pads falling off the flex 3401??

Donavin629

Donavin629

New member
i have been using the flex for a while now and love the results.. been using a yellow lake country pad for my cutting and it works great but recently the pads seem to be slipping and then become uneven.. sometimes even fly off.. forget about getting the edge of a bumper cause the pad will almost immediatly get off center... any ideas? i bought new pads but they are doing the same thing..
 
Maybe the velcro on the backing plate is worn out? Or it could be clogged up with lint, foam bits, etc. You know, it's hook and loop...the backing plate is made up of thousands of little j-shaped hooks...then can get broken off or clogged with debris so that they can't hook onto the loops on the pad.
 
i will check it again but it looked pretty clean to me.. i was wondering if the backing plate gets worn fast?



or do i rarely have to replace these
 
donavin629 said:
i have been using the flex for a while now and love the results.. been using a yellow lake country pad for my cutting and it works great but recently the pads seem to be slipping and then become uneven.. sometimes even fly off.. forget about getting the edge of a bumper cause the pad will almost immediatly get off center... any ideas? i bought new pads but they are doing the same thing..
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Is this the DA or Rotorary? I have the DA and use the Edge pads and Lake Country Pads without Issue. Granted I am only using it for maybe 12 hours since its new on my own cars.
 
but i just bought brand new pads.. so i dunno how it can be the pads.. and the machine im using is the Flex XC3401VRG.



so is it lake country that has bad pads.. why do they keep slipping off?
 
donavin629 said:
oh also what other type of maint should i be doing with the flex.. any type of cleaning .. etc?
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Opinions seem to vary. I just keep a *VERY* light bit (I don't want to say "layer" as that sounds excessive) of oil on the felt ring and every now and then I take the backing plate off and inspect the gears (both on the plate and inside the housing) for wear.
 
some one please help.. pads still falling off the flex... i cant work like this anymore.. after every couple passes the pad gets uneven or goes flying off the machine.... i cleaned the backing plate.. looks cleen to me.. i have pretty brand new pads.. why is this happening.. do i need to buy a new backing plate every time my pads start flying.. anyone else having these problems?
 
When placing the pad on the plate, I always press on the pad afterwards in the middle to make sure that the velcro is grabbing onto the plate. What type of pads are these? The backing plate on the 3401 is very good as far as pads sticking to it. Can you take a picture of the velcro on these pads? Did they all come from the same company?
 
donavin629- Wish I could offer some suggestion, but I've just never had that problem. I'd contact your pad vendor and see what they say about it.
 
Scottwax said:
Backing plates do wear out. When pads stop sticking, I replace the backing plate. Problem solved.
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I agree. If your brand new pads are flying off the machine, replace the backing plate on the machine and you should be fine.
 
yeah i ordered one just to see.. cause the pads are brand new lake country pads... if i hit a door curve on the vehicle the things gets thrown off center and starts shaking all over the place and i almost loose control... thought the plates would last long.. guess i will order a few to have on stand by.. maybe im pressing to hard???? what would make the plates wear faster..
 
Backing Plate :)
donavin629 said:
yeah i ordered one just to see.. cause the pads are brand new lake country pads... if i hit a door curve on the vehicle the things gets thrown off center and starts shaking all over the place and i almost loose control... thought the plates would last long.. guess i will order a few to have on stand by.. maybe im pressing to hard???? what would make the plates wear faster..
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donavin629 said:
yeah i ordered one just to see.. cause the pads are brand new lake country pads... if i hit a door curve on the vehicle the things gets thrown off center and starts shaking all over the place and i almost loose control... thought the plates would last long.. guess i will order a few to have on stand by.. maybe im pressing to hard???? what would make the plates wear faster..
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Lots of heat always helps in wear from what I've experienced over the years. So you might want to take it easy when doing an entire car and let the machine cool off a bit here and there. Also don't press too hard, especially not necessary with the Flex, which provides pretty good correction with very little pressure. Other than heat I honestly can't think of something that would make it wear faster than usual.
 
I'm really :nixweiss about this one...I don't do correction all that much, but I *did* use the Flex extensively a few times, as in many hours nonstop. Got it *HOT*. Simply zero problems like this, and I used it with all sorts of different pads.



But yeah, I would watch how much applied pressure is used. Talk of people forcing the backingplate into the housing (or even up against the felt ring) always sounded mighty extreme to me.
 
thanks for the help guys.. it was the backing plate.. guess i just need to keep a couple on hand just in case.. thanks for the help.. again this is my first flex.. and prior to this i never really delt with backing plates..
 
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