micah11

Had my Redcat Twister XB out today, and after a few minutes heard some 'clicking' from it. You couldn't feel/hear it when you rolled it by hand. I thought that it might have been the pinion/spur mesh, but that checked out fine. So, I started the arduous process of opening up the diff. Opened the case, and.. Nothing. none of the gears were stripped, or even wore down. There wasn't a whole lot of lube in there, so I threw in some heavy grease. Put it all back together, and now there is almost like a 'whirring' coming from it, along with the clicks.

There is also a noticeable binding when rolling the car by hand. No binding when spinning one wheel, but when both turn or one is stopped there is binding and noise from the diff. The drive cups on both the axle and the diff outdrives are a little wore down, but nothing serious. Any ideas? I'm totally lost as to what it could be. Maybe bearings? I've only had it a couple months, and with the snow up here, I've maybe run it less than 10 times.

collector1231

My Feedback: (1)

Have you opened the diff and checked the spider gears?

micah11

Yeah, they seemed perfectly fine. Not really sure what could be the problem.

rcpowerhorse

How are the bearings?

nitrosportsandrunner

does it click more when you are turning with throttle?
that could point to the inside of the differential.
The other trans gears it is usually pretty easy to identify bad teeth. And you would usually eventually lose all drive if the outside of the diff, input or intermediate gear stripped.

you may have over tightened the trans case when putting it back together, which could be the cause of the binding you noticed after working on it. That can even happen on my SC10 diff.

phmaximus

from what you have told me the problem is not in the spider gears.... If it was the spider gears it would make the noise when u turn one wheel...so it's safe to say the diff action is fine.

And by the sounds I don't think its the axles or hub carrier bearings, because it would happen all the time not just when both wheels are turning..

so all that leaves is..
motor or motor bearings
pinion to spur
slipper to idler gear
idler gear to diff ring gear
gearbox bearings
debris
gearbox housing screw in wrong hole or incorrect length

just check everything over making sure the gear teeth are nice and smoothe with no pitting or debris stuck inbetween the teeth
and check to see if u still have the binding issue with the motor removed....

micah11

Aha! I loosened the screws you mentioned, and BAM! The binding is gone. I think the clicking is from the driveshafts bouncing back and forth in the drive cups. I'm glad that fixed the problem, 'cause I was this close to just buying a set of diff gears just to see if that would fix it.

cbaker65

If you have too much spring load on the suspension,it could be puting the drive axles in a bind.
That could be why they are wearing faster!...

i8tweety

My Feedback: (11)

To help keep the driveshafts centered in the drive cups I cut a small rings of fuel tubing and insert them in each drive cup, ensuring they don't bind during suspension travel. I have also used small o-rings from the shocks (I keep the old o-rings when I rebuild shocks).