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Old 09-26-2021, 08:18 AM   #1
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Default WPL portal axles?

Anyone ever tried the portal axles they are selling on ebay for wpl trucks?

Plastic housings, but it looks like the turning bits are metal:



They’re not expensive, so I ordered a couple sets to give them a try. I can either use the extras as spares or maybe build a 4WS rig. Like I said, I didn't spend much money on them so mucking around with them (or breaking them) isn't a big deal. I spent around 50 bucks for three front axles and 2 rear axles. Seems pretty "cheap" to me.

Just wondering if anyone else has tried them and what they found out about them….

Last edited by NoBrand; 09-26-2021 at 12:20 PM.
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Old 09-26-2021, 01:30 PM   #2
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Default Re: WPL portal axles?

No but interested in your findings. Please be sure to share your thoughts after you try them.
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Old 09-26-2021, 01:46 PM   #3
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Default Re: WPL portal axles?

I’m interested as well, picking up a couple of front axles for a new 4ws build would be great right now.
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Old 09-26-2021, 02:32 PM   #4
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Default Re: WPL portal axles?

Well, it's probably a month or so wait until they even show up on my doorstep, so don't hold your breath until an update happens......LOL!
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Old 10-08-2021, 08:08 AM   #5
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Default Re: WPL portal axles?

So the portal axles showed up yesterday.

First impressions:

1.Housing are plastic, but feel pretty soild.
2.Bearings are all sleeve type bushings, no ball bearings or seals. Everything seems well supported though and they look like bronze type bushings.
3.Portal ends are plastic housings, but shafts and gears are all metal. Its a metal of some sort, but not a brass. Iron, steel, pot metal or whatever it is, but not a brass.
4.All the spots where there are pivots in the plastic housings have brass bushings installed.
5.Spindle hub shaft is metal.
6.Ring and pinion gears are metal
7.All the gears seem to have a generous amount of grease in them, even though it looks/feels similar to garden variety Vaseline.
8.Has a very small “RBR/C” cast into the plastic housings.
9.Everything seems to conform to the c24 axle mounting points

Biggest issue right now is that the axles have a bit of a “bind” as you rotate the pinion shaft. All 5 ofthe axles I ordered have it. They run fine for a couple turns and then jam up hard. I’ll have to look closer at that to see if its a design problem or if its just a matter of some shimming and/or running in the new parts so they mate to each other better.

Here is the truck that I will be using to test them out:





But there’ll bit a bit of a delay before testing the axles. The truck is getting a HW 1080 esc and a radiolink 7channel receiver to work with a RL rc6gs transmitter. The WPL transmitter is OK (the ver3 soundboard kit, not the stock rtr transmitter/receiver), but it just feels cheap (like a toy) and the RC6GS is heads and shoulders over wpl products in features, feel and quality. The WPL electronics work ok, i just want something a little better.

Thats all I’ve got to say on them for now. More to follow when I get a chance to mess around with them a bit.

Last edited by NoBrand; 10-08-2021 at 08:32 AM.
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Old 10-09-2021, 07:26 PM   #6
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Default Re: WPL portal axles?

So I've had a chance to look a little closer at the portal axles.

Long story short: if you're looking for axles you can bolt on and go, these are not the ones you are looking for.

I say that because these bind everywhere there's a gear or coupling.

The biggest offenders seem to be the portal housings themselves. The gears in the portals just bind and bind and bind. There's no adjustments possible on them, other than running them in together until they find their mate/wear point. I tried running the portals off the axle in a cordless drill to see if they would bend in, but they just keep binding at points in the gear rotations. I suspect the gears aren't machined properly (ie: out of round) because if I run the portals with the upper shaft removed they don't bind. But when installing the upper shaft and running them again, they bind at a similar point in the rotating every time. So it's either the gears are poorly manufactured, or the small amount of play in the bronze bushings the shafts run in is too much to keep the gears in proper alignment. Or, it couple be the plastic housings the bushings are pressed in to allowing too much play.

So, at this point (unless you want to do a bit of reverse engineering and manufacturing), I can't recommend these as a good purchase.

Since I've got them here already, I'll keep messing with them and if a fix is found I'll report back.

it's all quite disappointing really.....
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Old 10-09-2021, 07:27 PM   #7
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Default Re: WPL portal axles?

So I've had a chance to look a little closer at the portal axles.

Long story short: if you're looking for axles you can bolt on and go, these are not the ones you are looking for.

I say that because these bind everywhere there's a gear or coupling.

