by bryancobb » Tue Sep 25, 2012 10:03 am
Man!
If you can eliminate the main clutch, Formsprag, rotor brake, rag-coupling and banjos, and forward Morflex (as you seem to have done), then it sounds like it is probably gear teeth.
It is not normal though.
Some ratchets have staccato "clicks" as the handle is turned and some have dull little clunks. I would say the dull type would be what the gear teeth would make if they were badly worn or loose in their engagement, etc.
A clicking could be something as simple as the tip of the rotor brake cable hitting the 3/16 nuts around the perimeter of the big clutch?
When you flip the prop on a piston airplane, the noise from the magnetos is what I mean by clicking.
I don't think I'd fly it until you nailed down the source?
YHO-3BR Pilots International