Good call. I wouldn't have caught that.

Talk about a hair puller. Trying to get the diff to function with the smaller balls was a nightmare. First I had to figure out why the thrust bearing assembly wasn't putting pressure on the diff, then I had to take a little material off of both the drive shaft and the bottom washer in the thrust bearing assembly. Maybe just grinding on the washer would have solved the problem but I did the drive shaft first. If the shoulder on the thrust bolt were machined back just another mm it would accept both 1/8 and 3/32 ball diffs.

Works now though and I'll get to run the gear ratio that I need to.

Meh, just run the RW 70 or 72-tooth spur gear. They are a better quality gear IMO. You could have probably run the thrust washers with the flat sides towards the balls to gain the clearance needed to get the diff to lock - I do this anyways as it makes the diff run smoother. this is how Slapmaster recommends running his thrust bearings.

If you are trying to be helpful, this post is entirely too vague. RW spur gear? Are you talking about the washers that the balls make contact with? How does flipping them increase clearance? If you are talking about the bottom washer in the thrust bearing stack flipping it would make it closer to the end of the axle that it was hitting. Please clarify. And thanks for the tips.

Ok, found RW Racing. Thought RW might be short for something. Are all pan car spurs interchangeable or do they make one in particular that I need for the Eclipse. I'm seeing them listed as 1/12 pan car spurs but out of stock almost everywhere. That's why I ended up going with the CRC gear.

Most pan car spurs are interchangeable.

There's some exceptions (the ones here with the smaller balls, for example, but they do fit, they're not just fully "standard"), but for the most part.

https://www.apexrc.com/collections/rw-racing

The thrust bearing utilizes two washers that have races the balls typically fit into. There are two slightly different sizes. The larger one goes in first then the thrust bearing then the smaller one last. It would typically be installed like so:

[|:|]

I install the washers with the races facing away from the thrust bearing balls like so:

]|:|[

This would give you a little more clearance to account for the smaller 3/32" balls. I can't guarantee it would have saved you from your other efforts as I don't have any 3/32" balls/gears to try it with (I gave up on CRC spurs long ago - even on CRC cars). I run the thrust like this because it makes the diff smoother.

Hope that clarifies it?

Very clear. Thanks. I will give it a try.

Now that I've actually thought about it some more, I don't think the washer trick will help. The clearance problem is between the bottom washer in the stack, the cup shaped one, and the shoulder on the driveshaft. Flipping the thrust washers will make the stack a little higher, but won't move the bottom washer away from the driveshaft. Best bet is to just run a spur that uses the 1/8 diff balls I guess. I'll order some RW spurs when my current set up needs an overhaul.

I'll be honest, when I read the bit about needing "special" smaller balls, I cringed.

Someone who's hooked will do anything to make race day happen. Car runs great with the CRC spur and 3/32 diff balls with an extra 1mm track width shim on the right side. I was turning fast laps a few tenths faster than the guy who normally wins the class on club racing days, and I've only got about an hour total time behind the wheel of a 1/12 car. Lots to learn but I'm getting there quickly with this car. It really does make the other cars look like they are competing on a different, more inconsistent track surface. So easy to drive fast. Now I just need to see how far behind the game I am when the fast guys show up.

First night with mine out and I'm impressed. Handles better then my vbc lightning 12 ever did. It's easy to drive fast and responds to changes. It really works well. Way better then I thought it would.

Happy it is going well I'm guessing you are running stock setup. Put 30K in the centre shock and change to Blue front springs and it may go even better. 40K in the front dampers too.

For those talking about spurs, the car comes with a Kimbrough 76T. Any Kimbrough, Xenon, RW 1/12th spur designed for 1/8th inch balls should work.

Is that for black CRC carpet? Seems stiff for the new black carpet. Running 10,000 in the tubes right now.

For the old grey CRC carpet but should work pretty much everywhere.