T500 wheel strip.

Hi
I was having issues with my t500 wheel, it has been very tight and lumpy when i turn it it was like had a very bad tight spot.
So i decided it must be the belt tensioner and went ahead to strip it down.
But then my curiosity got the better of me and took abit further ! Lol
So thought i would post it up with a few pics.

Basically what i found was the belt was leaving a kink in it where it hits the small wheel, that was the tight spot i kept feeling.
So what i did was boiled the belts in water to see if it sofen them up.
So far it has been sat overnight and no tight spots turns smooth, i also took the tensioners out to see if they are needed.

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I have not tested as yet tho but will update.

Then i delveled alot depper into.
After taking the covers off i stripped back to the bearings and the main wheel shaft.
I found it abit rough so stripped it down cleaned it up.
I then re greased it all.
Then i noticed an issue with the turning it was not turning full turns.
I have no idea if that was the soft lock thing or not.
I think soft lock was software so i proceded with the fault finding.
It turned out the guides for the centre moving turning plastic turnstop guide was the problem.
It would not hit its stop point without putting pressure on the whole setup and would pop out its bearing mounts or sqeeeze it. You could see it move.
I found the fix was on the flat guides i could trim the flat guides to make it travel a few mm more.
It worked flawless.
What i thought was happening is the grease causes a premature build up and stopped the guide traveling like a fliud lock would but compacted grease.
So trimming and creating it with a smal V in the cut should stop it ever happening again.

Heres a few pictures of the shaft n parts involved.

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The guides i trim is the ends of the bits sticking up where my thumb is.
Theres is 2 guides top and bottom.
I trimmed both ends but only by a mm or 2 untill it hit its lock stops without putting pressure on the whole shafts and twisting to pop bearing on seatings.
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You can see in the bearing picture the channel the guide sits into it was in the ends of there i noticed the grease build up. Those guides were defo not reaching full travel.
Which i think was the grease.
The trim soon stopped it and was going full travel and hitting its correct stops on the large plastic turny thing on the alli shaft.
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Then re greased put back together and is now turning identical both ways nice and smooth.
Bearing oiled ect...
I have not put pressure on tightning the fixing up only till screws stop then 1/4 turn to nip.

The next problem i found was the main belt gear wheel the large white one for the motor belt.
I found the bearing was sloppy and wobbling around in its seating so i ended up using some fibre tape sticking it round edge of the bearing triming the tape so nothing was to wrap up in the bearing.
Then it would push in the bearing hole with alot less slop.
I did this with both the bearings as they was both the same sloppy.

Unfortunatley i did not get any pictures of this part of the tweak.

I also the got sum silcon oil and put a small amount on the flat side of the belts to help soffen it if it works i have no ide but could not hurt.
I also noticed the belt does move abit across the gears and the worst bit was it would touch the motor gear raised belt stops so it does not go further.
I put small amount of grease on the so it was not lickely to drag or stick as runner from belt would defo drag there if any pressure was at that point.
So in theory is should never grip n drag so much now.

My wheel is about 4 years old might be more and has held up very well.
I will be testing the wheel later today and will update if theres any belt slip as i have now got no tensioners.
The belts on these are motor car strength and very very stiff belts.

Atm over night standing it is as smoother and np tight spots it feels miles better than it was new to me.

So if this still works, i might transform the details in the force feedback.
This could well be all my issues in not being happy with the feel of the wheel.

Fingers crossed.

so ive now put wheel back on the rig and gave a quick test and now i can defo say its a new wheel to me and everything i have setup needs to be changed again ! lol.
instant new wheel tho.
only 1 issues which is not bad but the wheel after it calibrates sits a smidge to the left but i can prob solve that.
i don't think its the belt being a tooth out as that will be find as the calibration i am guessing sorts that out, but what i do think it could be is the lack of tensioners.
as it will be just needing the lil bit of pressure that is nput on the belt and would pull the wheel as that side of the belt is pressed by the tensioner.
i hope its just that but its not bad or anything.
i will try both ways tho i did mark it all before stripping it so should be just tenstioners.
will report back tho.

Hi all i have stripped the wheel again to resolve the wheel alihgnment issues and found that i was a couple tooth out on the my marks i had made, that explanes it tho.
Tbh it can be a pain to get it back together again once gear covers are off i did have the belt fall off a few times that will be where i missed and messed up the line up.
Also i have put the tensioners back on, but mainly for when i had built and re-alihgned the gears and belts, i did a play test on the gears to belts teeth and found there was a tiny bit in that which would defo create an issue i bet at a later date with the feedback and the smaller details getting thru. so after fitting the tensioners i left them on full slack and it just pushes on the belt as theres 2 of them it pushes in 2 places on opposites, so this solved the play in the gears and belt obviously.

Also noted if i tightend the casing to the gears too much it got very stiff on turning the centre so it was defo something i learned in that test by tightening until it is noticed then 1/4 turn back is what i did in the end.

After all this i plugged it back into the rig fired it up and hey presto it centred no problems, it was smooth as butter too, i tested it with assetto corsa with a new profile and did abit of messing about and my gosh i have got feel i have never ever felt in this wheel like it does now, i am so pleased so far just on the simple stuff messing around, no wonder i have been having issues with feedback in all my games and prob maoning about it ! lol

now looks like i got a lot of research looking for wheel setting again ! doh
unless someone can start me off in the right direction as this will all be new ground now with this wheel.
all my settings will be totally wrong with all my profiles in all my games.

yes i am crying lol

well... you have some patience uh? rs.. i change my motor for 85watts ( like a tuto on this forum ) and reassembly wheels its a game... patience... and no error on parts hehe

Yes sorry missed the t500rs bit out ! doh.
Tbh i was thinking about the bigger motor but i am hoping to get the direct drive wheel soon, at the min tho my wheel is now amazing as it is after what i have done, even now it still as fresh running no tight spots the belts have not gone hard and kinking left over night as it sits on the small drive wheel and tensioner.
I am sooooo happy so far.
I wish i did a better thread on it now more detailed and pictures.
i have another thats broke so might do a refresh on what i did and more in depth pictures.
i thgink the boiling the belts has done the trick tbh for the tight spot and the rest is just smoother.