So back from a few days away and back to the re-build. What's been giving me sleepless nights is how to get the main flail rotor back into the chassis in a controlled fashion to let me align and bolt up the flange mounted bearings that retain it. The chassis is asymmetric, so when lifted hangs at an odd angle, and the rotor shaft is bally heavy and the flails get in the way of jacks and wedges.
Eventually, by dangling the chassis from a strop on the forklift and jacking up the shaft I was able to get the left hand side (which is a plain 2.5" hole in the chassis) threaded together, and with judicious joggling could lower the chassis so the right hand end (which has a slot to allow the rotor to enter) to go roughly into place.
It was then a case of wiggling and huffing and puffing until the four 16 mm bolts lined up with the retaining baffle / ring threaded holes. Technically trivial, but not easy due to the sheer mass and un-cooperative nature of the parts. In one case I did have to turn a bolt end down to it's minor diameter to give a lead into it's hole, but eventually it all went together and has been torqued up to 'murder tight'
![:clap:](https://madmodder.net/Smileys/default/happy0065.gif)
I'm now rather regretting asking my 'sand blasting tenant' to blast the remaining bits, as he can't do it until Tuesday PM and I could do it myself this after noon - but having asking him it's unfair to not go ahead as agreed.