Looking for help with Bearing/Dark Magic problems

General Yo-Yo
1

My 10 year-old son and I are beginners to yoyos, having started just a few months ago. We’ve enjoyed learning together, and we felt we were ready for intermediate/advanced, so I got two dark magics about 3 weeks ago. The first thing I noticed out of the box was the marked difference in response. My son’s was pretty responsive, which disappointed him immensely. Mine was not. (Irony, because he’s much better than I, and he’s wanting to learn some advanced play).

On closer inspection, I noticed that the lengths of the threaded posts were quite different, with my post being approximately 2 mm longer than his.

Question: Would this account for the difference in responsiveness?

We then added some YYJ shims (the red, thicker ones) which improved the issue a little bit, but it was still too responsive for his liking.

Question: can we add multiple shims, or would that cause some sort of problem?

I did get him a center trac bearing, which he enjoyed a lot. (Only because I believe it will be a little more forgiving with a less-than-straight throw). After about 2 weeks of play, the bearing stopped making sound, and his sleep times dropped from about 90 seconds to about 15 seconds.

Forgive my ignorance in trying to describe this problem, but I’m going to try anyway:
Normally when we’d throw a sleeper, there’d be an audible “Whirring” sound from the bearing. When the problem began, however, there was absolute silence and, as I stated before, the sleep times dropped significantly.

I removed the bearing and replaced it with the stock bearing, which fixed the problem for a while. Now the stock bearing is doign the same thing. When I remove the bearings and spin them, they appear to spin just fine. When we put them into the yoyo’s however, they have this silent profile which seems to be a malfunction.

If this isn’t clear to anyone, I’d be able/willing to post some video/audio to better describe the problem.

Question: Has anyone encountered this type of problem before? We’re at a loss regarding how to fix these multiple problems (bearings and responsiveness)

We’ve sanded his starburst down to nearly flush, and it seemed to have no effect on the responsiveness. I’ve ordered some silicone to replace the rubber O-ring, however it hasn’t arrived yet. Even when it does, We’ll be stuck with troubleshooting the bearings.

I’d welcome any constructive input/advice.

Sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance.

2

try getting a konkave bearing and cleaning it (or clean the one you already have) also try learning some string tension tricks such as washing machine sidewinder ufo ect. bad string tension = good response… hope it helped

3

i would lube the yoyo or clean it as the person above said, the silicone will only benifit if the bering is working properly (P.S. i hate the Dark Magic bering sound so that might make you feel better)

4

This sounds to be more of an issue with the shims. What most likely happened is you crushed the shims and they are now touching the shields of the bearing slowing it down and making it quiet. Try removing the shims and see what that does.

1 Like
5

Thanks for the tips. I believe the key to the bearing malfunction is in fact the shims. When I remove them, it works fine, but it’s still responsive.

I’m grateful to those who have read/posted ideas, but I’m extremely frustrated. I guess I just had different expectations; that I wouldn’t have to get a crash course in systems management, mechanical engineering and spend extra time, money and effort in order to make a $40 yoyo “work as intended”.

I’ll try my luck with YoYojam customer support and see if they offer some sort of satisfaction guarantee. If not, I’ll ebay these things and wave goodbye to their products. There’s plenty of others out there.

Thanks all!

6

The responsiveness, I suggest playing with the yoyo, maybe the bearing needs some breaking in.