8265 problem

[warpug]

I just finished putting together my 8265 loader. It looks fantastic but when I operate the lift mechanism I notice that the gears start skipping when I try to lower the lift arm. It operates correctly when raising the lift arm but not the other direction. If I remove the bucket then the lift arm operates smoothly. I also noticed that tipping the bucket worked in one direction and not as well in the other, with the gears skipping. It seems as if the LA's can't handle the load as the lift arm is lowered. I was hoping to motorize the model, but with the gears skipping as they are I don't think they would last long at all. Maybe I got a bad gear?

I'm wondering if anyone else has had this issue, or if I just missed something during the build. I did make sure to align both LA's so that they were both fully retracted when attaching them to the lift arm so that they wouldn't be skewed as well.

[Blakbird]

I just finished putting together my 8265 loader. It looks fantastic but when I operate the lift mechanism I notice that the gears start skipping when I try to lower the lift arm. It operates correctly when raising the lift arm but not the other direction. If I remove the bucket then the lift arm operates smoothly. I also noticed that tipping the bucket worked in one direction and not as well in the other, with the gears skipping. It seems as if the LA's can't handle the load as the lift arm is lowered. I was hoping to motorize the model, but with the gears skipping as they are I don't think they would last long at all. Maybe I got a bad gear?

I'm wondering if anyone else has had this issue, or if I just missed something during the build. I did make sure to align both LA's so that they were both fully retracted when attaching them to the lift arm so that they wouldn't be skewed as well.

Something sounds off with your build. Mine has no issues.

[allanp]

The only issue I had with mine was a 16t gear kept popping off when motorised. Everytime this happened I had to re-align the two LA's. If this is the problem you are having then it is a common design flaw. I have also encountered one LA that was quite hard to operate, i've not heard of any others suffering this problem so I guess it's VERY rare but could this be the cause of your problem? If not then it's probably a build issue. I'm sure you checked all this before posting but can all the gears and axles turn freely? Is everything (not just the LA's) lined up correctly? Is there any binding? Is the driving ring moving the full distance? (you should hear 4 clicks from one side to the other).

Edited December 31, 2009 by allanp

[Urrmurrmur]

I had the exact same problem as warpug, both with lowering the arm and tipping the bucket (or raising, can't remember) - both worked fine in the other direction. Mine was a build problem, though, my LA's weren't completely lined up. When I removed them and very carefully reinstalled them, making sure they were exactly aligned this time, the problem disappeared. I've since motorised it, and everything still works smoothly (in both directions).

However, my 8265 had two other issues, this time unrelated to my own clumsiness (I think), and while reading this topic I was wondering if anyone else experienced them - and if so, hoping I can be of some help in fixing them.

Firstly, the steering mechanism: in instruction step 49.6, a non-friction pin is used to connect the yellow 13 beam to the black L-shaped beam. However, when steering my loader completely to the left, the bottom of that pin always got stuck in the right most hole of the yellow 7 beam below it - causing a noticeable snapping sound and jerking motion on the subsequent right turn (due to the bottom of the pin pushing itself free from that hole). I solved this by switching the non-friction pin with a dark stone 3/4 pin, with the short side at the bottom (in the yellow 13 beam). This would not normally connect the yellow and black beams together firmly while still allowing them to move across the joint freely, but because the whole construction rests on that yellow 7 beam, there is no risk of the two beams disconnecting. As an added bonus, my 8265 had an extra one of those 3/4 pins, so I didn't have to use a different box to solve my problem.

Hope that made sense. The second problem I had is much simpler to explain:the black friction pin from step 12.3 caused a bit too much friction, resulting in a squeaking noise every time I turned the loader. So I just replaced it with the non-friction pin I took out when solving the previous issue, which solved it.

I hope that was of some help to someone.

Edited December 31, 2009 by Urrmurrmur

[warpug]

Found the bug: in manual no. 2, step 59 I placed the gear at the end of the axle, instead of a third of the way down. This meant that the gear had some wiggle room when torque was applied, causing it to skip since the axle didn't rest on anything at one end. Made the fix and now the loader works great. Thanks everyone for your input.