I have rebuilt them a number of times. Avoiding "grinding" (stripped gears) is mostly in the shimming of the diff, where you aim for a tight mesh (with light drag), no left-right slop, and give them a tiny bit of lube. I use fresh cases every time, because they take a beating and get sloppy (I also noticed a decrease in diff damage with this).

The diffs are not slipping uncontrollably, they bark and rip up the rings if the slipper it too tight, or if the gears are not meshed perfectly they will strip. Which goes first depends on which is the path of least resistance, but either case requires a diff rebuild.

With the looser slipper I've run diffs until they became gritty from age, rather than replacing them after damage.

Here's my method for diff building....... Your eyes are going to hurt on this post....LOL

All stock and trust me you will have a better diff if you use the stock rings and your diff will seat deeper and have more ball surface in the groove of the ring and with more wear life and more spring tension than thinner sanded rings. The more ball you can get in the groove the more agressive grip and longer wear you will achieve.
After I put the diff together I don't tighten it. I set the tension just enough to get the opposite out drive to turn the other way. Then I put a slow speed drill on it and run it both forward and reverse for at least a minute. Then I use this method in 5 increments.

Then the diff is almost set. I set the front diff to the stock setting and the rear just a slight touch less. Even with a 5.5 I can get several weeks out of a diff.

I put all the shims on the gear side of the out drive and put 5 spots of diff grease on the gear before sealing the case.


Before building the slipper I scuff the pads on the side I am going to use and the slipper hubs in a figure 8 motion. After they glaze from running I scuff the new side flip the pad and clean and scuff the hub. When both sides of the pad are used I pitch them and buy a new set, there to thin at this point IMO. The slipper will remain more consistent and glazing will take longer before occurring. I use Denatured alcohol to clean the slipper assembly before final assembly.

Setting the slipper is an art. I will never master it. But I do it the same all the time. I run the kit with the stock setting for a battery to insure all is broke in. I run it kinda hard but not race hard. The kit setting is loose. So I then begin to tighten it, but only about a 1/4 turn at a time till I get so I feel like the power is getting to the ground and I want it so that the kit will just break loose. I run dry wet dusty and never know how the track is going to be so knowing settings for all conditions helps and takes lots of practice nights to dial in. I sometimes have to tighten the set screw to get the diff just tight enough. I like my front diff tighter then the rear.
If you set it on medium bite your there. Its set and you can forget it pretty much. When the diff is right you just know it and can feel it. If on high bite 1/8th tighter and it will feel good if its loose 1/8th looser and it should be good. It all can vary though.

If you take the time to build the diff right it should hold up even in a real tight slipper setting. At our track the pros set them so tight they wont slip on a rubber mat...LOL

On power throttle control saves the diff. Off power I see more blown diffs due to just plain to much breaks. Dial the breaks down and try not to hit them to hard when in the air.

Go Fast and try not CRASH!!!!

AE ball cups?????

There the best IMO. They will all wear out its just how it is. But the AE cups are easy to snap on and hard to pop off. I can not count how many times watching a race I have tried to snap on other off brand types and needed pliers to get them on for racers and the hole time thinking how did it even pop off. I doubt any of us will win a race after any brand would pop off but you can get back out quicker if a marshal or onlooker can pop it back on with a finger and not snap any plastic.

Stick with the stock AE ball cups there a great design.

Thanks for all the info!

I don't sand them. In fact, I don't sand them for any of my cars, since all it can do is make the surface more uneven than it came. I do clean them, but that's it.

I'll try this next time. It sounds like it would be more reliable than the usual hold-one-side procedure, though I have seen many months on a diff done this way, so it can't be the worst way to do it. It also sounds like some kind of jig with a motor for running it a while on each side might also be beneficial.

If I put all the shims on that side it'd eat the gears alive. One of my diffs takes 3 shims on the gear side and 2 opposite, while the other takes 5 and 3. Mind you, I've played with it a lot and my friend that owned one long before me also went through a lot of this, so he gave me some pointers.

This is essentially my method, though I usually tighten it slower than that. The end result is usually not much more than the stock setting, usually less than a full revolution.

That couldn't be easy on the diffs... When I ran mine tight the diffs were gone in no time.

Very good point. I also noticed that braking too hard will damage them, so I have mine dialed down for just this reason... Too much braking in the air and you're going to lawn dart it, anyhow.

It will feel tight for a couple of packs but it will loosen up. It works. Been doing it for years.

You have it absolutely right. Anything needs time to break it once shimmed. Trust me, you'll want those shims in there. You want no side to side play when your diff is seated in the bottom half of the diff housing. It will break in, trust me...you don't want that thing being too loose.

sorta yes, first run out i heard alot of chassis slap, turned out i forgot to tighten out one of the screws on the underbody i hope, ill find out tonight... but with our new layout on a big outdoor 1/8 track, on my 2wd i was rdy to go up in shock oil also...

first race night with mine, took 3rd racing with open short course $$$ was funny watching this little thing dart in, around, through, and even under SC trucks.... had fastest lap even... think i just need to dial in the shocks, and mess with some ballast weights

the thing is there is no "standard" setup for diffs, neither for building the shim nor for shimming them. Depending on which batch of diff cases, you must shim the diffs completely differently for instance... now think about how hard the diff spring is - so hard that like 1/8th of a turn can make a heck of a difference on how tight your diff is. Then think about how the tolerance on all the parts add up... I don't recall the recommended number of "turns" of the diff bolt in the instructions (say it's flush with the t-nut, for instance) but it isn't hard to imagine that one diff built flush will slip while another diff built flush will be too tight...

I like the idea of breaking them in with a drill when they aren't very tight though

Paul

No argument here. I have done my diff the same way for years. Its my standard diff build and procedure. And has been my best result after many attempts to get the best result for mod racing. For stock the only difference in procedure is I would shim the rear gear freer with less grease on the gear and I would run a one way in front.

I think to a degree the slow break in makes the diff last longer. I do not sand my diff rings just clean them off before a build. You end up with a good thick diff ring with more spring and diff ring tolerance making the diff and thrust bearings more evenly torqued. Not sure if that's the result but they did make the thrust washers thicker and the bearing smaller? So who really knows on that. But I would bet tolerance was a part in design and testing before the end product.

The slow break in will end up with less break in heat and ultimately allowing the diff and ring to seat with less stress on the ring before hitting the track. And you get closer to a full torque setting before hitting the dirt. Less chance for the diff to prematurely get gritty. I have done this and not even have to set my diff after running it in with the slipper set perfect. 4 to 6 inches of slip work well on our track. 4 inches is pretty tight.

The diff and slipper are a team and they have to work together. So screw up one setting it can all go bad pretty quick none the less. GRRRR!

My kit will be in tomorrow. So looking forward to get back into some 1/10th 4x4. Been running 1/8th all summer.

Has anyone installed the triad slipper in there B44 yet? I have the instructions but when I put it together I had a lot of back and forth play, I used the shims. Also does the 1 side or the 2 side of the spur face the front of the buggy?

There is a little bit of play but not much once it's all in, the 1 pad side goes toward the rear.

Keep us informed. I am a bit skeptical about the beveled washer in the design. After I use up my present stock pads I want to try one out.

I too would really like to hear some stock vs Avid Triad slipper comparisons if anyone has been running it.

Thanks

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