Redacat Wendigo. Gen 8 diff gears and various driveshaft debacle

[Jammied]

Ok not sure where to start but here it goes.

I ran my Wndigo well over 15 battery packs on 3s and 4s with the hobbywing max10 sct and hobby star 3670 3050kv setup no problems with gears. Long story short I figured the modded factory driveshafts could use upgrading. That's when the teardrops started lol.

So i ordered some boom racing voodoo driveshafts installed them and BAM broke a front pinion. So I figured that some had reported broken front pinion shafts and that mine just held up longer than some others. So i ordered some of the cnc underdrive gears from redcat along with the hd steel driveshafts.

When they arrived i noticed the bevel on the gears was a little different. That's the second part of the debacle.

At any rate i installed the underdrive gears front and rear. Also used a hd steel driveshaft up front and left the boom driveshaft in the rear. Low and behold i broke the rear pinion shaft. First battery pack on the cnc underdrive gears. So i replaced the pinion and installed the redcat hd steel driveshaft in the rear also. All was going good for about 3 battery packs. Then the front driveshaft fell apart . The pin wasn't set properly in the cup. So replaced the driveshaft with the original modded driveshaft. Ran about 6-7 batteries through it and all of a sudden clank and grind!! Well I'll be broke a pinion tooth in the front!

So after inspection of both front and rear gears it is very obvious that proper gear mesh cannot be achieved. Both the ring gear and pinion were wearing on a small part of the outside part of the teeth very little contact area. So after digging out the original ring gear and pinion from the parts box and examining wow they had very good contact area and mesh almost full tooth length and depth!

About this time frame is when the factory parts became available at redcat. So I ordered up some original ring gears and pinions.

Redcat sent me some HD driveshafts under warranty. But I am currently running mip x-duty driveshafts. Now I ordered some for a wraith. Yep to short! So I ordered some Super Shafty exclusive 3/4" longer Male spline halfs and the front is about perfect the rear has about a half inch of spline contact in the Male-female joint and maybe a 1/4" of spline showing at full extension. Maybe the 1" longer then stock would be better in the rear? Well not a very economic friendly upgrade. Stock modded shafts or the redcat hd shafts would probably be more then enough even for my 4s running, bashing and crawling.

So from what is clearly different is the gen8 diff gears clearly have a different bevel. And really no way to get a good mesh in the Wendigo axle housings the wear Mark's show this. Also the mesh is set with the driveshaft collar .

These mip driveshafts are super smooth in the slip joints and in the dogbone cup joint and will easily handle the sharp pinion and driveshaft angle of the Wendigo. But the are pricey!!! I have another 15 packs through it with the mip driveshafts and stock Wendigo gears and no problems.

So from what I have witnessed

1. Boom driveshafts are rough and catchy in the slip joint and little bitty u-joints. I would recommend avoiding these!! They will bind in the slip and joint then pinion problems come along with it

2. The redcat hd. Seem to be a fairly good alternative if you get a set that was properly assembled or examine and reassemble yourself. They have a fairly smooth slip joint and and dogbone cup but wont take the extreme angles of the mip shafts but half the price of mip

3. MIP shafts are great!! But pricey

4. The stock shafts require some fixings then work very good.

Also I would recommend staying away from gen 8 diff gears and also the transfercase and transmission gears as well because the Wendigo tranny and transfercase gears are made of a different material that is white not black and mine show no wear even under high stress 4s power.

As a side note I'm still running the so called junk plastic steering and suspension links. While I did repair the riverside link when it pulled off with ca and thread. It has been going strong for well over 20 packs the problem with the aluminum links is that they dont support the threaded part of the shaft all the way and could cause a weak point where as the thread is smaller diameter than the shafts and the plastic links actually add support to the entire threaded portion.

[mgputer]

I ran into the same issues with the under drive gears. They are a different pitch but if you run The pinion and ring gear they fit. Bad part is they are over hardened and snap easy. I put a set in my Gen 8 and it broke also.

As for breaking a stock pinion I found that if you over tightened it it will snap at the hole. Since I have put it in gently with lots of loc-tite it's been fine. The pin has a bevel that essentially wedges it apart. I have seen some guys break it just from tightening it.

I still haven't broken a drive shaft but I don't run 4s.

I had to vent the tires because they were full of water and kept pulling off the rim. Been good since though.

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[Jammied]

Thanks for the heads up on the screw torque.

I'm pretty sure that I didn't over tighten them. The only time a pinion snapped was with the boom voodoo driveshafts the original driveshafts and along with the mip and redcat HD metal ones have been good.

Have you taken the underdrive gears out of the Wendigo? If so could you post pics of the wear on the teeth?

I was using underdrive rings and pinions throughout all of this. Just would be good to see the wear pattern from your Wendigo set. I'm might have been doing something wrong.

Yeah the original ring and pinion are of the high contact deep groove variety.

I'm still impressed with the way the stock drivetrain holds up to being over powered.

IMHO the Wendigo stock driveshafts would be a upgrade for the scx10 and wraith. Just dont see them getting spaghetti and pretzel shaped. But they may not clear the spur gear on the Axial crawlers

[mgputer]

Originally Posted by Jammied

Thanks for the heads up on the screw torque.

