are not the bolts that seemingly have to be loose. It is the other two, longer, bolts.

Originally Posted by Adam Freeman

Does the gearbox bind when the motor plate is removed?

The gearbox only binds when everything is assembled, including the motor.

[roystur44]

Check your load ratings using the JVN motor calc and figure out the actual load using a luggage scale.

You might need to add another motor to load your catapult.

The 2014 motor mounts work way better than last years model. Don't put a excessive amount of grease into the housing.

We are using a dual motor input using two 18 Volt RS-775's, 3 stages at 300:1 with the 18:84 final reduction. The winch setup works great. Winds the choo choo around 8 seconds and can pull down with over 200 lbs.

[ryaneogilvie]

I'm not 100% sure but i believe the 2014 models, besides having different motor mounts, fixed the binding issue by removing the unnecsary 3rd bearing that holds the motor shaft coupler in place. By not having the 3rd bearing it avoids any binding from slight misalignment in the assembly. If you are still using a 2013 model, it may help to remove this bearing by pushing it out of the housing, removing the clip holding it in place with the shaft coupler, and seperating it from the shaft coupler. Then reasamble without the bearing. It may help with binding issues.

[T^2]

Check to see if the pins on the planet plate protrude above the tops of the planet gears. On some of ours, they were, which caused binding. I fixed the issue by pressing them back down. I can't speak to whether they'll loosen again over time, though.

[TheKeeg]

Originally Posted by T^2

Check to see if the pins on the planet plate protrude above the tops of the planet gears. On some of ours, they were, which caused binding. I fixed the issue by pressing them back down. I can't speak to whether they'll loosen again over time, though.

That was the problem. We had a spare plate from a planetary that blew up a couple weeks ago (oops) so I just used that. Thanks everyone for input.