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Lubricating my Squeaky Expression Pedal


Blycker
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I've been experiencing the infernal squeaky pedal problem in my Firehawk FX like many of you have. I did some reading and decided to go ahead and lubricate the expression pedal mechanism myself and share pics of the process. I hope this will be helpful to you guys. It was easy to accomplish and worked very well. FWIW, I am not mechanically inclined, so when I say it was easy, you can rest assured that a half-blind monkey could have done it... as long as he was a careful monkey with an extremely good trainer. No bananas were harmed during this process.

 

Materials/Tools

Philips head screwdriver, feeler gauges, silicone spray, paper towels, magnetic parts bowl   see picture-Lubrication Tools

 

Process

1. Unplug the Firehawk and turn it upside down. If you like, set it on a towel. I just put mine on the countertop.

2. Remove the 6 outer screws holding the rubber feet to the bottom. Put them into the parts bowl.  see picture-Firehawk Bottom

         N.B. It is unnecessary to remove the two centrally located screws as they are mounting screws for 2 structural supports that can just stay attached to the bottom. It is also unnecessary to remove the two screws next to the  exp. pedal adjustment bolt on the side of the Firehawk. Full disclosure, I did remove all the aforementioned screws since I didn't know what they were hanging onto at the time.  see pictures-Firehawk Inside Bottom Cover, Expression Pedal Adjustment Hole

3. Slide the bottom cover slightly left so that the exp. pedal adjustment hole clears the end of the Allen bolt. Then carefully lift the bottom cover and remove it.

4. Using the Allen wrench that came with your Firehawk, loosen the exp. pedal axle bolt so that you can get the feeler gauges in between the bushings and washers. I think I only loosened mine about a turn-and-a-half. see picture-Lubrication Tools

5. Away from the Firehawk, spray a bit of silicone lubricant onto both sides of a feeler gauge. I recommend holding the gauge right above the paper towel so that it absorbs any overspray. I read that it is very bad to get lubricant on the circuit boards; that's why I'm recommending to apply the lubricant away from the Firehawk.

6. Use the feeler gauge to apply lubricant to the washers and plastic bushings taking time to spin them a bit to ensure the lubricant has adequate coverage. (That may be unnecessary, but that's what I did.)   see picture-Expression Pedal Mechanism

7. Re-tighten the Allen adjustment bolt.

8. Install bottom cover ensuring that the adjustment bolt hole goes over the bolt, then slide it to the right into place so that the 6 mounting holes match up to their screw holes.

9. Reinstall the 6 rubber feet with their screws.

10. Turn the Firehawk rightside up and check the travel of the expression pedal. Adjust to taste.

11. Go have a banana. Good monkey.

 

 

 

 

Firehawk Bottom.jpg

Firehawk Inside Bottom Cover.jpg

Expression Pedal Adjustment Hole - inside.jpg

Expression Pedal Mechanism.jpg

Lubrication Tools.jpg

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I was able to do this safely without disassembly.  You need some dry lube with an evaporating carrier. I used Hoppe's dry lube with teflon with red spray tube. If you get some bright light directed into the slots in the top panel, you can see the top of the bushings.  You want to spray from north to south (pedal orientation) to keep any spray that gets away from you from any electrical components. This carrier dries leaving white lubricating powder and this product has a very weak spray so not much extra propellant floating around.  The carrier will help the lube wick in and around the bushing. The white residue that got on the top panel just wiped off.  My experience with this product with interior residential door hinges tells me this will be a regular maintenance item but at least you will not have any type of dust attracting oily residue.  Looks like Blycker is using a type of silicone that also mostly dries so you could use either with this method with the spray tube. I have two types of silicone spray and one of them doesn't fully dry and has a high pressure spray that goes everywhere so I use that on automotive rubber bushings and weatherstripping. If I were to disassemble the pedal, I would likely go ahead and work some graphite powder into that hinge/bushing as it would last far longer.  Graphite is messy but it stays where you put it, just tape off other areas and wear gloves.  

20200124_104527.jpg

Edited by lanceu
Pic added
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