Lots of questions needs lots of advice

[jhsmith87]

there is a small feeling of grinding on my front diff. and it seems to slip some times just a little bit... what would be the cause of the. the grinding is not really big you can just feel it, feels alot less smooth than the rear.

[50togo]

might be a bit tight if you have the time pull it apart do it slowly so the gasket you made stays in one place

[50togo]

when you move up to 2.2" rims and tires the hpi ss monster rims have a much wider stance .mine with dirt hawgs are 10.5" wide from outside to outside.much more stable than stock!

[jhsmith87]

I didn't wanna take it apart again o well. So if screws are not to tight what else might it b I wanna see all possible causes so I can check them all

[50togo]

check to see if the caps are flush and not cockeyed on the diff.sometimes they go on a little crooked .

[jhsmith87]

Done checked both no change? Can u think of anything else

[50togo]

what exactly does it do?with the diff out put a small allen to hold one side and turn,is it rough?

[jhsmith87]

i wouldnt really say rough thats a little much for what its doing. i know its inside the dif cause i have it out and spinning the to ends.
but i would say its more like if you didnt have any oil in there and could feel the spider gears as they grip into each tooth of the output gear. you can still feel the resistance from the thick oil, but thats the only way i can explain it, as if you didnt have oil in it and could just feel the teeth as the grip the teeth of the other gear. no sound from it. like clicking, or anything like that just slight clicking feeling.

[50togo]

Still sounds tight or the plate isn't seated. Did you have the spider gears out ? Sometimes the pin of a spider gear doesn't get seated properly

[jhsmith87]

i did have the spiders out i guess i will check the pins. but from what i can tell the caps are seated right, all screws are tightned the same ammount and i have loosend and tightned them trying to see if that was it. traxxas customer service told me it could be that one of the spiders may not have got put back in the same seat as it was originally and first it for lack of better words got used to being on that side and kinda wore to be in that position, and now its in a new one and it just needs to geat kinda broke into that spot.

i will check the spider pins.. can you think of any think else?

[50togo]

thats about it spider gears ,plate flush and bolts too tight ..at first you replaced the bulkhead ,took the diff apart ,filled with oil? where was that plastic shim you were talking about?shouldn't be any shims in there

[jhsmith87]

It was on the shaft of the input gear had one in both diffs

[50togo]

You mean pinion

[jhsmith87]

Yea between the gear and the bearing

[50togo]

Your bulkhead did have the one bolt through it right. Traxxas must of shimmed the pinion.I would pull diff apart look at spider gears top off oil and reassemble

[jhsmith87]

I did I got it back together now I'm just gonna hope what traxxas said about the spiders not being in the original spot and just need to kinda break in is true, its not bad at all, u really have to try to feel it to notice.

[50togo]

All right good luck

[jhsmith87]

How in the world do you keep up where every screw goes when your are taking your merv completly aprat? i always loose track of where they go no matter what i do

[Petertje60]

How in the world do you keep up where every screw goes when your are taking your merv completly aprat? i always loose track of where they go no matter what i do

I always keep the parts and the screws that hold them together. If I am not sure, I look at the exploded views.

[jhsmith87]

got some new road rage tires today, its kinda tricky putting them on. currently looking online for some how to's. i put one wrap of thermal tape around the inside, its thicker than duct tape do you think one wrap is enough?

[jhsmith87]

the lip on the rim and tire is pretty tricky i just wanna be sure i get it right the tires are goin on stock rims

[jhsmith87]

did i strip the gears in my tranny, or center diff whatever its called? i got my car back together tonight from a complete rebuild. i ran a 2s lipo with 26/50 gears. i just put a new spur gear in during the rebuild. i was doing some speed runs when i noticed a buzzing sound when i would hit the brakes or try to stop from high speeds. before i realized it was getting worse, i would hit the throttle it would just rev up without going anywhere. just like it did when i stripped my first spur.

so i come inside and to my surprise pinion and spur look like new. so i try it out again to find the source of the sound. i hear it coming from tranny or center diff. also i could smell the slight smell of plastic burning. did i mess this up? if so how could i have done this the car is real new, maybe 15 batteries through it, only 2 lipos.

did i not set the slipper right? i put the nut on and tightned it up untill spring was compressed and backed off 1/4 turn.
also just to cover everything, the things that i've change is: i put 50k in both diffs, but on road rage tires, replaced stock spur gear with traxxas brand 50t spur, and changed from 28t pinion to 26t.

anyone know what i should do? or what i did? or how i did this?

