Sick of worms?!!! I got the Cure!

[fa1rch1ld]

Broke down front rear axle yesterday..The worms both still look perfect after
heavy comping. Lot's of ledge jumping and so on. My rear worm is starting to
get a little brown though..Strange. But its still in perfect shape :mrgreen:

 

[Erik D_lux]

Broke down front rear axle yesterday..The worms both still look perfect after
heavy comping. Lot's of ledge jumping and so on. My rear worm is starting to
get a little brown though..Strange. But its still in perfect shape :mrgreen:

Thanks for the update!

That is weird that its getting brown.... Plenty of lube? My only guess is that it was getting hot????

 

[fa1rch1ld]

Duno...If it gets any worse I will send pics...But its not from heat...
Doesn't seem like its a issue..The worm still looks perfect.

 

[losikid]

yea i'm not having any problems with heat i'm happy, motors are still getting hot though, i may do a tear down before the winter series starts up

 

[bquin]

Mine are also still going strong with Zero issues....tore it all down for a re- greasing and found I can now go a little longer than I used to....great product.....cool stickers and great service..."thumbsup"

 

[sledge57]

I finally killed a worm and bought a set from Erik.

Tonight I tore it apart to replace the worms and I found what I think (I'm sure in fact) killed my front worm, the hex pins were all bent.

I have VP wheels with the old offset hubs (non - Losi) so, as anyone who uses aftermarket wheels on a LCC knows, the stock nut's don't work.

No problem, I use the Traxxas aluminum wheel nuts (the ones with the thin serrated washers built in. However I still have to make them very tight or my nuts back off in no time.

I've done a lot of experimenting with how tight they need to be to stay on. I use a torque driver so I get them the same every time and I slowly kept increasing the torque setting (unfortunately you can't tell what the torque is with this driver, you just turn an allen screw to increase the torque) until I got to where the wheel nuts don't back off.

All was good except this setting is too much for the stock pins and all four of them are bent.

At the last comp I found that when I torqued them as usual the axles bound up (hexs rubbing on the bearings) Naturally I discovered this was happening AFTER I smoked the worm gear....

Luckily I also bought new chromo pins from Erik with the worms, next I need to get the Losi offset hubs for my wheels so I don't have to tighten the dog krap out of the wheel nuts.

I believe that this will make the axles as bullet proof as they can be.

So what I'm suggesting here is guys whose LCCs routinely eat worms, look for something causing binding.

I know Eriks worms seem to be the answer but I think you need to eliminate any binding as well as adding the killer worms...

 

[KBrog]

Now that you mention it sledge57, my hex pins are bent too. I thought they bent from torque, but could be the wheel nuts like you say. Im gonna look into this more.

 

[2500hdon37s]

Now that you mention it sledge57, my hex pins are bent too. I thought they bent from torque, but could be the wheel nuts like you say. Im gonna look into this more.

well look and see which way they are bent and that will tell you how they are getting bent, i broke a hex pin, due to over tightening

 

[sledge57]

Well I like the worms, but the chromoly hex pins snap like twigs, they do make a nice popping sound when they snap though :lmao:

Time to try piano wire pins, I'd rather they bend than break in 2......:mrgreen:

 

[losikid]

what size piano wire, where do you get it, Yea chromoly just snaps I'm thinking of going the flexible root

 

[gdhknives]

what size piano wire, where do you get it, Yea chromoly just snaps I'm thinking of going the flexible root

Tree root or just your garden variety tuber?:mrgreen:

 

[Erik D_lux]

Sorry about the pins guys...

I had a ton of hours on my original set. All the test cars still have the original pins in theirs. I was an idiot and decided to switch mine out to do some preventative maintenance. I am now chasing my tail trying to get the hex pins to last. I have tried different batches but I cannot duplicate the original set. I still have better luck with them over stock but thats not saying much. I will keep everybody updated when I figure it out and I will make things right to those who have bought and had problems.

 

[Tydl]

Well Mr. D'lux,

Your worm held up excellent at Nationals for me! I beat the hell out of it all week and it didn't even flinch! I will be tearing down tonight and will post up pics, but I tink it'll look about new. I went off ledges and got bound up beyond recognition and it just kept pulling me forward

Progress!

 

[KBrog]

Well Mr. D'lux,

Your worm held up excellent at Nationals for me! I beat the hell out of it all week and it didn't even flinch! I will be tearing down tonight and will post up pics, but I tink it'll look about new. I went off ledges and got bound up beyond recognition and it just kept pulling me forward

Progress!

Im happy to report the same results.

 

[losikid]

Tree root or just your garden variety tuber?:mrgreen:

You better watch it or i'll give you the grammer cop badge too like tousley got, plus this isn't the place to be pointing stuff out:ror: We don't want this thread kicked to chit chat

Oh i meant route, i tend too type with the accent. oops

 

[Erik D_lux]

Well Mr. D'lux,

Your worm held up excellent at Nationals for me! I beat the hell out of it all week and it didn't even flinch! I will be tearing down tonight and will post up pics, but I tink it'll look about new. I went off ledges and got bound up beyond recognition and it just kept pulling me forward

Progress!

Im happy to report the same results.

Good to hear! Thanks for representing!

 

[Erik D_lux]

please do tell us how many hours you got on a set of your worms. The way those tires worn after a month i doubt any one is gonna flat out call you a liar, besides if the tires are worn from lots of wheel speed use than all the better, shows that they'll hold up to some wheel speed.

If i ever have worm gear trouble out of the moa losi i bought (havent got it yet but looking forward to running it) id like to know there is a long term fix avaible with proper care.

I just checked my receipts. I purchased those front tires on 8/4 so, just over a month on those. If you look back a page or two in this thread, you can also see video where those tires have brand new tread on them. I think one even gives a very good close up.

I stopped counting awhile back on how many hours I have on this set of worms. If I have a minute of downtime I am either wrenching on this thing or driving it. The best way for me to figure out how many hours is to do some good guesstimating. I drive my car on average 3 hours per day. I have had these worms in since 6/29. I have missed 7 days since then. Thats 66 days x 3hours = 198 hours on this set of worms. Thats about where I would have guessed. Remember, this is still on a rear spool that I did not count on making another 5/10 hours from the start.

Car is still running like a dream. I hope they can go on for another 200 hours but I am satisfied with where they are if they crapped out today. Actually, I would have been satisfied 100 hours ago.

Funny to think a couple months ago that I was tearing my front axle apart every week and paying $15 to fix it.

 

[davec]

For you guys having trouble with hex pins, here's a little simple fix that I have been using. Take a 1/16" L-shaped hex key you have laying around and do a little bit of dremel work. Voila, strong pins that are virtually free and easy to make. I have been running a set like this for a couple of months with no bending and no breakage. Give it a try. Sorry for the thread hijack, just trying to help guys out.

 

[sledge57]

For you guys having trouble with hex pins, here's a little simple fix that I have been using. Take a 1/16" L-shaped hex key you have laying around and do a little bit of dremel work. Voila, strong pins that are virtually free and easy to make. I have been running a set like this for a couple of months with no bending and no breakage. Give it a try. Sorry for the thread hijack, just trying to help guys out.

I might try this but I wonder has anyone tried music wire?

It's hard to imagine breaking a piece of music wire especially one that short, I'd think it'd make perfect pins.....

 

[davec]

I might try this but I wonder has anyone tried music wire?

It's hard to imagine breaking a piece of music wire especially one that short, I'd think it'd make perfect pins.....

I tried piano wire and it wasn't really much better than the stock pins, at least the stuff I got. That's when I decided to try to hex key idea. Working good so far.