Doublecheck my TD3 Fintech setup

[Fastskiguy]

Could you guys check my setup? I think it's just right but I'd love to hear some opinions. Out here in the sticks I don't have anybody to check with....haven't seen any TD3's on the local slopes (LOL)...just want to be as sure as I can that I'm set up right.

The funny thing.....the heel of the boot doesn't touch the binding, it's all on the pins...is that right?

Here are some shots....this page is the left boot...medial/caudal/lateral

[Fastskiguy]

And here is the right boots, this time lateral/caudal/medial (oooh, tricky!)

[Riceball]

Yup, that looks right. The only thing that looks off is that your pins aren't centered front-to-back. It looks like you are a mm back too far. I had mine that way initially to take some of the play out, but they binded on the hill.

[trailertrash]

Yup, that looks right. The only thing that looks off is that your pins aren't centered front-to-back. It looks like you are a mm back too far. I had mine that way initially to take some of the play out, but they binded on the hill.

the releasable pins should be towards the back of the reciever holes so the guide pins rest on the ramp.

[Steve Dold]

Great pics Fastskiguy, yours look like mine, here is my experience after two days on the hill:

I set mine up at home on the carpet so that it took some downward effort to get the pins into the holes. I did it to take up the side-side rocking play that the boot had when it wasn't so tight. I rode them yesterday and today, and I don't think I like that setup, at least for the back boot. The pins don't always pop out all the way, and when they don't, a hard side-side cuff movement either makes them pop out the rest of the way, or pushes them back in due to the bevel in the pins.

You need to watch them to make sure they extend all the way out, past the surface of the receiver. I think I will be re-adjusting mine so that they are not so quite so tight, but still at the back end of the slotted hole. Maybe one turn of the bail ends will be about right. Hopefully after that they will pop out every time.

I'm looking for the setup instructions on the web site right now, I didn't get any because I ordered just the heel receivers, not the whole binding. I'll follow those and see what happens.

So far I'm really happy with the new heels and steel receivers, after a minor tweak I'm sure they'll be perfect.

Steve

[Hans]

I just set them up as Steve did with my TD3's, and the pictures showed here. Just only on the carpet though. But I already noticed that the pins in the back wouldn't come out 100% sometimes. So some tweaking in the front bail will be the solution I think (thanks Steve). The little pins are for the tension in the system, the bigger pins are to hold your there, that's what Fin emailed me.

[Randy T.]

Shouldn't the small pins in the front be sitting down closer to the horizontal surface of the heal reciever? It seems like the gap shown in the pictures would cause too much side to side play.

Am I right to assume that the small pins are not only a guide but relieve some of the side to side forces by contacting the heal reciever? On my intecs that small pin was a tab and when one side of mine broke a couple weeks ago it allowed the boot to move side to side a lot more than it should have.

[Hans]

Bottom line is you should not have any side to side play as you describe.

The way to look at it is this: the smaller "fixed" pins on the Fin-Tecs

create the tension in the system so the boot will not move. The Main Pins

(extend outward into receiver) are there then to hold you there.

I suspect you need to tighten up the binding at least one more setting. Keep

in mind you can also use the Micro-adjustment if you really want to fine

tune the engagement in the system. Try this and let me know ho it goes.

[Jack M]

Shouldn't the small pins in the front be sitting down closer to the horizontal surface of the heal reciever? It seems like the gap shown in the pictures would cause too much side to side play.

Am I right to assume that the small pins are not only a guide but relieve some of the side to side forces by contacting the heal reciever? On my intecs that small pin was a tab and when one side of mine broke a couple weeks ago it allowed the boot to move side to side a lot more than it should have.

The small pins are supposed to rest on the <i>ramp</i> of the heel receiver, not the horizontal surface at the bottom. I don't see how they could exert any lateral force. The small pins are supposed to be the primary downward load-bearers. The large spring-loaded pins are only supposed to hold your boot down in the binding.

When your tab broke, it allowed the boot to sit cockeyed in the binding, so all bets are off then.

As Fin says, the micro-sizing should do away with the side-to-side play. I haven't tried that yet.

[Steve Dold]

The way to look at it is this: the smaller "fixed" pins on the Fin-Tecs create the tension in the system so the boot will not move. The Main Pins(extend outward into receiver) are there then to hold you there.

The pins make more sense now. It seems like a great way to have no slop and some tension between the toe bail and the rear heel receiver, holding the boot in tightly, without relying on the big pins to provide that tension. It's an even cooler design than I thought.

But I think my big pins are against the back of the slots while there is still clearance between the small pins and the receiver. I'll check again tonight.

It looks like the way it is supposed to work is this: The small pins ride down the ramp on the receiver, forcing the boot against the toe bail, and keeping the big pins lined up with the slot so they don't hit the back of the slot, but hit it more centered. Right?

[Hans]

The distance between all the things in the receiver and the pins are so constructed that there must be a tension force between the frontbail, the little pins and the big pins. My set up at first was that I had my big pins centered in the receiver: I had side by side slop in the receiver, I could put a creditcard in between, so about one mm. So I emailed Fin and he told me that I had to set them up so there would be absolutely no slop at all. I tweaked the frontbail (what a piece of art is this frontbailconstruction) a bit and just give my heel receiver one stripe extra. Problem solved, more tension on it, the big pins went further back in the slots as seen in the pics here. So if I pop in, the sound of popping in is louder now. I have just used some bombergrease and now they are flawless. Fin also told me that I had to pay attention to the whole setup in time as the bootsoles will wear out. The setup must probably be tweaked again.

[Fastskiguy]

The small pins are supposed to be the primary downward load-bearers. The large spring-loaded pins are only supposed to hold your boot down in the binding.

OK, that was my understanding too. It's funny that the bottom of the heel doesn't touch the binding and that the small pin bears most of the load. But hey, seems to work great!

Got out today in the -15F weather (great sun, great snow, no crowds!) and curiously the right (front) boot developed some play, moved the heel piece forward one notch and it was perfect (again). Rear left foot started and finished perfect.

Thanks guys :)