Setting Pinion clearances

[BultacoJim]

To all folks using smaller gear pinions,

Pinion clearance and backlash can affect all crawlers. I couldn’t figure out why I was getting so much binding on my Clod with smaller pinions. After tearing the gearbox apart, I discovered that the little setscrew for the pinion was interfering with the teeth on the countergear. The little Tamiya “tool” was setting the pinion too deep. I made a little “gauge block” to set my pinion depth. No more binding.

This picture shows how I set the pinion depth to have maximum engagement, yet the setscrew will not “bind” with the countergear.





This is a picture of my “gauge block”.
(Sorry for it being so fuzzy”)




This is how I use it.
The slot in the side of the block lets me slide the pinion up until it is flush with the top surface of my guage.
Hopes this helps.