good to hear you had fun in the sand.

sand can be very tricky to run on,i have destroyed clutch bells on my fg in the dunes and clutch springs,gear plates .......you wouldnt believe the amount of rebuilds i had to do because of sand.

now that i see your running a plastic spur gear all the more reason for it to melt.dont get me wrong plastic spurs are great combined with steel clutch pinions as they are lighter and have a overall lesser rotational mass. ease on clutch/engine more responce.

ill get to the point,try walking on soft sand,it is tough,same thing for your baja today,the soft sand just puts on loads of strain on your engine and your spur was the weakest link,it just got too hot/soft and melted........all spur gears from any manufacturer these days would be very high quality as r&d is high nowadays.

as for your clutch bell marked and scratched thats from the rotation speed and sand hitting it.

my tip for you,next time you go to sand run a steel spur gear,then when on field or road stick back on your plastic spur..........