TIMER INSTALLATION AND MAINTENANCE
INSTALLATION
Just like your wristwatch is put in a case to protect the
innards, so should your timer be installed. It would be nice if we could put our
timers in a nice metal case with a gasket seal, making it near water tight.
Unfortunately, this is not feasible. But, you can a lot to put the timer in a
pretty good environment, with very little effort. We very strongly
suggest all timers be mounted in a small box inside the fuselage.
(Read below about how our Installation kits can fill this
need) After
determining where the timer is to be mounted, you need to add bulkheads that
will form a small sealed cavity inside the fuselage. Seal up the cavity with
dope or epoxy to keep all the balsa dust inside the fuselage out, and to nail
down any dust inside the cavity. No matter how neat a builder your are, there is
always going to be a huge amount of balsa dust inside your fuselage, and you
sure do not need that flying around, and landing on the timer gears.
The timer needs to be installed so that there is adequate
clearance between the clockworks gears and the fuselage sides. Some of the gears
can hit the fuselage sides if you are not real careful in making the cutout. For
this reason, we introduced a whole family of
Installation Kits for all our timer
products. There is a kit for every timer we offer, and we really encourage you
to use them. They make installation a lot easier, and at the same time
help ensure you have adequate clearance for the gears. After the plywood kit
mounts are attached to your fuselage, you will likely need to bevel the balsa
away from the mount, on the inside. The installation kits include a molded dust
cover that installs inside the fuselage and eliminates the need for you to build
the sealed box noted above.
It is always advisable for the timer to be mounted on a totally
flat surface. Our Installation Kits are great for this. And, we strongly
encourage you to use small #2 metal screws (included with our kit) or 2-56
machine screws to hold the timer, not glue. Glue says you are not likely going
to take the timer out to inspect or clean it. Some customers make a gasket to
help seal the outside crud away from the timer. This sounds like a good idea,
but we have never used it ourselves.
MAINTENANCE
One of the hardest points to get across to our customers is to
not oil or lube the timer clock gears in any way shape or form. See below for
how to oil the pivots and spring.
OIL - THE ENEMY
Oil and dirt are the enemies of any mechanism like the clock used
in my timers. Oil of any form on the gears a a natural sticking point for any
dust, pollen, balsa, weed seeds, or dirt. And when the tiny gears get any of
this on them, the typical result is a timer that suddenly quits running, or
works erratically. We see this time and again on reported failures. It is a
wonder the timer could even run a few seconds. Usually, a good long blast with
an aerosol can of brake or carburetor cleaner, followed by a good blow with with
high pressure air is all it takes to get it going again. Although, sometimes we have to resort to an ultrasonic cleaner and detergent/solvent. When cleaning is
done, the clock is bone dry.It is sometimes necessary to put the tiniest
amount of oil on the gear pivot points. You must not get it on the gear teeth,
only the pivots. A wire can be useful to do this. Dip the end of a fine wire in
some Outers Gun Oil and use it as the applicator.
OIL - YOUR
FRIEND
There is one place that lubrication is a good thing. That is on the spring of
extended run time models, such as the DT, MAX, Ultimate, and 3F. These are the
timers that have the spring housing can on the back. The spring coil needs to
slip and slide on itself while it is unwinding. It is good to keep the spring
coated with a thin film of oil. And we do not mean WD 40 or 3 in
One. These are the kiss of death to the clock. Use a high quality clock spring
oil. This is oil that has the consistency of water and never thickens. Outers
Gun Oil available at Wal Mart is good as is Dukie's Oil as sold by Doug Galbreath. To oil the spring, you let it unwind all the way, to where you can
see the spring coils through the little hole in the case cover. Put several drops of
this good oil in the hole, and then wind up the clock to distribute the oil.
This also helps to protect the steel spring from corrosion. You can not use too
much oil. Any excess oil will
drain out of the can.
WARNING - never remove the can cover. It is crimped in place and if you pry
it off, the timer is scrap. You will not be able to get it back on correctly.
CLEANING
How often a timer needs to be cleaned is a variable based on how you
installed it, where you fly, and how often you fly. It is common practice for
the Seelig timer users to clean their clock every day they fly. No, that should
not be necessary with a Texas Timer, but it does show you how important some
people believe cleaning is. We suggest that you check your timer once in a
while, and see what is happening to it. This is why we want you to use
screws to mount the timer, and not glue it in. Of course, gluing it in has its
own risks as we have seen the glue creep into the clock and really mess it up big
time!
The bottom line is KEEP IT CLEAN and you will be rewarded with many years of
trouble free operation.
