Gear damage question
 

Hello, I have a question but hope this is not stupid to ask...:lol:

I found out that the spur gear and pinion gear has damaged very easily on my Tamiya TA05. I only ran with SPX and 17.5 (sometime 13.5).

Well, the parking lot that I practiced was like a normal park lot. Looks very clean, but definitely has some little chip rocks.

I didn't put the spur gear and pinion gear too tight together, maybe only around 1 paper thickness. Do you guys put any oil after you installed the gears? Or what should I do to prevent damage of the gears?

Thank you for helping me. I'm a rookie driver.

Thanks.

Spur is usually plastic and pinion is metal, the spur is considered to be a consumable item, it is meant to wear out, just like your tires. I sometimes use a little graphite powder on the spur as lube if i have a tight mesh and cannot for some reason get it right. The only time i use grease of any sort is if i have an enclosed gearbox that contains the pinion and spur, like on my rock crawler, in this case, i use silicon grease as all the gears are metal to metal.

My problem is both spur (plastic) and pinion (metal) are damaged.

I'll try to post a photo tonight...

try to cover the hole under the chassis and spur gear with some tape

+1

I keep some aluminum tape in my box for just this reason. Thin, sticky, strong, replace when needed. I run tape over the chassis spur hole if I see any kind of loose stone that can't or won't be swept clean of the track before running.

Also try to check gear mesh for the full revolution and not just one spot. Pinions spurs don't spin true all the time.

Are you running the standard Tamiya Pinion and Spur or 48 pitch gears?

I was going to ask the same, Tamiya spurs are NOT 48dp so if you bought your pinion in 48dp it will not mesh properly, also some pinions are in aluminium and not metal, my son destroyed both last week with a small stone that got stuck in spur.

And do check that you have 1/2mm play on all the spur/pinion area

I tried. I actually tried to cover all holes with tapes. Plus, I custom made a plastic gear cover to cover up the spurs and pinion gear.... but same result. :(

Can you explain more in details? Thanks.

I'm actually running 64p.

There's your problem.....expecting 64P gears to stand up to rocks and dust like a 48P will. If you've done everything you can do to keep rocks and dust out, well, that's part of the trade off with running fine pitch gears. Even the best prepared outdoor tracks are prone to small rocks getting into the gears. For parking lot racing, 48P is almost a must since it's much more resistant to the little rocks. If you find yourself bashing in a run of the mill parking lot often, it's probably going to cost you a set of 64P spur and pinion each session.

Something else to think about...the more you seal up the gears, the more likely that when something gets in it'll just bounce around until it lodges in your gears instead of being flung free.

Either way, it's all a trade off, but rocks in the gears are sorta standard for outside racing.

I see. I didn't know that I should use 48p for outside track. As I was told (or taught) that 64p runs more smoothly and gave you more combo choice on the ratio.

Anyway, thanks for the information. I will try it with 48p. Thanks.:lol:

Set your mesh, than rotate your spur 90 degrees or so, check again & reset if needed. Repeat a few times. Spurs are not always perfectly round so if you have your mesh set right at one point, there might be a gap that is too large in another location which can cause your pinion to strip the spur gears.

:nod::nod::nod:

Thanks!