My son inherited my XR and every race he’s breaking the front swing shaft protector. When I had the car, I used the Xray orange ones and they last me a while. Not for him though.

Any suggestions?

Got a pic of the spool outdrives you are using?

The original kit outdrives and spool

I'm a bit confused. The original spool outdrives on the XR are meant to just be steel on steel and don't use blades

You're right about that per manual, it the picture doesn’t look like blade type. My kit was a X converted to XR. Somewhere along the line I must have changed to blade type, not sure from where.

They’re the TA06 steel light weight ones!

So they use the thinner type blades (same as the rears right? like the TRF418) Not the new thicker front ones like on the TRF420 spool.

If it is the thinner type (same as rear blades), I got some more durable blades I can send you. Forgot the brand but it lasted in my TRF418 mod car. Only downside is they are pink color

Thanks Dan. I sent you a text message..

I also tried suggestion of Qatmix .. filing down the edges of the out drives. They’re a bit sharp, so I rounded them with a dremel diamond bit. Should help them last longer.

Buy the proper original 419 steel outdrives as per that manual image above.

It's so much more reliable than the blade setup.

I've converted my evo 8 and my mates 420 back to the original 419 outdrives, and we never ever have driveshaft issues anymore.

we’ll see how Qatmix suggestion works this weekend. If there is wear on the blades, then I will switch back to the original kit setup

The issue was having was they were breaking where the pin goes through on the end of the dogbone, not the actual blade wearing where it goes into the outdrive. So they could look perfectly fine but still end up ruining a race.

Honestly, the original 419 setup is the most reliable and maintenance free.

I also tried the lightweight spool mod (found on the rc racer) which worked very well on my 419, using 417 plastic outdrives and the metal collar which goes around. This was good, but when the outdrives wear it does cause a bit of friction with the in our movement of the shaft

I had read the length of the pins are the main issue and the newer dog shafts have longer pins.

Keeping it simple is usually the best solution!

Alternatively the TRF420 spool and outdrives should be a drop-in fit. The front blades on those are a little thicker. They can still break but a lot more durable than the thinner blades of before.

I have them but decided against, while my son is doing well and hanging in there with the big lads.. he has moments where he gets frustrated and that’s when things start being and popping 😉

Been trying to find replacement upper arms mounts, seems they’re discontinued