[TQi]

open up your transmission and take off the center skidplate, you might find debree in the skidplate and stripped gears in the tranny, maybe some toasted bearings

happened to me before, $10 fix

it's because a rock got stuck in the skidplate and jammed the center driveshaft, burning up a couple tranny gears and bearings..


if it isn't that, then I'm not sure

**edit> side note: a center differential should prevent this from happening again, it did for me.. same thing happened a month later but my front wheels kept spinning and all the gears were saved, just had to open up the center skid and pull the rock out.

[jhsmith87]

so i've been reading, and it seems like there is a difference between a tranny and a center diff. i think the car comes with a tranny, and a center diff is like an upgrade.what does a center diff do or dont do that the stock traanny does or doesnt do? is it a good idea to make this switch? can this increase performance? if so how, and what affect does it have on speed and/or power

[Petertje60]

A center diff is an upgrade by replacing a gear in your tranmission case. It allows to distribute more power to the front or back depending on the traction. It makes you car wheelie less and come out more controlled out of corners. I kicked mine out after a while because the front tires ballooned to much. It will decrease top speed a bit.

[jhsmith87]

great then i think i'll stick with tranny i like the top speed dont wanna loose it.
so is there a better, more reliable, durable, and/or better performing tranny i can get?
do you have to replace the whole tranny or can i just get whatever gear i stripped if thats what happened?
is there any upgrades i can do to it?

[Petertje60]

I got an alu tranny case which sort of came with the alu bulkheads I wanted (GPM set). I didnt really want to upgrade it at the time, but in general I prefer an alu tranny over a plastic one. Better heat transfer and more precise fit of parts.
Not sure if the gears in the tranny are sold separately or in a set. I dont think they will be very expensive even if they only come in a set.

Edit: just checked, they come in a set: #7093, with input/output shaft separate: #7092

[jhsmith87]

ok. thanks. i never heard of gpm but i know integy sells alum parts, whats the difference

[Petertje60]

ok. thanks. i never heard of gpm but i know integy sells alum parts, whats the difference

Most important difference is that Integy has a bad reputation due to not the best quality of aluminum and customer support. GPM is pretty good most of the time. Almost every alu part on my Merv is GPM. Knuckles, rockers, bulk heads, gear box, steering parts, body mount. Happy GPM customer here. Rods are GPM too, but those are steel (GPM alu rods is a NO).

[jhsmith87]

do they have adjustable toelinks

[Petertje60]

do they have adjustable toelinks

Yup. With rods, I meant the tie rods and toe links. Forgive me, I'm Dutch, English is not my native language.

[TQi]

So did you open your transmission up and look at the center driveshaft yet?

[jhsmith87]

Not yet I just got done wit the rebuild I'm kinda wore out on takin things apart for a bit I prolly will tomorrow

[TQi]

cool, let us know what you find

[jhsmith87]

still havent checked it yet. but i was just wondering what affect does the slipper plate do? like what would it do if i had it loose, and what would it do if i had it tight? how does it affect performance

[CobraWasHere]

It really helps to use your mechanical intuition (hopefully you've got some, being a male) to figure out how things work. It's called a slipper clutch because it's designed to slip when enough force is applied to it. Having it tighter will keep it from slipping (which will effectively eliminate its function). Having it too loose will make it slip too much and will lead to melting the inside of the spur gear. We can't really answer how something happened without knowing what happened, so open it up and see what broke!

[TQi]

I'm tellin ya, I'm pretty sure you did exactly what I did a couple months ago lol

rock magically jumps into the center skidplate, jams the drive shaft and burns up the transmission gears/bearings .. it should only be about a $14 fix

[jhsmith87]

im takin tranny off right now. slipper is fine

[TQi]

You'll know right away if you stripped some gears in the tranny before opening, just spin the shafts when you have the gearbox out.. they should spin in unison almost

[CobraWasHere]

I somehow managed to strip all the teeth from the center diff a few weeks ago. I've also cracked the middle gear in the transmission...