Model D vibration

[CRO_Express]

Hi all,
new to the forum, not in the world of rowing though.
Recently I've purchased gym used 2018 Model D, with cca 5mil meter done. It has never been used outdoors.
It was quite dusty and DF was relatively low, but considering I haven't seen any other issues and the price was ok, I went for the purchase.
Since i brought it home, I have cleaned the flywheel by taking it of from the axle. Did my homework prior to this and I was very careful with the balancing weights, did not loose any neither did I find any lying on the case. Since I can bet that the cage has never been opened before.
I lubed the bearing with: https://www.liqui-moly.com/en/gb/bike-c ... .html#6051 , carefully spinning the flywheel and adding little of oil in the center.
I was unsure which amount of force I needed to use in order to close the 15 mm socket on the flywheel (I did not overtighten) and I've notice there is some minor play of flywheel on the axle, not sure if this is normal?
Put all back together, lubed the chain with LM oil as well, all fine.

DF is now as stock, all works ok, no sounds from the chain or anything else. Unfortunately there goes however part, on the return drive I have noticed certain vibration on the flywheel slow down, it's not intense but it's there and it's annoying. It's not felt through the handle, but it's seen on the PM.

My thought's, I have the erg very close to the door, they are leaning on the lower legs, I know this affects my DR but I'm ok with it, can it cause these vibrations as well, I have tried moving it away and I saw this again, so to answer my own question I suppose...
Other idea was if I perhaps should have tighten the 15 mm bolt on the flywheel more, does that make sense? It's not loose or anything, just typing out loud. All options are great, just not to change the bearing or god forbid whole flywheel assembly, since here in EU it's quite difficult to get to.

Bottom end, vibation is not strong and I can live with it. But for sure I'd like to get to the bottom of it. Could it be that it's like that from day one, and no one from gym users ever noticed, considering them being gym users...

[GreenStratMan]

If you can only see the PM vibrating, I think that’s normal. I have model C but I fitted the PM5 with retrofit kit and it vibrates. Ive seen others mention it on here too. With D cell batteries, it’s a heavy lump. It bugged me a bit when I first fitted it. I just have a plethora of filthy thoughts flitting through my mind and don’t notice it too much. Although my C is 20 years old it’s been very well looked after and maintained.

Hope that helps.

Welcome aboard by the way.

[Carl Watts]

You have lost a flywheel balancing weight.

Vibration and noise from it comes during the recovery.

The rubber bearing mounts are really lose in the frame on the Model D, or possibly the Model D2 onwards only for some reason, I modified mine by packing out the inside of the bearing holder with thin clear plastic from a 4 pack of Energizer batteries cut to the right length with double sided tape on it.

The balance needs to be right however. Said this many times on here, when people buy a new erg they need to remove the flywheel cover and mark where the weights are fitted and also label them as they are not all the same weight, the clips are different thicknesses.

All the screws and nuts are imperial. The flywheel nut is 9/16". You cannot overtighten it as it is on a shoulder both ends.

The flywheels are balanced in the C2 factory to a pretty high specification, they are also balanced on the axis as you will notice some weights are on the inside of the plastic fan and some are on the outside. There should be zero vibration when the balance is correct. Personally I think the weights should be stainless steel as they can rust away quite significantly in our humidity or if the Erg is located at a rowing club close to the ocean.

When the balance is bad the flywheel literally tries to jump about in the bearing holder on the recovery. It cannot bounce around on the Drive because it is being pulled hard towards you.

[CRO_Express]

Good morning all.

So the minor play of the flywheel on the axle is normal?

I cannot figure out where could I lost it, if we are talking about balancing weight on the flywheel feathers, there has been a lot of them, around 10.
I haven't moved a single one, let alone let it drop. I was extra careful when cleaning the feather which had weight on it, or two in some cases.
It would make sense that they have droped earlier, but considering the amount of dirt inside the flywheel, I'm ceratin I was the first to open the cage and there was no steel weight inside.

Could this be perhaps caused from the axle itself, or the bearing on the flywheel?
Are there any other balancing factors I might have missed?

[GreenStratMan]

Good morning all.

So the minor play of the flywheel on the axle is normal?

I cannot figure out where could I lost it, if we are talking about balancing weight on the flywheel feathers, there has been a lot of them, around 10.
I haven't moved a single one, let alone let it drop. I was extra careful when cleaning the feather which had weight on it, or two in some cases.
It would make sense that they have droped earlier, but considering the amount of dirt inside the flywheel, I'm ceratin I was the first to open the cage and there was no steel weight inside.

Could this be perhaps caused from the axle itself, or the bearing on the flywheel?
Are there any other balancing factors I might have missed?

Just to sure, are we talking about just the monitor vibrating? I’m wondering if you’d feel it if there was a weight off. Bearing will often get noisy when it’s worn. Yeah, there should be a little end-play, normal as far as I know. But, I’m no expert.

[CRO_Express]

I've managed to resolve the vibration 'problem'. My erg was too close to the door and I suppose the wheel created to much suction and this affected the PM.
2nd thing I've noticed is clicking sound coming I suppose from the flywheel. This happens when I'm done with rowing, put the handle back and as the wheel slows down, you can hear couple of clicks untill the full stop. I'd say closest would be plastic clicking. Nothing is inside the flyhweel which would interfere with fan blades and clicking is not perodical. This does not happen during rowing.
This bother's me less then PM vibrating, but while we're here, maybe someone had experince with this as well?

[Carl Watts]

Put a tiny bit of a thin grease in the flywheel clutch bearing.

I use a synthetic grease these days but used to use a motorcycle chain lube.

The rollers in the bearing are designed to lock and unlock to the shaft so if they stick they click.

If it's a regular click it can be the tach pickup touching the magnet on the flywheel. The two are very close and just pulling it away from the flywheel can fix it.

[CRO_Express]

So to lube the bearing like described here: ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUj80NH9Dgc&t=817s
I already did that, but might need to redo.

[GreenStratMan]

That is a lazy way to do it. I take the flywheel off. I thought you’d already done that?

[Carl Watts]

You need to pull the flywheel and put a drip/pea sized but of grease on the end of a clean screwdriver and move it round the center of the roller bearing.

The viscosity of the grease is quite important, you don't want near solid and you don't want near oil because then it tends to fly out over the inside face of the flywheel due to centrifugal force.

This is what I use these days.

https://www.super-lube.com/multi-purpos ... ptfe-21030

[CRO_Express]

Thank you all. I have lubed the bearing with LM chain lube in the end like described, clicking sound is still there but it's plastic sound coming from the fan itself, won't investigate further.
At 2:00 last stroke, it takes 2:45 to fully stop the flywheel, what I have seen from here, this is ok result.