Torque the ripper - TT02b gear destruction.

I got together with a buddy of mine this weekend, and the name of the game that day was "lets landscape his backyard".  Erm, we did laps, and laps, and laps of his back yard.  Many pounds of dirt were moved, grass or no grass. 

Suffice it to say, we had fun.  My car was doing some odd things.  We'll cover the electronics woes in a later article, but in this case, there was a clicking noise.  Sometimes.  Well my TT02b has eaten two, maybe three, diffs over the months I've owned it.  I figured I ate another diff.  I was already figuring I had not shimmed the diffs properly. 

Turns out, I was wrong.

There is something quite therapeutic about the after run cleaning.  The shocks are fine, the swingarms all drop smoothly.  Everything is fine.  ... Including the differentials.  Huh?  The diffs are fine?  ... what the?

Well... here's what was causing the clicking.

It seems my pinion moved on the motor shaft.  Then lodged itself in there.  Motor torque was enough to cause it to get pinned on the motor shaft, in spite of the loose setscrew.  What we're also seeing here, is just how tough the Tamiya fiber impregnated gears are.  There's nearly no wear on that spur gear, and that pinion is T O A S T. 

Well.. now i'm running a 25 tooth pinion.... and I swapped spurs because I had a few spares. 

If you look closely, on the right, you can see my friends "hey lets never have the shock towers get loose again" mod.  I've mentioned it before.  It turns out there's enough meat on the diff covers that you can through drill, and through bolt the shock towers.  I highly recommend doing this. 

Now... what will we break next?