Originally Posted by yellowshark

Hi,would be interested in some views on this. Since moving from a T1R to a T2 we have been using a spool (locked one way) at the front. I suspect there are a lot of people with this config. We have also suffered continuously (to the point where today I thought about junking the car) with the pin joining the drive shaft to the drive axle coming lose. Hell yesterday we fitted a new shaft, new axle, coupling, pin and hex screw to one side, with thread lock, - to remove any variable of worn holes (giving movement) and during practice this morning the pin on that side came out.

Now what I did not realise until today was the significant vibration on turning that a spool introduces. If you haven't seen it put the car on the bench and try it on full lock. This evening I came a across a posting on the Losi thread discussing the same point of vibration and the impacts on the drive shaft assembley through significant increased wear caused by spools.

Do you run a spool because that is what the Xray kit comes with (like me) or is it really advantageous? Perhaps importantly I run on asphalt which will not have the high grip aspects that carpet will. My project next week is to pull a diff from the old T1R, change the ratio to 1.7 and fit it to the T2. I doubt it will negatively impact the performance,indeed it will not because it will be nice to do a race meeting with drive at all 4 wheels!!!

What are the pros and cons of diffs vs. spools?