Pinion gear

[metalry101]

Originally Posted by jhauf

I Know this thread is about Pinions, but as I built my K-5 I found that the only turn off for me was the shocks. I noticed someone said, "very high quality "standard shocks", but I have to disagree. I have built many kits and although this is my first crawler build, I was not impressed with the shocks. The instructions left me scratching my head at some points. I completely overlooked the upper front third link. The center mount that the trans mounts to was tight on the right side rail. Given all that I am the first in our crawler group to own a k-5 and I love it. With the exception of the shocks, Vaterra did a great job on the truck. You cant compare Vaterra to Losi or associated because these brands have been at the game for a long time. They have the foresight to know what to look for in their vehicles as far as defects go. When I read this post about the pinions I got worried that I made a hasty purchase. When I saw Rich post about Horizons customer service, all my worries went away. I will be sending my finished Vaterra to my LHS for display to promote this vehicle. Just my thoughts. Great job Horizon

Do they just cycle really really slowly? A friend and I bought ours at the same time and had that issue with the shocks. They felt like they had diff oil in them, not shock oil. We drilled the pistons out a bit and now they work great. I'm running 10 weight oil and it feels perfect. My friend is running stock oil (I assume it is 30 weight) and he's happy with that.

[svt923]

Originally Posted by jhauf

I Know this thread is about Pinions, but as I built my K-5 I found that the only turn off for me was the shocks. I noticed someone said, "very high quality "standard shocks", but I have to disagree. I have built many kits and although this is my first crawler build, I was not impressed with the shocks. The instructions left me scratching my head at some points. I completely overlooked the upper front third link. The center mount that the trans mounts to was tight on the right side rail. Given all that I am the first in our crawler group to own a k-5 and I love it. With the exception of the shocks, Vaterra did a great job on the truck. You cant compare Vaterra to Losi or associated because these brands have been at the game for a long time. They have the foresight to know what to look for in their vehicles as far as defects go. When I read this post about the pinions I got worried that I made a hasty purchase. When I saw Rich post about Horizons customer service, all my worries went away. I will be sending my finished Vaterra to my LHS for display to promote this vehicle. Just my thoughts. Great job Horizon

I know you said this is your first crawler build but when it comes to scale kits, high quality shocks=oil stays in them. Anything more than that is asking too much.

[dentguy55]

I have nothing negitive to say about Horizon customer service it is hands down the best in the business. I have had issues with both diffs and driveshafts, that being said the ascender is a very capible truck, far more capable out of the box than axial... period.. Can anyone tell me when a person any person representing axial has come to a forum to address your cocerns over one of their "jeeps" and as we all know there have been many, we are just used to pulling junk axial parts off and replacing with aftermarket parts.

[EeePee]

Well actually, there's a couple Axial reps on here.

[jhauf]

Originally Posted by svt923

I know you said this is your first crawler build but when it comes to scale kits, high quality shocks=oil stays in them. Anything more than that is asking too much.

Precisely what my biggest concern was. Leaky shocks. For some reason the plastic ones seem to leak. But that just gives us an opportunity to upgrade them. And yes they did cycle slow and I too decided on bigger piston holes but I decided to run it stock first. Crawlorado posted a video of his and it performed well box stock minus tire and wheel upgrades. This truck is amazing and I have full confidence in it.

[jdmguy760]

Been driving this rig for 2 days now no difference in driving style from my scx10 still go same lines ect I have no issues with pinion gears nothing yet and I've had a few spots were it got bound up and good to go still trucking maybe I got a good batch of gears idk but so far truck is neat


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[meatmonkey]

A couple things I was thinking about these failed gearsets.

It seems that the countersunk screw that retains the pinion gear to the "input shaft" could potentially put stress on the input gear because the countersunk is slightly pushing outwards on the gear when tightened. I assume that this is designed so that the countersunk centers the gear on the square portion of the input shaft, which it seems to do quite nicely.

If overtightened, (which some undoubtedly are because no one wants that particular bolt to loosen, and it can't be torque checked without axle dissasembly) could it be putting enough outward force on the gear to stress it and essentially reduce the torque load required to break it? Would a properly splined input shaft and matching pinion gear secured with an E-clip offer any improvement?

And I've noticed a few people mention driveshaft joints that bind. I found that all of the driveshaft CVD barrels had to be slightly opened up to get the pins to fit through. I foolishly forced the first one together with vice grips and fully assembled it and noticed a slight binding that was only present when the driveshaft was inside the pinion bearing. Upon removal and inspection it could be seen that the tight fitting pin wasn't perfectly centered in the barrel and the side that was sticking slightly out would contact the inside of the pinion bearing race when operated at steep angles. Centering the pin fixed the issue. I took a jewelers file to the other 3 barrels and they did not exhibit the binding.

This binding could also side load the input shaft and add to deflection between the ring/pinion gears contributing to premature failure.

