capra borken axles

[rs10man]

Very cool rig, shame about the breakages though

 

[polcyn1030]

sweet looking rig. I think jb weld will work, or just go duct tape. That stuff works on everything! lol

 

[TheLetterJ]

I get it now. I was taking my new Ibex tires for a quick test run on my backyard rock course yesterday and watched my front axle break in the same manner as the OP's. I've had my Capra for over a year now, running 2.2"s, brushless, 3s, and OD pretty much the whole time, recently put UD in the rear axle and finally eliminated the clutch. While climbing a steep section (>60°) I hooked the front tires (not bound up, just used dig until the tires bit, then put it back in 4wd) and instead of them pulling the car up, the front left tire decided to walk forward with the c-hub attached while leaving the rest of the car/axle behind. Oops. No tumbles/crashes/falls, just the the axle unable to resist the torque applied at the wheel.

Oh well. Factory housings are cheap enough and this was only the 2nd part failure (first was a broken portal drive gear, which I replaced with a stock part) I can recall in the year I've been running it. I know that locking out the clutch surely contributed to the breakage, but I have no plans of putting it back in as my clutch would slip and squeal EVERY run and stall my car out on lines that it was nicely set up to pull otherwise. Instead, I'd like to strengthen the weak links as they rear their heads. I have been tempted to buy a cheap "metal" front axle housing but have read of people having those cheap pot metal c-hubs break off even easier than the plastic ones. Now I'm seeing $45 "version II" Chinese "metal" housings that look to have a little more beef where the c-hub meets the tube as well as thicker c-hubs and a slightly wider/taller truss that ties into the c-hub... but will they hold up? I ordered one and was promptly refunded my money due to inaccurate inventory. I'm trying to decide if it's worth waiting.

The other option that I'm trying to avoid (due to cost) is the CNC machined aluminum housings like the one from Treal ($115) or nicer still, Supershafty's $170 offering. I'm pretty sure if I went with either of these guys, I'd never have issues with broken housings again, but I'd always wonder if I could have got by with the "version II" cast housing? Hmm... What would you guys do?

 

[Fricker08]

I went four months with no issues. Put a brushless high torque outrunner motor on 3s in the Capra and have broken three in the last month. The wheel hangs up for a millisecond and the axle housing twists and snaps. No brass or other weights. I'm going back to the Castle inrunner.

I read this thread quite some time ago and thought the same thing. I’ve got 8oz of brass on the front of my Capra. Knuckles and portal covers. I’ve tumbled it hard more than once and thought man this is going to break. So I bought a spare housing.
I wouldn’t have guessed that driving my girls car at very low speed on a hot SoCal day would be what snapped one but it did. Capra axles under a wraith with a hobbywing 540 axe and I was starting to wonder if it had something to do with the added torque of the brushless motor. Unfortunately it broke the plastic knuckle also and when I pulled out my spare that I replaced with brass it was cracked also.

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[mjensen]

Wow, that's got me rethinking my decision to use the stock Capra knuckles on the aluminum axles I put on my Capra build.

 

[Fricker08]

Wow, that's got me rethinking my decision to use the stock Capra knuckles on the aluminum axles I put on my Capra build.

Yea, I mean those knuckles had some miles on them so I’m not surprised it’s cracked. They’re cheap enough but I’ll be ordering some more brass knuckles


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