Wow, my metal GEARBOX is so loud. Is this normal?

Also, the bearings move when its running, I take it they should be stationary. Should I affix them somehow?

ALL my metal gear boxes are real LOUD. This is why I started this thread. I think that there build / quality control is a little lax to say the least. I must admit that I'm seriously thinking of taking [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_7328064/anchors_7331874/mpage_1/key_/anchor/tm.htm#7331874]971wright[/link]'s route and building my own.
White metal gears don't all run true.
Brass/steel gears sloppy on axles.
Plastic gears break strip to easy.

& johnmar78, is there an on line place I can get them?

Yours Simon M

smarth, i think its easier for you ringing your local rc shop or hobbies shop. I hope you live in city?

I think towhobbies should have one since they are US based. Again, go to your local shop is quicker....

Pain is I'm UK based!

Yours Simon M.

OK I've got a bit further with this, but as 971wright pointed out it is going to cost. The gears alone for this project, and I hope you are sitting down, is around £220. I hope to work on this price some what, but it will give me a set of gears that is 128:1 and has a 14kg for 15mins / hour service life. Now if only I can make sense of this.

Yours Simon M.

Rob I have the Gear Reduction TU in my KING TIGER and they are sweet! I have about 4 youtube videos driving with them!

You have to break them in though a lot, or they are noisy ( not broke in ) also and will put load on the electronics! I pulled the gear reduction out to check without and I now have Tamiya scale speed and they are much quieter! My second set will get broke in properly!

The Blitz

Sounds like you are heading towards changing the gear ratio anyways, but any chance the gear boxes have been improved since you picked yours up, as everything else seems to have been as time has gone by on these tanks?

My IIIH gearboxes are quiet enough that I can hear the metal tracks operating, I would think this to be impossible as loud as it sounds like some of these boxes are?

Had a bit of noise initially, the sides of a couple of gears weren't clearanced much, but that noise seems to have really dissipated with some use. They "freewheeled" easily even when brand new.

Somewhat combining another thread with this one, if the gearing of the box is further changed from 3:1, with a motor capable of enough RPM's the torque should increase while the top speed should stay the same, correct? Along those lines, with more torque (due to gearing change) from a stop, the "squatting" effect people desire would perhaps be more noticeable.

Just offering up what little I can!

Hi Simon I had the same thoughts but couldnt find any cheap metal gears this is why I used heng long gears with the help of Rob Fv 432 the gears in heng long gearboxes are the only cheap gears I could find even then I had to fill the sides with metal filler to stop the ringing then file it down then I had to machine the shafts to fit the bearings I bought couldnt find any cheap ones the size of the shafts I used 1/8 i/diax 3/8 o/dia these are for the gears the final drive bushes are 8mm i/dia x16mm o/dia this is the one through the hull the other side is 3/16x3/8 which means turnning the shaft to fit.Then you have to plan where the motors fit find material to build buy drills and reamers to cut the holes for bearings mark out where you want the holes drill ream fit bearings shim gears assemble run in the gears /motors speed 400 7,2 volt with the extra gearing of 3,5 to 1 and speed 400 motors you should have a gearbox that will pull anything have white cap motors on at the momment connected it to a battery put a cloth around drive sprocket and tried to stop it it nearly sprained my wrist have a look at photos .have changed the left side from original post to made it thinner to allow for bigger motor if i need one

I would start by close inspection of your gearboxes for side play you cant do much about the actual meshing but you can make sure you have full face contact I.E. not have half gear but full gear alinement then strip them down fill the gears with metal filler seal the bushes into postion with metal filler to stop them turnning around and assemble fitting shims as required to get best possible gear alinement this is about all you can do with these gearboxes this along with a close fitting cover should reduce the noise to a level that should be O.K. that is you will still here them but only just the sound of the tracks shouuld mask the gearboxes

wright, this gear box is very good and strong. I liked all had the ball bearing in it. It must took you awaful a long time to build it

Good work. Now, you have show us some power of this gear box in your tanks on video.

Hello,

After having my Tamiya gearboxes fail in my Sherman and Panther with metal tracks, and because of the good performance of my HL Tiger with metal gearboxes I put HL 3/1 gearboxes in both the Sherman and Panther and they run great. For the price you cannot go past them. They are even partially bushed with bearings.

They start out noisy but quieten down after a while and a bit of oil.

There are posts in this forum on how I installed them.

I will be installing some soon in my new second hand Tamiya Tiger that I am refurbishing too.

Thats my 2 bobs worth.

Cheers

Alan.

One cheap tip. Try motorcycle chain spray on the gearboxes, it sprays on, and then the solvent evaporates, this allows the grease to penetrate right down into all the bearings, plus it sticks like glue when it is dry. I just liberally sprayed my metal HL boxes, ran them, then soaked them some more. They certainly ran smoother afterwards and it was a lot cheaper than playing around with bearings and cogs.

My Tiger gets a lot of abuse on my own backyard tank assault course and the gearboxes are working just fine, the tank weighs a lot, it's fitted with metal gearboxes, metal tracks, metal hatches, and metal chassis strengtheners complete with metal suspension!

Hope this helps someone.

Cheers

Rob G

Wibbly, thanks for the tip I will buy some tomorrow and give it ago, I always worry whether or not my gearboxes are properly oiled.

Cheers

Alan

nice one phil those are some nice gearboxes what is your overall impression of them?
the asiatam stug box comes pretty close and as samarkh states £220 for a hand made box opposed to £40 for the asiatam [X(][X(][X(][X(]

the asiatam stug box has it's faults or drawbacks ie sloppy meshing and ally walls that are made of soft grade aluminum (Cheap) but if you've got the fabricating skills to make a whole new box then why not correct the faults in the asiatam boxes

i have pm you to reforce your gear box..tamiya only.