HSP gearwheel wear

[slithy tove]

OK so I have the 1/8 scale HSP Jeep crawler, and have modded the gearbox casing to avoid cracked housings (see Drewpy's thread).

But I now have a different problem. The 50T differential gearwheel is made from hard plastic, and has a slotted centre boss that mates with the ends of the dogbone driveshafts. The slotted holes have worn round after only 3 outings, resulting in slipping diffs, and evetually, I suppose, no drive at all :-(.

Spare diff gears are out of stock with Nitrotek and Goodiesmart (probably because it is a common problem). I tried to fix by making up an aluminium disc with slotted centre to fit the driveshafts, and bolted this to the gearwheel. Lasted about 5 minutes. Aluminium is too soft, just got chewed up.

Question is - has anyone else experienced this problem and possibly found an upgrade part? If not I'll have to find a machine shop to make something up.

I'm UK based but I work in Abu Dhabi. Anyone else out here?

[slithy tove]

I found spare gears on ebay from Australia.

The good bit is that the wheels have a metal hub, so hopefully I won't see any more wear.