You know I remembered something today, in that I did notice the manual showing the pads in both ways when I built my car, at the time I realized it may hit the shock tower fit the 'other' way, so built it in the forward position.

Having a background in motorcycles, I do know they used to say brakes had a different effect/feel in a leading or trailing position, I think maybe this is in relation to being more in front or behind the axle point, but I can't remember exactly how it effects things, or maybe it was an old mechanics tale...

you are correct with leading and trailing, but it is for Drum brakes only. Disc brakes have no leading trailing, it is more so the material they are made of. Material matters, specially for progressive brakes, too hard a material and no matter the force applied, it may just slow your car down, not actually lock it up, so in saying this Tomb B has a valid point. i dont tend to look at Mugens much so i dont know how the brakes are setup, but if the pad surface area is small and the material hard, you may be adding more end point to try to get more braking, where in fact all its doing is pushing your rear bulkheads away from the motor, which sounds like all the issues stated.

ok, i downloaded the manual, and for anyone who knows me, downloading a mugen manual isnt in my nature ! :D :eek: first thing i must say, its a very complicated setup, for brakes. pad surface area looks more than ample. cant see what type of material it is ? , and why wasnt the diff housing casted with the adaptor for the disc ? splines are of plastic nature , what is the hex adaptor made of ? just more worries to have splines fracture underload, then the disc can free spin on the housing . one thing i would be looking at is when you apply your brakes fully , to see if you can get something in there to see if you can wobble your disc from side to side. its a big pad wiht a lot of area not retained , maybe the pad is flexing. also, has anyone tried the brakes with out the spring in the middle ? is it possible the spring binds ? taking clamping pressure from the pad ? this is just some areas for thaught. ok i will delete the manual now. best of luck sorting your issues out. :nod:

hi being a serpent man i thank you for your input its nice to see that some other brand racer is interested because MUGEN dose not seem interested we have bought in good faith as in other models 2/3/4/4r/5 and now it is user problems or so i am told have fun with new serpent its due out soon i think
greg

I took my new mugen out three days in a row to find the right setup for myself. I have yet to strip any gears but I did notice that there Is now a wobble in the second gear that wasn't there before. What is the quality on these mugen bearings.? Mugen really needed to make a 2nd gear carrier like the X-ray. I don't think it's such a great idea to rely on the plastic spur. I'm going to order another brand of bearing to see if bearing quality is the issue or if it's the spur.

Oh I forgot, has anyone ever checked to see if the second gear has its center hole directly dead on center ?

Me and my dad put Xray nt1 bearing in our 2nd gear housing. Seems to take away some slop and wobble over stock bearing. Also try shimming the 2-speed shaft by the side belt pully,as i found slop here as well.

With all this talk of the chassis bending, how easy would it be to incorporate a heim joint linkage to bridge the radioplate to the rear bulkhead or two-speed shaft blocks? You could retain lateral flex and eliminate chassis-bending longitudinal flex and probably even gear stripping.

hi it takes about 5 minutes you need 1/8 scale steering arm/2 ball ends from tray back to diff or order brace from kopro shop and drill 1 hole but you can adjust steering arm to straighten chassis as it gets bent more we have had little trouble since using brace
greg

Robert Pietsch posting on facebook again...

"For those who have still problems with stripping the 2nd gear, please try this!"

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...75346434_n.jpg

Edit: Follow up, someone suggested via the facebook post they try softer spur material, Rob said Mugen already tested this, also with regard to the above, the prototypes had a deeper countersink on the alloy bell.

Hello All,

I remind one of my all posts.

About stripping gears, we tested the brace, we tested low brake, we tested smooth second shift, we exchanged the axle with complete gear boxes from one car to others cars, we tesetd different motors, we tested a complete new car (I am in a club with seven other MTX 5 drivers)... NO solution to the stripping of the second spur. We have broken more than Seventy 2nd spurs. And very often, after one or two laps only !!!
The ONLY solution (this one works, even if we are a lot to think the spurs material is the problem because too hard) is to follow Robert advice when he speaks about the alignment of the engine. If the engine is perfectly perpendicular to your chassis and that you have the minimum of play between second spur and second pinion, you have more chance to preserve your 2nd.
These last 2 monts, we all follow this advice and we keep our spurs between 250 and 300 laps.
With a brace between the radioplate and the rear bulkhead, the car is very slow because you lose a lot of steering. This car works probably very well because the flex of the chassis. If you avoid the flex, you lose the ADN of the car.
JR28

If the great issue the only issue with this car, has there been a good solution for it? / Where is the best place to buy in the US?

local hobby shop has 1 in stock www.superiorhobbies.com
there in florida

99.99 shipping? please...

http://i49.tinypic.com/qzhcox.jpg
I did this to prevent bending of the frame, at least I do not change the chassis every race :-), to the breaking of the second gear rather than a good pair to hold the clutch with a game to 0.65 and I have not broken anything .