krokodyl

Hello everybody, I have a redcat caldera 3.0, and am going through the steel gears really fast. Like every couple of tanks one of the gears is gone. Usually the big one on the differential, or the one that turns the big diff one (on the dogbone). Now, I know that it's a redcat, and that the steel is poor quality, and that it will break every time I use it etc. But the steel seems to be pretty hard. I had to enlarge the hole on one of them by a tiny bit and it was a pain. The drill press would stop, it got REALLY HOT, and the stuff that you smear over it to make the drilling easier went up in smoke.

Usually the teeth are kind of "flattened". Once, the gear was almost bald on one side, and there was pieces of metal in the diff housing(that taught me to quit driving when you hear a funny noise).

Anyways, before I go ahead and buy more gears, I would like to know what could be causing this. The mesh is ok. One washer behind the gear is way too much, and locks everything up. I am using the grease in my grease gun, which is pretty thick, and has a yellowish colour (turns gray pretty quick). I took it apart and there seems to be plenty to get things lubricated. I would buy some grease at the LHS, but often things like oil and grease are overpriced at the LHS, and you can get the exact same thing at different stores.

I always release the throttle when I land off a jump, and avoid accelerating to fast.

I have thought about hardening all of the gears. It seems pretty doable. Anybody do this?

Any help on why I am going through gears every 2-10 tanks would be greatly appreciated.

Hubert

RustyUs

http://www.redcatracing.com/Contact

Maybe they have some insight on a bad batch of gears. You never know.

1QwkSport2.5r

9 times out of 10, years strip due to improper meshing. Especially steel gears. Important - if the the clutch is hardened, the spur needs to be hardened as well. If one is hardened and the other isn't, one will go bye bye quickly. But I would be hyper vigilant to ensure the gear mesh is tight enough and not crooked. The teeth need to engage squarely. Use a piece of notebook paper between the teeth and squish together tightly - tighten screws. When the paper is removed, your mesh should be perfect.

(I'm sure you knew this already, but it can't hurt to point it out for anyone else reading with similar issues..). FWIW - I've found steel spur gears to be very cumbersome and have poor longevity.

krokodyl

My mesh with the spur and clutch is not perfect but close. Unfortunately, these are not the gears that I am having a problem with, but the diff ring gear, and the gear that sits on the drive shaft and durns the diff ring gear. I am suprised to have problems with these, as they are all steel. If you find steel cubersome, what do you prefer? Steel is the only option that redcat give.

When the gears come back in stock, I may try hardening them and see if that helps.

Back to the spur clutch thing, my clutch is brass and spur is steel. Suprisingly the clutch is still in good condition after a few gallons of fuel. And naturally, redcat offer a steel or plastic spur. They offer a brass or hardened steel clutch. So using redcats gears, it's not possible to use the same metal on both gears.

Hubert

1QwkSport2.5r

If you're wearing ring and pinion diff gears out, you're not getting the mesh correct in the diff. You must shim the bearings to get the right mesh.

I like plastic spur gears myself - diff gears should be hard steel. Getting longevity out of bevel gear type diffs is getting the mesh perfect and enough good lube.

krokodyl

I did strip the gears inside the diff once, but lately I was having problems with the gear that goes around the diff, and the one that is on the drive shaft whic turns the whole diff. I will try to get some thinner shims, as one of the ones that I currently have would lock evrything up. I'm going to the LHS soon too, so I might pick up some proper grease.

Hubert

collector1231

My Feedback: (1)

That is why I don't like all-metal gears. 2 different metal densities used for gears is bad as the more dense gear will chew up the less dense gear, even if it is meshed correctly. See if you can't get a plastic spur gear or not.