Transmission for older RC10?
 

I bought a junk box from a former R/C enthusiast. It contained several radios, two old roller chassies, a bunch of motors, servos, ESCs, batteries, etc., condition mostly unknown. I subsequently found all the motors and servos run fine, and at least one radio.

One chassis is a Team Associated RC10-T3. Plastic frame, front-mounted sideways steering servo (full of dirt). The other chassis I believe is an older RC10T of some kind, metal frame, fat middle, skinny front end.

The plastic-frame RC10-T3 has transmission problems. If you turn the spur gear by hand, it turns easily, but the wheels don't turn at all. If you hold one wheel and turn the other, the axle shaft of the turning sheels turns correctly, but the spur gear doesn't turn. As it came in the junk box, it had a 13-turn brushless motor and a Novak XBR Sport ESC. Wouldn't surprise me if that motor/ESC combination shredded one or more tranny gears. The metal pinion gear on the motor, looks like someone has been chewing on it.

I could try to diagnose it and maybe repair it, but I'd rather just put a new (maybe upgraded) transmission on it, along with a new pinion of course. The motor and ESC work fine, very torquey. I downloaded the data sheet for the ESC, wow it sounds bulletproof, 120A per phase.

My question is, where would I find a suitable transmission for an RC10-T3? Probably a newbie question, sorry if the answer is obvious to you more experienced folks. But I haven't a clue where to start.

Any recommendations?

Thanx all!

You may want to check the offroad forum for rc10 type questions, but if I recall the T3 correctly it used the stealth transmission that associated has used for years and the "3" line went to the 2.4:1 ratio. So a t2, or t3/b3 tranny would work and I believe the T4 went to 2.6:1.

I believe they are all interchangable for the most part or at least mountable on the same chassis if you want the entire thing but most likely you only need the center 'idler' gear. the top gear is metal so it is most likely safe and the diff gear tends to survive. the idler gear is the same from b2/t2/t3/t4 for maybe $2 and I believe they only changed the diff gear.

Brian, EXCELLENT information! That was the sort of thing I was looking for. Thank you!

An trans with a 2.6:1 instead of 2.4: 1 is not a big deal for me, and I can play with the pinion gear if needed. I hope.

I'll also ask at the off-road forum. But now I know more than I used to - almost enough to be dangerous. :D

www.rc10talk.com

a lot of great info there as well

www.rc10.com

you can probably find original manuals there

More than likely it's the idler gear at fault. I'm pretty sure they engineer the stealth trans to have the idler gear fail first instead of the diff.