Don't You Love Set Screws?!!

[alexchen86]

Well working on my some gearing changes on one of my Cup Racers.

For the 5th time I rounded out the damn set screw. I wasn't even twisting that tight. It was probably a worn out set screw that I didn't notice.

Tried using a slightly larger standard hex driver instead to extract it...made it worse. Tried angling the 1.5mm metric driver...now completely rounded out screw lol.

I've read that people use the drilling method to get the screw out. Do you just find the smallest bit you can fit into the set screw and drill it forwards until you break apart the set screw to slide the pinon off?

[C*H*U*D]

Take a read through this thread.

[Tommy R]

Alex, worst case you could try a pinion gear puller. I've got one I purchased WAY back in the day when I was racing on-road in the early '90s. Only used it once recently, but it still works.

BTW, I assume you're using good tools with non-rounded off tips? In my experience, most pinions still use standard (non-Metric) hardware.

[alexchen86]

Lol if you consider Dynamite tools average I guess they're "good" tools Tommy! I have 4 sets...one for the Baja, 2 for my on/off roads. I always make sure the tips are fresh.

The last set is Standard which I use on my FT TC3 and Losi XXX-SCB.

[Crawl Space]

I'm posting this to save people from stripping out their set screws/ruining their tools. To my knowledge Axial's pinion set screws are 1.5mm. Many other pinion set screws (such as RRP) are STANDARD 1/16".

I too have compromised the integrity of my 1.5mm driver trying tighten a standard set screw

Learn from my mistake - if you are unsure try both!

Happy gearing!

[alexchen86]

Thanks for that tip I'm sure it will help a lot of new builders here. I've found Bondhus tools to be my answer and proper Loctite of course. I just purchased a second set of Bondhus metrics a mix of ball and straight drivers from Northern Tool.

Sure they cost a bit more than Dynamite but less than AE FT drivers or TLR titanium bit drivers but Bondhus is lifetime warranty. So no more rounded out drivers.

If you do see the slightest imperfection just send it back to their RMA dpt. A new set arrived in 4 days!!

I have the T handle set and the smaller hand held set plus AE FT set and the TLR sets. The Losi set hands down sharpest out of the box and longest lasting but after working on 1/10 on and off road plus several 1/8 off roads the 1.5 and 2.0 were done for so just bought replacement tips.

Remember tools are just as important if not more important than your electronics not to mention quality hardware. Most people just overlook these things like bearings.

[Crawl Space]

Duly noted! Will remember Bondhus for my next tool purchase