I'm pretty sure that I didn't over tighten them. The only time a pinion snapped was with the boom voodoo driveshafts the original driveshafts and along with the mip and redcat HD metal ones have been good.

Have you taken the underdrive gears out of the Wendigo? If so could you post pics of the wear on the teeth?

I was using underdrive rings and pinions throughout all of this. Just would be good to see the wear pattern from your Wendigo set. I'm might have been doing something wrong.

Yeah the original ring and pinion are of the high contact deep groove variety.

I'm still impressed with the way the stock drivetrain holds up to being over powered.

IMHO the Wendigo stock driveshafts would be a upgrade for the scx10 and wraith. Just dont see them getting spaghetti and pretzel shaped. But they may not clear the spur gear on the Axial crawlers

Mine didn't mesh right either. They didn't mesh right in the Gen 8 either. Not sure why as the mesh felt good.

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[Jammied]

Thanks very much!

That's what mine looked like. And mesh feels good. On full scale vehicles I usually use a little paint on the gears and some dry run turning to check. Wish I would have on the Wendigo.

The stock ring and pinion seem to mesh pretty good. Judging from the wear pattern.

Maybe the gen 8 doesn't have enough stress on them to be a problem? So the Wendigo gears could be a upgrade to the gen 8?

[mgputer]

Originally Posted by Jammied

Thanks very much!

That's what mine looked like. And mesh feels good. On full scale vehicles I usually use a little paint on the gears and some dry run turning to check. Wish I would have on the Wendigo.

The stock ring and pinion seem to mesh pretty good. Judging from the wear pattern.

Maybe the gen 8 doesn't have enough stress on them to be a problem? So the Wendigo gears could be a upgrade to the gen 8?

I'll have to try it and see how it works. Need to get a ring gear and see how it fits.

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[ferp420]

these are the type of issues that have plaged redcat for years keept stock there great but once.you start upgrading you have issues

[mgputer]

Originally Posted by ferp420

these are the type of issues that have plaged redcat for years keept stock there great but once.you start upgrading you have issues

Ignorance is bliss my friend and you sir must be a very happy man. That's all I have for you goodbye.

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[Jammied]

Well now after I think about it.....

The Boom racing voodoo driveshafts have a red collar that slides over the end of the driveshaft and the set screw/pin screw actually screws into that collar and passes through the driveshaft flange and pinion shaft. Maybe that is where the problem with the voodoo shafts is. The higher end Boom racing shafts dont use that collar as a set screw point the higher end Boom racing shafts attach like normal driveshafts.

I don't see any problems plaguing redcat and upgrades. Same as any other brand sometimes you gotta sort through the bad to find the good.

Maybe Redcat should start paying the aftermarket manufacturers off like the big name brands to get all kinds of hocus pocus upgrades. Lol

Ever wonder why some of the aftermarket hop up companies have upgrades for other brands sometimes before the vehicle is released!?

This thread isn't and wasn't ment to be a debate. Or for bashing brands it is and was intended to learn what others have found with certain or different parts and what I have found with certain ar different parts.

And I thank anyone that has experience with drivetrain upgrades or mods that contribute.

To help people enjoy the hobby and their Wendigo and maybe help and learn Gen 8 ins and outside.

[Jammied]

Originally Posted by mgputer

Ignorance is bliss my friend and you sir must be a very happy man. That's all I have for you goodbye.

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Lol

[ferp420]

Originally Posted by mgmrblissputer

Ignorance is bliss my friend and you sir must be a very happy man. That's all I have for you goodbye.

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lol yes i am a vary happy man thank you vary much

[Jammied]

Ok I got another 12 packs through the Wendigo with the mip driveshafts. Zero problems.

So I'm certain they are good to go.

Short recap is I ordered the axial mip shafts for a Wraith. They are to short so I ordered the 3/4" longer male spline from Super Shafty. The front is great this way. The rear could probably use the 1" longer male splines part.

To use the Mip shafts I had to get my file out and file down the back of the joint that slides onto the pinion and also file down the collar to get rid of bearing bind. Not a big deal. Just done it carefully and slowly checking for set screw and bearing bind . So my thoughts and experience is pay attention to set screw tension as Gus has mentioned and carefully select driveshafts if you choose to upgrade them and they are double tuff

I for one am very impressed with the strength of these axles! I have done numerous standing backflips , get it out of binds in wheel wedge rock crawling full full throttle bursts numerous spinup on to the wheels from the side. Brakes set to tight front somersaults ect.... all this with a 3670 3050kv motor running 3s and 4s with a 20t pinion. Haven't even tore up anything on the front axle like the cv's or the likes.

[ferp420]

Originally Posted by Jammied

Short recap is I ordered the axial mip shafts for a Wraith. They are to short so I ordered the 3/4" longer male spline from Super Shafty. The front is great this way. The rear could probably use the 1" longer male splines part.

ive been running a set of mips like that for 5 years now never had a problem with the splines but after running that rig for several hours a day for years on end they are a bit sloppy but have never once fell out i did were out a pin though

[Jammied]

That's good info

Thanks for the tip