ball diff broken
 

after 5 rounds of 5 minuit racing spaced 15 minuits apart the ball diff in my 22 gave in, (while trying to tighten it by holding wheel and spur and turning bolt in the ball diff the bolt just spun instead of being tight) i had tightened the diff two meetings ago and wondering if that could have caused it and how could i fix it. would this work;

http://www.apexmodels.com/gbu0-prodshow/TLR232001.html

or is there a cheaper quicker option than to take apart and rebuild the diff.

Sounds like you ve snapped the diff screw by over tightening it. I did this on my 22T. Somewhat frustrating and does require pulling the guts of the car apart to fix it. Either its a bad design or I have fists of ham.......one of the 2! !

i dont think so as i broke it in and thought i made sure it was the acceptable tightness. would the mainanance kit work though?

Hi matey,

i read in another thread that you were having slipping/squealing issues, so the chances are you have damaged/prematurely worn the diff components more likely through too much heat... just tightening up a diff after it's been excessively slipping without a rebuild is likely going to lead to failure in near future.

You should always be keeping an eye on diff action between races, just a quick spin of the wheels in hand gives you an idea of its condition and little tweaks are much better than leaving it for too long and then cranking it up to compensate.

The 22 diff is a very good design and components are fine if it is maintained well, it's certainly a lot better than some of the other models on the market! I run a ball diff quite tight and have ran standard diff balls for many months of racing before they have become really gritty and worn by regularly cleaning and regreasing plus keeping the plates in good condition/replacing when needed.. where a lot of drivers wrecked them both in a meeting by poor set up/adjustment and then blaming the quality of components!

It is also very important to have the slipper set up correctly so the diff is not taking all the drivetrain 'shock' and load, they are both traction devices so need careful set up as having one too tight will cause load/wear and excessive heat on the other.

The rebuild kit you listed will get you back on track again, the uprated Tungsten Carbide diff balls are very good, will last a lot longer than standard chromed steel and be a lot smoother.

Try this as a guide:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EToj2yX76NU

It is as I thought, I do have fists of ham :(

(my rounded off hex tools prob should have given me a clue to this)

Chimps' advice is certainly of more value than my input.I'm somewhat of a noob :thumbsup:

A neat tool to have is the TLR Hex Differential wrench,

You insert it into the diff screw through the outdrive slots without having to remove the camber link or bottom shock mount to get access by removing driveshaft from outdrive, so much quicker for tweaking!

Adjustment is easier by using the opposite wheel to tighten or loosen the diff, you also get a better feeling of diff tightness through moving the wheel than you will through using a driver on the screw and are less likely to overtighten and damage internals.

http://www.tlracing.com/Products/Def...ProdID=TLR2950

ooooh, handy tool me thinks !!

If you have a a total and dramatic failure I wonder if you have stripped the little lugs of in the diff nut holder or your nut is spinning in the holder, or the holder has split. I'd be surprised if you had broken the screw before destroying those parts! the nut holders have got a little history of problems, but my 1st 22 the nut holder was a bit of a git(a known problem) but the two cars I run now for the boys are faultless

Also as has been said if you are having to tighten it so hard check you have correct assembly

ok, so going to get the diff and install it but wondering if there is anything else needed to fix it all again like what grease/oil to put around the actual gear when inserting into the car housing? and what maintenance is required as i have never maintained a ball diff before.

Buy a geared diff and job done.

Alex as a suggestion I'd also add onto the rbuild the optional aluminium diff nut holder http://www.apexmodels.com/gbu0-prodshow/TLR2948.html

I use it on both the 22 and the 22SCT and hate the plastic version in comparison

(slow ;)) chris, your opinion will be valued once your car can run a whole race :p i spoke to quite a few people and they suggested that ball is the way to go and all of them run balls so guess im going to stick with that. the alum diff nut seems like a good idea but will that improve life?

I'll tyr to put this in short words so I don't tax your little grey cells - my car has only failed to finish twice in 8 months.

Your car failed to even start the final on Sunday

Hmmm

(chrs dear btw) fair point :blush:, after taking the diff apart i had a look and the bolt and nut were both perfectly fine with no loss of thread and everything looked in good condition so is it possible that something else went wrong with the car on sunday or am i overlooking something?

Check you can thread the screw into nut holder and it tightens as it should, chances are the nut is spinning inside the plastic holder under load, even if the threads look fine.

Have you bought the car second hand?

Reason i ask is those diff balls look like ceramic ones?

Make sure the thrust assembly is in one piece too (washers are not damaged) too much force can cause the washers to fail.

You gave the symptoms as the screw spinning when tightening the diff... did you lose drive completely?

i dont think the nut is spinning inside the plastic housing and it tightens up nicely, yes the car was second hand but everything seemed very good and the seller was very helpful, is there a thing ceramic balls are known for or do badly? the washers look fine but take alook for yourself. drive was not lost compleatly but went down to about walking pace.

You would need to post the pics up of the rest of the diff parts for us to see condition.

Very much doubt this can be diagnosed here, if the diff is not tightening when the screw is turned then it can only be the screw, the nut/holder or a damaged thrust bearing/spring, assuming that both drive rings are in one piece and all 14 balls are fitted.

but i would also look at the slipper components too and check the driveshafts are straight and still in one piece and free to articulate as they should.

I take it you have given it a good clean already?

The best thing to do would be to build it all back up as in the video i linked, but flip the worn plates and check you have diff action before building the whole gearbox back up.

Make sure you have a copy of the manual to follow with video too, can be downloaded from TLR site

Yer Looking at the photo of the diff bolt the end threads that go into the nut look a little flat compared to the threds further up the bolt I would replce the diff nut holder and nut etc during rebuild, just to be sure. what sort of noise was the car making?a smooth slipping noise? or a crunchy one?? also have you had a good hard look at the slipper?

Also have you checked the motor, with brushless you can get some funny noises and also varying strange effects with dodgy sensor boards etc

the motor is one that i took from my few months old rc10b4.1 and has the power to keep up with most other tlr's down the straight and seems reliable and sounded quite smooth as i drove it full throttle at walking speed.

i took it apart and cleaned it all up yes to see if i could find and problems but as i cannot its abit confusing. if i were to get the alum nut mentioned above and the rebuild kit (http://www.apexmodels.com/gbu0-prodshow/TLR232001.html) presumably that should get it going again!?. if not i will post up again but thanks for all the help!

Alex, you local? I'll pick it all up tomorrow maybe?