Eating spools and worm gears.
 

I just wanted to share my experiences so far with my LCC. I have spent more time working on this than I have driving it, and I am starting to figure out the limitations. Following the threads on the forum, I built my car with pretty much all the upgrades including the non-slipper gear, and I also put in Jun-Fac steel drive shafts. So far, I have stripped two worm gears and spools. I am going to put the slipper gear back in the tranny for now because I would rather have that slip than keep throwing $40+ a pop in the trash.

Yes, I should probably learn to use the dig more often, but until I do, I am taking out the non-slipper.

My 2 cents on the non-slipper gear.

how how are your axle screws? maybe theyre not tight enough and the axel housing is spreading apart causing the gears to wear? i read someone else had a similar problem and they said that was the cause.

worth checking .....

curious .... about how many hours do you think you get out of each set youve had?

Yea, if the axle housing ain't tight its going to strip worms, i had 2 stripped screws in my front axle housing and i found out the other day the pinion was freshly broke a tooth, i think having missing teeth a on the pinion will cause the spool to strip, but i opened the rear expecting worn out pinion but it looked almost brand new.

I think you may have gotten two bad sets of gears ... Stripping out the worms is not a problem I hear much of. Having mis-machined worm gear, we hear that often. The bad batch got out there and is still haunting Losi.

Ive been through 1 wrong cut set (that Losi never responded to my emails about), and 2 correct sets. The first correct set had over 20 hours, the second set had maybe 10. I have the grease ports, and grease very often. ???

I had about 5-10 minutes on the first one that stripped, and I attributed that to the bead lock screws catching on the CKRC OTA kit because it was the front set that stripped. I fixed that problem, and replaced it with a new set of gears which looked exactly like the ones I took out, so I don't think I had a bad set.

Then, after about 2 hours of driving yesterday, the back stopped working. At first, I thought it was the dig slipping, but it was the worm gears again. I pulled the axles part, and it was stripped the same way the front was. So, now I am replacing those, and again, they look the same as the new set I just got.

I think the reason you haven't heard much about this problem is that the slipper gear is designed to prevent this, and in most people's crawlers, there are other parts that will fail first. Plastic gears, drive shafts, etc. I apparently built everything else beyond the strength of the worm gears, so mine are stripping. I put the slipper back in last night, so I am hoping that prevents me from ruining any more worm gears. Losi isn't giving those things away.

If the slipper gear gives me too much trouble, I am going MOA. I am getting tired of working on this car. I probably have 2.5 hours of driving time to 20 hours of taking it apart, putting it together. It is getting old.

well, I finally chunked a worm over the weekend. It was after 100 hours or more, hanging with bergs no less. I did have a bad front and rear spools originally, but those just burnt up motors. I'm running 11.1v on a 21.5 and I do have the slipper in.

How bound up are you getting?

Here's mine with about thirty hours on them, and I bind the hell out of my truck. I tore them down initially and packed the gears with Lucas Oil's Red'N'Tacky 2, then tore them down and repacked at around twenty hours.

There's very little wear on them. I'll be removing the slipper gear this week but up until this point I've just had it cranked down as tight as it will go.

This is with a 17.5 brushless, 13T pinion and 11.1 lipos.

http://silentcircus.com/images/rc/lc...-at-30-hrs.jpg
http://silentcircus.com/images/rc/lc...t-30-hrs-2.jpg
http://silentcircus.com/images/rc/lc...t-30-hrs-3.jpg

Do you use your dig a lot? Does your slipper slip much?

I am really confused on why mine are tearing up so easily. I would have thought something else would break before those gears.

I'm just now getting to the point of being able to use my dig. At first I either wasn't in the habit of using it or the dig servo would burn out. I fried two of them before I got the EPAs right.

I tightened down the slipper back on December sixth with probably an hour on the truck. I had to tighten it down again last weekend, but not at all in between.

It may be that you're chewing up worm gears and I'm chewing up tranny gears. I haven't opened up the tranny yet, waiting on the parts to get here.

http://silentcircus.com/images/rc/lc...t-30-hrs-3.jpg

see that shiny area on your worm ..... (top gear) ..... mines doing the same, yours are wearing out too.

I dont think its a matter of using the dig or having a slipper, it just seems like its a natural thing we're gonna see in the LCC's and those gears. nothing different we can do.

Sounds like that is the case. I already replaced the tranny gears with stainless steel, and the drive shafts with steel as well, so that just left the worm gears to get eaten.

Robbob,

I don't mean worn, I mean stripped.

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/3751/imageuru.jpg

As suggested above, have you checked your axle housings? Even if the top 2-56 screws are stripped out, it could allow the axles housings to spread. Same for the bottom 4 screws. I don't recall what you posted for the grease you are using but that could also be a factor.
Either way you should not be seeing wear that quickly.
Rich

Hi Rich,

Yes, I have made sure the screws are all tight. I am not sure what else to try besides the slipper gear, but just saw a worm gear that looked similar to mine on a MOA setup in another thread, so I am not confident the slipper is going to solve the problem now.

Now you have replaced your stock front and rear worms. Maybe it was just the stock gears and you will have better luck with the new ones."thumbsup" My slipper doesn't slip at all. I tighten it all of the time to make sure it wont slip.

yup those are the same two I have wear on with mine and silentcircus shows on his picture.


I didnt even think about the 2-56 screws Rich just mentioned .... I know on 1 set of my axles mine are loose. They tighten down but dont snug up like the other 4. New housings are going on the order.

Thanks for mentioning those Rich ..... "thumbsup"

The cut on them is the same as the originals, but I hope it makes some difference. I really tired of working on the car instead of driving it.

The shiny area isn't actually on the worm itself, that's a reflection of the flash. The grease in that area, the point of contact between the worm and the spool, is smoothed out and reflexts the light better. I'll try and take a picture outdoors with no flash tomorrow to better illustrate the lack of wear.

Some aluminum housings and stronger worm gears would be a nice option... Too bad someone isn't making those.