Broken part on flywheel

[Train608]

Bought a used rower on Monday, rowed a 5k in Tuesday. Went to warm up This morning and a crashing noise of metal came from inside the flywheel. Pulled it apart and found a medal clasp, dissimilar to the other ones, broken in two and floating around. Anyone have any idea what this might be and how I can fix it? Can't upload a picture for some reason. Says the file is too large.

[Citroen]

Put your photo on https://imgur.com post the IMGUR link on here.

Get the date code from the frame of your rower then pick up the phone and call Concept2 at 1-800 245 5676 for advice.

[Train608]

http://imgur.com/gallery/Z6wmmnI

[Carl Watts]

They are the flywheel balancing weights.

Search the forum I did a write up a while ago telling everyone to mark the position and label them because if they ever come off your stuffed.

[Train608]

They are the flywheel balancing weights.

Search the forum I did a write up a while ago telling everyone to mark the position and label them because if they ever come off your stuffed.

So what, my rower is useless now?

[Ombrax]

Depending on how much the fan is out of balance now that that particular balancing weight is off, maybe.

I would give the handle a very gentle pull and see how much vibration you get.

However, before you do that, I would inspect the fan very very carefully and see if you can determine based on dust, sliding scratch marks when it came off, or whatever, where the weight was originally installed. If you can do that, then all you have to do is order a new weight, install it in the correct location, and you're good to go.

If you can't figure out where the weight goes, but based on how it behaves you think you need it, then you have a problem. Since I've never had to do that I have no clue how easy or hard it will be to balance the fan yourself. You might find someone on the forum who's done that, but I would give C2 a call and see what they suggest.

Good Luck

[Train608]

Bought it used. Nice rower. Vibrates a lot.

[Ombrax]

Vibrates a lot.

In that case, call C2 and see what they suggest.

But just for grins, first see if you can figure out where the weight was before it came off.

[Train608]

I think I found the spot!!! Marked it and all the other counter weights.

http://imgur.com/a/dw4gx0y

[Ombrax]

That definitely seems to be where it was.

I just checked the C2 web site in the "spare parts" section, but couldn't find anything related to fan balance weights.
Also, car tire balance weights come in different sizes. I don't know if the fan weights are all the same size or not.

[Carl Watts]

Bought it used. Nice rower. Vibrates a lot.

Err yeah thats because they use those clip on weights that all look the same to balance the flywheel, however if you look carefully they can be made out of different thicknesses of materials and hence have different weights. They are only like 1 gram or 1.5 grams each but they make a huge difference in perfectly balancing the flywheel. I understand Concept 2 has a special rig used to balance them at the factory and it must be to a very tight tolerance. You may notice its not just balanced near the steel of the flywheel, sometimes the wights are on the outside of the plastic fan as well so its balanced right across the axial plane.

Yeah your pretty much stuffed if you cannot ID exactly where they were fitted, you need to buy a whole new flywheel. If the fan had been kept clean you would never know where they were fitted unless you mark around them and label each one like A, B, C etc.

There is simply NO WAY you can re-balance it to the Concept 2 specification by yourself without knowing exactly where the weights were fitted.

I suggested to Concept 2 that they use the same technique as the Japanese use to balance the Turbo Compressor wheels since as far back as 1990 which spin in excess of 100,000rpms but so far no joy.

[Cyclist2]

Nice discussion, maybe C2 can offer help but...

Why not try putting it back on? They make some pretty serious adhesive these days, and while it may weigh a few micrograms more, it probably would be adequate. Even a small screw, matched just opposite on the flywheel, might work. If it were my rower, I'd be playing with it until I got it as smooth as possible.

(I used to balance car wheels using a device attached to the wheel on the car. The wheel would spin at upwards of 100 kph and you just finessed this knob, by hand, until the wheel spun smoothly. When the wheel stopped you'd read how much and where the permanent weight was to be placed. Talk about dangerous, but it worked).

[Anth_F]

If it were my rower, I'd be playing with it until I got it as smooth as possible.

Yeah same here. Though that weight looks like it's broken into two pieces. Surely you can't be completely stuffed through something like that. Imagine scrapping your car because a weight flew off the wheel

Just out of interest, how much is a new flywheel replacement? surely they can't be that expensive

[c2jonw]

It's a 2 gram clip- broken indeed and it looks like you found it's location. Call C2 tech support and they will help you out. If you have some modeling clay take about 2 teaspoons of it and mash it onto the inner surface of the fan blade where the scratches are. Then row it to see if it smooths out. This is no permanent fix but will confirm the location.

[Cyclist2]

Thread drift, sorry...

C2jonw, are you back at C2 or never left like your signature suggests?