Hey guys, I again ran the pershing in about two inches of snow, it ran great for the first ten minutes; then the left side was jerky while driving along. So I stopped the thing, and the left side wouldn't engage until I moved the track some, dead giveaway of a gear stripped of a few teeth. I dont get why this happened, its a metal gearbox, it was broken in properly with the toothpaste trick, why would it strip so soon? So, now I need a new transmission, would replacing them with steel versions in any way improve this thing? Do you need to break in the steel gears with toothpaste as well? And what about the motors that come with the steel gears, will the tank have the same amount of torque as it does with the whitecaps/steel combo?
This pic shows the stripped section of one of the transmission gears.

Doesn't look like there's any grease or oil on it.

Man, that really stinks!

At least you don't have to do a repair out in the snow like the tank crews would have to do. If you have the original plastic gears, maybe you could swap out the gear with the bad dental work(?)... This way you are still good to go while waiting for replacement parts from your supplier....

the motor probably wasn't sitting against the gearbox properly, the holes might have been off .. It seems to me that the pinion depth was probably a little too shallow.. It might have been just catching on the tips of the gears and after time it just wore them away..

They have oil on them, the picture is just crap guys. I have replaced the gear with bad dental work with an ol' faithful nylon. Itll work for now, it is surprisingly smoother; such a shame that the metal gears are so shoddy. I also see that my entire left gearbox is total crap gears, they wobble around and make a racket because they were so badly cut, I thought this was normal sounding until I heard the side with the corrected gears, jeez the metal gears are bad! Here's a pic I managed to grab before the initial fail

I got my HL Tiger two weeks ago and ran it about 20min and on of the tracks started acting up. I opened the tank and found that one of the gears (metal) was out of round and thus only meshing with the other gears about 65% of the time. I ordered the new steel gears and Im waiting for them to come. The metal gears are cast and in my opinion very badly. You should have seen mine, woobly, woobbly. I've been told the steel gears are machine cut and much better than the metal ones.

Hey Guys;

The Steel gears are well worth the extra coin. Got mying from RCcommand about a month ago. Working great!
Also did the quick and easy breakin - 1 hour forward 1 hour reverse 1 hour forward. Although I don't think they even require that - they are cut and meshed so well.

Bunts

The standard metal gears are (as mentioned) cast, probably a zinc-alloy. Cast items tend to vary in quality and accuracy. Combine a particularly bad gear with a particularly badly stamped gearbox, and you'll get this sort of ground down gears.

D.

Buntingtosser, thanks for the info, I have a set comming and I was worried if they were better or not. Can you remember if they have black and red wires on the motors like the stock ones do?

Yup - Black and Red wires along with a connector that looks like it plugs into a RX18 board. Still running the RX14 so all I am doing is taking the new motors off the Steel gears and hooking up my stock motors to them. No soldering involved - just some itty-bitty screws that if you loose on the floor takes 10 minutes to find! (not that it happened to me)

Bunts

Good infos guys. Now i know where to get new steel gears(rccommand), when ever i need to replace the metal gears. Hope it won't be anytime soon.
BTW, my tank came with S&S, BBs. So does it already have the RX18 MFU board? Sorry, i'm a new tanker :-)

Hmmm...

I was going to get one of the metal-geared units from Mato, but with this news, and Mato's known issue of not QA'ing their units very well, I think perhaps I'll go with a basic one, and then add a metal gearbox from Bill at RCC. That or just buy the full metal's one off Bill abnd eat the customs assessment as the price for a decently QA'd tank.

Perhaps Murphy could get a few college kids or people w/ disabilities who want some coin to QA the beasties, seeing as the Canadian Gov't has programs to fund part of their wages if you hire 'em. I know, as I'm legally disabled, and always mention this to possible employers.

I have to ask this though... as it looks like the 'heavy-duty' gearboxes use the same gears. Is it worth getting the stronger-cased boxes if the gears are as much of a failure point? I was also considering that route, as it would always give me my plastics as backups (one reason I like the old Tamiya Type 1 DMD's, all the gears are 43/15t!)

Anyone have ~direct~ input on this (aka designers/maker/suppliers?) Note that most of us don't have a drill press or tools to rework out gearoxes, so these have to be basic-user maintenance level units.

WhiteWolf

darkith, I think you hit the nail on the head. My problem was exactly what you said, a combo of badly cast gears and badly stamped gearbox.

buntingtosser, thanks for the info, never thought of just switching motors. Are the motors on the new steel gearboxes the same as the ones on the metal gearboxes??

rclaw, I got my S&S HL Tiger the first week of 09 and it came with, I believe, the RX-14.

Are there any improvements or advantages to having the RX18 over the RX14?

The stock motors in my Tiger have white end caps while the motors on the new Steel Gearbox come with metal end caps. Not sure if there is any difference.

Mr WhiteWolf - these are not heavy duty gearboxes - they are the same gear boxes as the stock ones but with cut steel gears installed.

For the extra 11 bucks at RCcommand - you cant go wrong!

Bunts

Tim,
I guess mine came with RX14 as well. I saw the RX18 on rccommand. Take a look.
http://rccommand.com/Tank%20Upgrade%20Parts.php

treat yourself (or the tank) to some Impact gearboxes, yes they are expensive, but very well made (out of steel) and NO they don't need toothpaste break in!!!!!! I put a set in my KT, correct scale speed and loads of power.....just ordered a set of Impact metal tracks.....

Kev

Well, I got my gearboxes today. The good news......the gears are 1000% better than the metal ones. Bad news... I got the low profile gearbox and it wont mount correctly in my Tiger!!! The gears are arranged differntly in the low profile gearbox and they cover the forward mounting hole in the left gearbox. I called Bill at RcCommand and he suggested that I use the old gearbox and put the new gears in it. It took a little work, you have to press off the small gear on the drive shaft and flip it around and press it back on,but I did it and its all back together and works AWESOME. I asked Bill if there was a diffenence between the motors with white caps and the steel ones and he said go with the steel ones, there diffently better. Now, I have to wait for my working machine gun to come before I can get the Tiger back together. I've had this tank since the first week of 09 and I've gotten to run it about 15min. I've been spending the time painting and detailing. Oh, and in case you dont know, the new steel gearboxes come with plugs on the wires, the old motors where soldered on the back(top) of the board. I realized there are plugs on the other side(under) the board. You just need to plug the new motors in. Then remove the old motor wires from the top of the board. Im glad I saw the sockets under the board, I almost cut the leads!!!

Are those the low profile Asiatam gearboxes with the smaller 370 motors? They will work in a Tiger, you just have to mount the rear portion at an angle. One of our fellow tankers has done the mod, he built a custom suspension that took up space internally. Either way, they're nice!

The steel gears are nice and quiet. Worth every penny if they last longer than a month.

Swath, I think they have 385-SH on the side. They are all metal, no plastic. With the motor disconnected I spun the gears and they kept going and going and going....you get the idea.
The only thing I can say negative about them, and its not much, is that the motor shaft should be longer. The pinion gear is moved out as far as you dare and it still only contacts the other gear with about 60% of its width. Thats with motor shaft only about 50% thru the pinion. The stock, white caped motors, have longer shafts which are just right,but I was told the others are better motors so I went with them.

Hey, I forgot to ask, where do you grease the gearboxes?