Savox 1251 issues - no or little right turn

[simonrhart]

Anyone else seen issues with the Savox 1251 - the low profile servo? I have only had mine for a few months and now I'm finding sometimes that the servo doesn't respond to a right turn. After looking at the servo when trying to turn right, it appears that something is blocking it, when in fact there is nothing blocking it.

Another thing I noticed is, when it does respond to a right turn, if I hold the wheels there is almost no torque in the servo, in other words just lightly holding the servo will stop it from turning right. However the left turn is fine. Weird.

Could be knackered gears I guess.

I have bought another servo for my Kyosho Lazer also a slim line and will be trying the Futaba BLS551 to see if that servo is any better.

Cheers
Simon

[Bernie_W]

I had the same problem.
If you open it up and expect it, you will find the big gear has damaged teeth.

What I did was dremmel the stop notch off and turn the gear around.
Of course you can just buy a new gear set.

[simonrhart]

Thanks for the insight.

I will open her up tonight.

I'm running this in a Losi 22 on mostly a bumpy track without a servo saver, so I suspect damage has been caused due to this.

Cheers
Simon

[jcb]

Sounds familiar, I'v gone through three savox low profile servos in three meetings.

A mixture of broken gears and where one gear is inserted into another they seem to spin on there own, I think Connor also had this problem.

Ironically the first one I bought lasted me over a year and since then they've managed only a couple of five minute races. Quality control must have changed for the worse!!!

[simonrhart]

I've opened it up and the gears look fine so do not know what's up with it. This and listening to others has put me off Savox. Will now switch to Futaba as they seem to be a better quality servo.

Simon

[racingdwarf]

if the gears look fine they my still be the culprit, as JCB has said in his post,I had to rebuild our savox 1251 in the losi, connor was experiencing much the same problem as you have, when I dismantled the servo the gear all looked like new, I was puzzled and also though bugger, new servo time but then I had a realy good look at the gears noticing how the smaller part of the gear is pressed into the larger gear, so grabed some pliers and carefully but firmly tested each gear...bingo one of the gears would turn inside the other! it looked no different to the new one I replaced it with, there is realy no visual sign of the problem.it will also will appear to work normally when not under load aslo will not make nasty noises like a servo normally does when the gears have gone as there is no gear with teeth missing.

If its not this then it could be somthing deeper like the servo loosing centre pionts etc

[simonrhart]

I just tested all gears and they seem fine, no spinning inside one another. I only have this problem on right turn. Sometimes the servo doesn't response to a right turn other times it does but always there is little torque. So when under load, it doesn't turn right. The left turn is ok.

There seems to be a design flaw with this servo. I assume Savox will replace it or give a refund.

[simonrhart]

The Savox is gone, replaced with Futaba BLS 551 - seems waaaaay better. Feels faster too although on paper they are almost identical.

Simon

[simonrhart]

In fairness to Savox, this issue turned out to be a problem with the steering arm in the Losi 22. It was catching on the upper bulk head and this was what was causing steering issues. Strange how it affected the steering servo though and the behaviour I was seeing.

Simon

[racingdwarf]

Ahh always the simple things that get over looked, a few of us should have thought of that,but to be fair the description of the problem wouldn't make you think servo arm, you would normaly be saying "I'm getting a loud clicking noise or the servo is working hard and I'm not getting full lock". When the 22 1st came out that was an issue if you didn't get the servo spacers correct, as savox isn't listed in the book I think if I remember correctly I use a 1mm spacer, but tbh its been so long since I have taken the servo out. But even when you get it right the clearance is very small.

I think it would have been spotted if anyone on here had had the car in there hands

[simonrhart]

I read somewhere to place the 2mm spacer for the Savox. It was catching so very slightly, you could not hear it. This is why the servo was working fine for a while and you'd only ever see this problem after about 5 mins of use. The problem is also temporary. The Savox servo is fine and is now in my other car so I haven't wasted any money. The Futaba does feel better quality though but at twice the price you'd expect it to be.

Now the Losi is an awesome car. Just need to make some more setup adjustments in low-grip conditions i.e. perhaps put the blue springs on the front to stiffen the front up in wet/dust conditions. In the dry with high grip tracks it is awesome.

Cheers
Simon