Most kits out there should be the newer version, the change occurred about 1 1/2 to 2 years ago, I believe. As for the changes in the gears, only the material changes, not the teeth or pitch. The only noicible changes were the newer kits have droop screws on all four a-arms and that the second bearing inside the diffs was switched to a thinner bushing. As for the quick glance, before the shrink wrap comes off: look for the droop screws and droop gauge, those were not featured on the first run of kits.

yeah I was curous about the material the gears were made of I know of the other running changes
thanks

OK, took me a minute, but I now see what you are getting at. Yes, they did. The original gears were made with... well, I don't know really. When they made "improvements" to the kit awhile back, they chaged the material to.... well, again I don't know (I think it might be Kevlar, the bulletproof vest stuff), but the stuff IS a differend color, only difference in the gear.

RandyB-I too wish I knew what that material is-but to be honest-it doesnt seem to make any noticeable difference. So much so that I have about 5 diffs built at any one time (IRS, stock ones) and some have Grey gears and some have the White gears. I put them in and take them out between white and grey crown gears. Makes no difference on track at all.

Ray

Exaclty, you can even mix gears (the one on the diff being different that the one on the shaft) and not see a difference in performance! Can I get a "Hooya" for Team Associated!!!

(Yes, I get very excited after my fourth cup of coffee)

I guess it looks trick though!

I think they are a bit stronger...main improvement.

is it very difficult to make the battery tray larger, so the batteries are closer to the cars centerline? Ive seen the website how-to's but they use drill presses and other such tools, and was wondering if anyone has done it here, and if they thought it was hard. (man that was a run-on sentence...lol)

I did mine by hand with a dremel tool, i didnt think it was too tricky at all, just take your time and mark out how much your cutting off first :)

I spoke with Torrance about the gears a while back. From my understanding the "white" gears are of a stronger material(pretty sure it was not kevlar though. Both the gray gears and the white gears do not really have a name, he said that they just have serial numbers.), not just different colors. This is because sometimes when running Modified and most of the time in the NTC3, there were some striping problems on the car. I guess just some reliability re-enforcements on the TC3

No, it is not very difficult at all. You just have to be patient and take your time. Exactly what berger said!

You might want to work with a big fan next to you, blowing the carbon fibers AWAY from you. That way, you will not be breathing in all the little carbon particals in the air :D

I thought little carbon particals were good for the lungs... :p :p :lol: :lol: Dang looks like you learn something every day :nod: :nod:

The majority of AE's sponsored drivers have probably wet sanded. If you round the edges of the chassis with some medium grit sandpaper (I used 200 grit) and then use some very fine sandpaper to wet sand the edges and the bottom of the chassis, when the car rubs in the corners it doesn't loose as much speed. This happens a lot in mod on carpet, and those standard 90 degree edges dig in pretty well.

Here is a picture of the side of my chassis. Like I said, I used 200 grit to round off the edges, and 1000 grit for the wet sanding.

Close up.

After wet sanding the chassis is incredibly smooth to the touch.