If you have a notchy driveshaft and the pins didn't just fall right into place in the barrels, then I would encourage you to inspect if the pins are perfectly centered in the barrels.

I noticed that I had to space the front upper shock mounts out about 3mm per side to keep the shock body from contacting the frame rail during full flex. When flexed out without the spaceres I could easily see that the shock shafts were not straight with the bodies. This will certainly cause leakage issues.

[Nicolasmj]

Originally Posted by meatmonkey

A couple things I was thinking about these failed gearsets.

It seems that the countersunk screw that retains the pinion gear to the "input shaft" could potentially put stress on the input gear because the countersunk is slightly pushing outwards on the gear when tightened. I assume that this is designed so that the countersunk centers the gear on the square portion of the input shaft, which it seems to do quite nicely.

If overtightened, (which some undoubtedly are because no one wants that particular bolt to loosen, and it can't be torque checked without axle dissasembly) could it be putting enough outward force on the gear to stress it and essentially reduce the torque load required to break it? Would a properly splined input shaft and matching pinion gear secured with an E-clip offer any improvement?

And I've noticed a few people mention driveshaft joints that bind. I found that all of the driveshaft CVD barrels had to be slightly opened up to get the pins to fit through. I foolishly forced the first one together with vice grips and fully assembled it and noticed a slight binding that was only present when the driveshaft was inside the pinion bearing. Upon removal and inspection it could be seen that the tight fitting pin wasn't perfectly centered in the barrel and the side that was sticking slightly out would contact the inside of the pinion bearing race when operated at steep angles. Centering the pin fixed the issue. I took a jewelers file to the other 3 barrels and they did not exhibit the binding.

This binding could also side load the input shaft and add to deflection between the ring/pinion gears contributing to premature failure.

If you have a notchy driveshaft and the pins didn't just fall right into place in the barrels, then I would encourage you to inspect if the pins are perfectly centered in the barrels.

I noticed that I had to space the front upper shock mounts out about 3mm per side to keep the shock body from contacting the frame rail during full flex. When flexed out without the spaceres I could easily see that the shock shafts were not straight with the bodies. This will certainly cause leakage issues.

Its this type of thinking that gets things figured out instead of complaining. Thumbs up to you good sir.

Cant wait to get mine.

[mgputer]

I had the same hitching in the shafts and the best thing to do is clean the notches up with a small file. Also on one I had to clean up the holes in the barrel.

After almost doing it myself though I still think the issue is vapor lock from the threadlock causing the pinion to not be getting tight.

[redxz]

To avoid vapor lock, file, or Dremel a small groove in the screw threads from the tip to the head, and this will allow air to escape.

[old man 52]

Could some post up a pic of how the pinion and driveshaft all join together.

[old man 52]

I find it hard to believe that no one has their axle apart right now.

[dextan22]

unless you needed actual pics, google will give you...

[CrawlinMike]

That looks like a terrible design.

[old man 52]

Originally Posted by dextan22

unless you needed actual pics, google will give you...

Thanks Buddy , I think i'll wait and see what the aftermarket bring to the table before i send my money on this , When this was first talked about i was really excited to get one , Now not so much. It make me wonder why they designed it like this , Just to be different or what , Is there another rc out there with this setup?

[BJoe]

Doesn't look any worse than the typical e-clip set up, looks like less of a PITA to build and maintain to me compared to those.

Is it possible that the countersunk screw has backed out on the guys who have has this issue and the gear has started to walk around?

[BigSki]

When we first heard of the scale axle assemblies, I really thought that Vaterra would re-use the R&P from the MRC for a small, tough package. Big props to them for thinking outside of the box and trying something new, I'll just keep reading this section to see how this ring gear issue plays out before spending any money on the kit.

[Hogass83]

Originally Posted by old man 52

Thanks Buddy , I think i'll wait and see what the aftermarket bring to the table before i send my money on this , When this was first talked about i was really excited to get one , Now not so much. It make me wonder why they designed it like this , Just to be different or what , Is there another rc out there with this setup?

6mm shims for the pinion and 8mm shims for the spool... shim it and get the mesh right.. I broke a set..got all butthurt...knocked the kit, shimmed my replacements... and have been pounding the crap out of it since. Foot in mouth and all... No more problems. I love this truck. I'll get hardened gears when they come out or a set of axles with an offset front pumpkin later, but the gears aren't the end of the world with this truck. If they do happen to break, Horizon is taking care of us. Don't let this issue chase you away bud.

[old man 52]

''Don't let this issue chase you away bud.'' I'm still going to get one , But i'm just waiting to see how it all pans out .

[metalry101]

Originally Posted by BJoe

Doesn't look any worse than the typical e-clip set up, looks like less of a PITA to build and maintain to me compared to those.

Is it possible that the countersunk screw has backed out on the guys who have has this issue and the gear has started to walk around?

I suppose that is possible for some people, but it didn't happen on mine. The screw was still tight when I pulled it to swap the new one in.