TheBennyB

Have the gearbox rolling in an oil bath and hope to get everything back together tomorrow along with the 20T motor. Will let you know what I come up with in regards to top speed and quietness of gearbox. By the way that was unused clean oil in the tupperware before I started.

Carson L

Hi Bret,

I'm thinking to do the same thing like you, the gearbox is so noisy!

TheBennyB

Sure is Carson, after the oil bath the gearbox turned alot easier by hand. If I get real movtivated I may just yank the hole drivetrain out to get the other pot metal axle gears a run through the oil bath.
Helps alot to get the gears cut since their cast.

Onondaga

Curious as to your method of cutting the pot metal gears? And what kind of oil do you recommend for the oil bath? Thanks!!!!

TheBennyB

By cutting I just mean to run them in the oil bath to "cut" the gear teeth on each other. Just helps the gears mesh a bit easier and also gets some oil worked into the gear shafts holes.
I just use good old 10W-30 and run the motor with 3-6V for 30-60 min.

TheBennyB

In the eternal words of James Bests' Roscoe P. Coltrane...there's a flaw in the slaw folks.
After running the gearbox in an oil bath I disassembled to clean and re-lubricate when I came
across a couple gears with damage. Not sure if it was there upon delivery or the pot metal busted up
in the short time I've run it. When I opened up the gearbox there wasn't any large debris, just some "glitter" on the side walls.
I still plan on installing the 20T and seeing what happens, can't go to battle with these gears anyways. Waiting to hear back on
replacement gears. Since I did run this vehicle even for a short time I really don't have a problem paying for a replacement set.
Just going to inspect very closely upon arrival.

Airbrushler

i hope they make steel ones or something better than the potmetal you can see they rounded out on you

TheBennyB

Yup, would be nice if they come out with some steel gears. May look into some drop-ins from the r/c truck/buggy parts box.

Max-U52

Bret, I really hope you can find steel gears for that thing. The photos you posted have convinced me NOT to buy one of these. There's no way I'm gonna spend that kind of money just to have the cheap pot metal gears strip out within days or weeks. I was planning on getting one of these right after the Jagdtiger, but now I'm going to wait and see how yours does. If they start making or if you can find reliable steel gears I'll get one, but not before, so I really do wish you luck in getting steel gears in it because I really do want one.

And if yours strip or you find replacements you may want to consider sending me the pot metal gears to see if I have the tooling on hand to make them out of stainless or something. If I have the cutters here it's no big deal, but if not it would be cost prohibitive. That's why I haven't made my own pinions for the asiatam brass gearboxes, it would cost more to rent the cutter than to pay the $35 shipping for the two $2 gears.

TheBennyB

Good to know Gary. If I can't come up with something I'll let you know. Thanks!

ausf

At this price point, I wouldn't expect pot metal gears. Even if it was $10-20 more expensive to cover steel, it would be preferable. The promo photos show all the shiney tooled pieces, I don't recall seeing junk amongst it.

The ketten has nylon gears, but I didn't expect anything more for the price and at that size, nylon is not only fine, but preferable to pot metal in my opinion at least .

I get it, small company, etc. and you buy this with the knowledge going in it's not an everything in the box Tammy, but what you do get better be a good example, ie tires and gears, not junk.

TheBennyB

For sure the pot metal is disappointing at this price point but it was expected. Still light years better than their previous Andrew Designs stuff.

TheBennyB

Looks like I'm going to have to fork out $25 for a new gearset. Not too bad, but definitely going to look into other possible gears to use.

TheBennyB

Did a couple runs with the 20T motor and not impressed. Broke the 40mph doing consistant 6.4's on a 25' course which puts it in the 42mph area but the added noise is not tolerable. Not sure if its the motor
gearbox combo or just the damaged teeth but don't like it for just 5mph and probably a loss of torque. Have a couple other 540's I'm going to try but may wait till new gears come in.

Rustytrax

Bret, I would think you could do better with some hand cut brass gears if Gary can't do SS gears.

Have you looked at any old TUs to see if you can use anything from them?

TheBennyB

Haven't gotten that far yet Troy. I'm going to look at some TU's, also the WSN metal upgrade gears. Then go to my r/c truck/buggy bin and see what I've got. I'm starting to think these pot metal gears/gearbox may just not be able to handle the added rpm's as the suggested motor is a 50T. Gearbox is just not that percise a piece either. I may just look at replacing the whole gearbox to something more substantial and up to date.

Tanque

This thread is depressing to a degree. Good information but disheartening. I've got two of these things coming as I mentioned previously. I tend to lay things aside for quite some time
and if it weren't for this thread I'd have saved the build for some time in the future and end up with a shock... I'm sure the issues will be worked out but the damage this causes isn't
limited to the model: the trust of new model offerings takes a hit also. It's why companies like Tamiya rise above ( no flames- just observation).

I have several sets of metric gear cutters, I believe modules 1, .8 and .7 if memory serves. I'm sure the Puma gears aren't Mod 1 but not sure what they are. If I need to I'd prefer
to buy of the shelf gears from Maedler in Germany or SD-SPI in the US. I agree with the others that plastic ( Delrin or nylon ) would be better/quieter as would brass. Zinc is just a
poor choice IMHO for gears; it flakes ( as seen here) under stress and is not strong enough for such an application. Higher power electric motors are very tough on gears with their
near instant power ramp up.

Jerry

Ex_Pat_Tanker

The bigger problem is the tooth width - neither plastics nor Zinc do well with high contact stresses.

Hopefully enough of us have bought the kit that Bob or Carson see a business opportunity, and offer a replacement set *nudge*

(Are the Puma gears the same as those of the 222/223 kits? If so that's 2 sets I'd be willing to buy...)

TheBennyB

Don't recall if they are the same or not. I'd have to grab mine out of Daryl T's basement to look at it. It's been sitting there for over 6 years collecting dust and bad looks whenever myself or Daryl passes it.

Ex_Pat_Tanker

I'll have to check when mine arrives...

saber77

Hey Bret sorry to hear so much has been going wrong with the kit last time I was up it was starting to look good too hope they start going better with it


Denny

TheBennyB

Plenty of gear replacement kits such as this, but without specs on the gear sizes it's a crap shoot. And if by any luck these were to work still have the pot metal axle gears to deal with.
http://store.rc4wd.com/Replacement-G...ion_p_854.html

Carson L

I know that MO did try to use CNC copper gear, they tested and find out not robust enough.
I'm asking whether they will try CNC steel gears, but no reply yet. I may look into this set of gears and consider to make it into steel.

TheBennyB

Awesome! if you get into it Carson, look into making the axle transfer gears as well.

TheBennyB

No biggie Denny, just some growing pains. Once we get some steel gears this will be a pretty sweet rig. Could be much worse, at least the parts fit, holes are all drilled and tapped to depth, and not much building away from what is supplied with the kit. The base building block is there for sure.