Originally Posted by
imjonah
I am interested in moving from 1/10 TC to 1/12 th. I was wondering how reliable and low maintenance the 1/12th differential is in comparison to the typical 1:10 scale 4wd belt driven differentials are. Assuming my goal is not eeking out the last tiny increment of speed but rather maximizing my track time relative to my wrench time.
This will depend heavily on how clean the surface you race on is and also how much power you bolt in. On a clean track with a 10.5 you can do an entire day with a few practice runs with no problems. Bolt in more serious power (AKA 5.5t and lower) and you will need to rebuild the diff more often just as you do when you bolt in heaps of power in a TC.
Keep in mind that rebuilding a 12th scale diff only takes a few short minutes. It is a very simple case of removing one bolt, cleaning the plates and spur, greasing, and re-assemble. The most time consuming thing to do between runs on a 12th scale (assuming no setup changes) is swapping the wheels from side to side so they wear evenly and then gooping.
12th scale is very easy to run once you know what you are doing.