Recently I was in need for a 36Mhz radio, so I put the call out for anyone who wanted to sell JR 36Mhz radio and was contacted by a fellow flier who had a broken JR X2610 that I might be interested.  The sweetener on this little deal is that was free - all I had to do was pickup the tab on the freight.  I was very grateful for this, and was a bit apprehensive as to what I might find when I got my hands on the radio.  All I knew is that it had a broken gimbal.

You can see from the picture above that there is obviously a problem.  When I opened the radio up it was clear that the gimbal was indeed broken.  It was actually the hub on one side of the gimbal - sort of the axle if you will.

What was needed was to make a new hub for the the gimbal to pivot on. So after some searching through the workshop, and a few head scratching moments, I got started.

The original setup consisted of a hub that spins freely inside a bush.  My problem was, I did not have the original bush, and I did not have the original broken hub -  so I had to fabricate one.  I found that a length of carbon rod that I had was the perfect size to replace the hub.  All that was needed was to drill the gimbal out and glue the new carbon rod in place.  After a few dry fits, I cut the carbon rod down to the right length and glued it in place.

Next step was to find a new Barbra Bush.  What I found was the inside of a servo horn.  I trimmed off the arm and dry fit - virtually perfect!  The scary moment coming up here is that I was going to have to glue the hub in place, and the only way I could do this was with the fully assembled gimbal in place.  What it meant was, if I managed to get CA in the wrong spot, it would seize the entire mechanism, and the job would be over.  After some deep breaths and a very steady hand, I glued it in.  I kept the gimbal moving in the hope that if I did get some CA in where it shouldn't be, it hopefully would not get a chance to seize the mechanism.

The last job was to screw down the retaining plate.  My new bush was a little smaller than the original, so I glued a small piece of plastic from a control surface horn to take up the slack.

As I fly Mode 2, I swapped over the the springs and ratchet, and from the outside, you would never know of the repair job on the inside. And as long as I don't treat it too hard, it should hold up - I hope!!

A big thanks goes out to Clovus - THANKS MATE

Cheers
The Mongrel