The biggest offenders seem to be the portal housings themselves. The gears in the portals just bind and bind and bind. There's no adjustments possible on them, other than running them in together until they find their mate/wear point. I tried running the portals off the axle in a cordless drill to see if they would bend in, but they just keep binding at points in the gear rotations. I suspect the gears aren't machined properly (ie: out of round) because if I run the portals with the upper shaft removed they don't bind. But when installing the upper shaft and running them again, they bind at a similar point in the rotating every time. So it's either the gears are poorly manufactured, or the small amount of play in the bronze bushings the shafts run in is too much to keep the gears in proper alignment. Or, it couple be the plastic housings the bushings are pressed in to allowing too much play.

So, at this point (unless you want to do a bit of reverse engineering and manufacturing), I can't recommend these as a good purchase.

Since I've got them here already, I'll keep messing with them and if a fix is found I'll report back.

it's all quite disappointing really.....
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Old 10-09-2021, 10:59 PM   #8
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Default Re: WPL portal axles?

Sorry to hear that they are not working out, but the truck looks pretty fantastic. Hopefully you can get the kinks solved.



s.
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Old 10-10-2021, 06:34 AM   #9
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Default Re: WPL portal axles?

Sounds like they're unusable at this point.

Try cracking the cases open and putting some 600 grit clover compound in and running with your drill again.

Worse that can happen is you destroy the gears.

Keep out of shafts/bushings if you can
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Old 10-10-2021, 01:23 PM   #10
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Default Re: WPL portal axles?

Quote:
Originally Posted by 500swmag View Post
Sounds like they're unusable at this point.

Try cracking the cases open and putting some 600 grit clover compound in and running with your drill again.

Worse that can happen is you destroy the gears.

Keep out of shafts/bushings if you can
I thought about maybe trying a little valve lapping compound and try to run them in.

No way to run the gears without the bearings and shafts.

I've got a few ideas I'd like to try, just need to get some free time to play with them more. I kind of feel that the bushings are allowing the shafts to move around a little bit too much (axially) and changing the gear mesh as it runs, essentially closing up the backlash and causing the gears to jam.

I may see if I can source some small bearings rather than the bushings they originally fitted. Bearings might be a little better at controlling the movements of the shafts, meaning better gear meshing. At the very least, bearings won't wear out and induce more slop like a plain bearing would.

Lots of points to play with, just need to find the time....
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Old 10-12-2021, 12:07 PM   #11
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Default Re: WPL portal axles?

Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveB1 View Post
Sorry to hear that they are not working out, but the truck looks pretty fantastic. Hopefully you can get the kinks solved.



s.

Thanks. It's still a work in progress.

Started out as an RTR kit and just about everything has been changed. In retrospect, I should have just waited and bought the c24-1 KM kit (metal parts, better servo, softer tires, etc). IN the long run, it would have cost less (a lot less).

Right now it has the metal axles, metal 4 link, upgraded servo, softer tires, 2 speed gearbox, metal coil over shocks, etc.

The RTR is ok if you just want something you can charge up and hand over to your kids, it's not much more than a toy as delivered.

The kit is what you want if you want a hobby grade micro crawler.

They choose the parts for the rtr and kit knowing that fact. For example: they use harder tires and a plastic geared servo for the RTR kit. I put the softer "kit" tires on the rtr steering servo and it only took a couple days for the servo to die/strip. A change to the metal geared servo (like in the metal build kit) and no problems since.

I did loose some travel with the coil over shocks compared to the stockers (ie: they don't stick up past the chassis attachment) but I gain articulation by laying the shock down a bit. I lost a smidge of chassis height, but gained articulation because laid down shocks are much softer than standing them upright. Has to do with the geometry of the direction the force is applied. So even though I lost some absolute travel, I actually have more articulation and the wheels will contact the body now before bottoming the shocks.

Right now I'm pulling out the electronics to install a HW 1080, a radiolink R7FG receiver and a radiolink R6GS transmitter. The stock electronics in the RTR aren't that bad, they work fine for a toy .The soundboard V3 is a major step up for this little truck, but it still doesn't have things like EPA. So it pretty much has to go. the steering servo just has too much travel to work well in this little truck and without EPA you're going to be breaking or burning things out.

Last edited by NoBrand; 10-12-2021 at 12:09 PM.
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Old 01-07-2022, 01:19 PM   #12
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Default Re: WPL portal axles?

Thanks for taking one for the team.

Now there's an all metal portal axle kit for the WPL/MN trucks now which appears to be CNC machined. One or more reviews suggest there is binding
during a full lock turn though...

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005...rch-mainSearch

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