RH Shoulder Joint Won’t Turn

[Sooks569]

Working on Stage 25 after assembling the joint I realized that the joint turns one direction fine but will not turn the direction.  I know some people said to trim and/or file down the spring ends.  Still no luck!  I have the ends rounded and there is still binding.  Anyone with a solution (preferably with photos)?

[SJW2511]

Filing down spring edges with tamiya grease worked ok for me..

[Sooks569]

I even used garage door lubricant spray and it still binds.

[YeepYeep]

I shortened both ends of the spring for about 1 cm.

Then filed the edges and uses a good amount of grease. 

[Mor Draka 09]

Having the Same issue with both the left and Right shoulders. I've files, trimed and greased the living hell out of the springs and still only turns one way.... the only thing that i could think it might be is on the plate that the should rotates on might need to be sanded a little.. I'll try that and see if that fixes the issue...

[Collector_felix]

The hachette model has the same problem too. Filing the spring works intermittently for some people and not others. Be ware of the under size eyes and floppy fingers and wrist joint too and LOTS of plastic. Everything after the upper arm is plastic.

[Sooks569]

I ended up trimming the springs down 2 twists each.  I already bought the fixes for the eyes, teeth, wrists and fingers.

[Beamerboy]

I found that the sticky parts were the left and right shoulder cogs (Parts 23-1 and 28-2). They are cast from a rougher mould (of aluminium it looks like), and the groove for the springs is narrow - this tends to form some oxidation on the inside edges of the groove. It probably grabs the spring inconsistently, depending on how much oxidation has occurred, and leads to inconsistent binding.

My spring tended to bind initially on both shoulders while test fitting to the cog (Steps 25-10 and 29-10). I wetted a small stick with… wait for it… WD-40 (!) and wiped it around the inside of the groove a number of times. After awhile, the stick turned black with the picked up oxidation. Another light application of WD-40 inside the groove, and the spring would spin easily against the cogs. No trimming necessary, no messy grease, and rotated smoothly after fitting the cap plates. 👍

🖖

[Mor Draka 09]

19 hours ago, Beamerboy said:

I found that the sticky parts were the left and right shoulder cogs (Parts 23-1 and 28-2). They are cast from a rougher mould (of aluminium it looks like), and the groove for the springs is narrow - this tends to form some oxidation on the inside edges of the groove. It probably grabs the spring inconsistently, depending on how much oxidation has occurred, and leads to inconsistent binding.

My spring tended to bind initially on both shoulders while test fitting to the cog (Steps 25-10 and 29-10). I wetted a small stick with… wait for it… WD-40 (!) and wiped it around the inside of the groove a number of times. After awhile, the stick turned black with the picked up oxidation. Another light application of WD-40 inside the groove, and the spring would spin easily against the cogs. No trimming necessary, no messy grease, and rotated smoothly after fitting the cap plates. 👍

🖖

I might try that was i can longer get in to the shoulder joints as one of the screws is cover by a glued in greebel so can't get in to the spring to try and grease or trim it.

[foggy991]

Hey Gang! So nice to "meet" everyone! I've discovered the same problem with my T-800 shoulder joints recently. I've  tried everything short of cutting my springs down. I'm sure this is the problem, as I can't even begin to compress the parts far enough to disengage the cogs. The cuts will be with all 11 fingers crossed, as we all know there is no going back!  Anyway... I don't know if anyone else in the forum feels this way, but I can't for the life of me figure out how this can escape the notice of Agora's R&D department. Not a small oversight by any means! I contacted Agora by email, and received (much to their customer services credit) a very quick reply. Unfortunately, I was simply shoved off to this forum to seek an answer. Don't get my meaning wrong here. It is a great forum, full of great ideas and people, but it should not be used as excuse to release something that may not be totally ready for prime time. I can accept a company acknowledging a defect and releasing a fix down the line, or delaying production, but offering no solution is unacceptable. I am more than capable of putting together a solution to this problem, but there are other less experienced folks out there that are just looking forward to an easy, step by step build. It is a good thing that they can use this forum and it's fine list of experienced builders to answer their questions! Many thanks to everyone that helped with the shoulder question, as it definitely helped to shore up my conclusions! Enjoy those builds!

[James H]

On 7/27/2021 at 8:01 PM, foggy991 said:

Hey Gang! So nice to "meet" everyone! I've discovered the same problem with my T-800 shoulder joints recently. I've  tried everything short of cutting my springs down. I'm sure this is the problem, as I can't even begin to compress the parts far enough to disengage the cogs. The cuts will be with all 11 fingers crossed, as we all know there is no going back!  Anyway... I don't know if anyone else in the forum feels this way, but I can't for the life of me figure out how this can escape the notice of Agora's R&D department. Not a small oversight by any means! I contacted Agora by email, and received (much to their customer services credit) a very quick reply. Unfortunately, I was simply shoved off to this forum to seek an answer. Don't get my meaning wrong here. It is a great forum, full of great ideas and people, but it should not be used as excuse to release something that may not be totally ready for prime time. I can accept a company acknowledging a defect and releasing a fix down the line, or delaying production, but offering no solution is unacceptable. I am more than capable of putting together a solution to this problem, but there are other less experienced folks out there that are just looking forward to an easy, step by step build. It is a good thing that they can use this forum and it's fine list of experienced builders to answer their questions! Many thanks to everyone that helped with the shoulder question, as it definitely helped to shore up my conclusions! Enjoy those builds!

 

I've heard about the shoulders sticking and not being adjustable, although mine are (thankfully) ok. Sure I'd read about someone filing the end of the spring so it won't catch inside, and using some grease to help.

[ConsummatePro]

I'm having the same issue - didn't notice until I've finished the whole build - but my left shoulder won't position at all since it won't compress down to disengage the cogs - the right shoulder works perfectly.

It was a pain to take the shoulder off the finished model due to the trim piece covering one of the screws.

I noticed the spring barely/doesn't really fit into the metal cog housing - If I push the spring in using a screwdriver I can get it into the recess, but rebuidling the shoulder it doesn't compress at all - I'm sure the spring is getting in the way. I'm thinking of also cutting the spring but I'm afraid of making a loose shoulder! I guess I could cut bits at a time.

I've written Agora in hopes of getting a replacement spring in case mine can't work: any luck getting replacement parts from Agora? This is my first build with them.

[Sooks569]

I ended up trimmed a couple turns off the spring, filing the sharp edges and added some silicone grease inside.