Mini Cooper diff grease
 

I just bought a used Tamiya mini-cooper. I'm rebuilding it and I'm wondering what is the best grease to use in the differential? I'd like to use something really thick. So what's the best? I was considering trying regular old petroleum jelly since it's the thickest thing I could find.

I always used a very light lube but I suppose you could always try one of the silicone type diff lubes as used in nitro sedans. The gear diffs aren't sealed so whatever you use will eventually work its way out.

Run it dry.

I agree...........................
 

Run it dry and shim it with thin shims to tighten the feel , Try to get a hold of a guy named Bill Jacobs he is really good with these diffs. He might just chime in here on the thread soon. Bill is a Tamiya Freak............

Use Tamiya anti-wear grease on the gears. Put an extra shim on each side and assemble as usual. You can adjust how tight the diff is by how much you tighten the screws on the cover.

Where exactly do the shims go?:confused:

When you take your gear diff apart, you will find a thin washer between the gear case and the bevel gear and on the other side between the bevel gear and the gear case cover. Just add another washer or shim to each side. If you are still confused, go to step one in the manual. If you don't have a manual, you can download it from the Tamiya website.

On a sort of related question, three times in the past year I've broken the arms off the star shaft (part MA21 50602). Is this normal? If not, any suggestions on how to avoid doing this? Thanks.