Excessive driveshaft+outdrive breakage/wear!

[Origineelreclamebord]

Hi everyone,

I'd like to discuss an issue I'm having with Team Durango's driveshafts and outdrives (mainly DEX210).

Over the last half year I've been running Durango gear. On both cars I run I've been experiencing very pre-mature breakages of driveshafts, and excessive outdrive wear.

I've attached some photos of the broken driveshafts:

1. A new set of 210 shafts that I fitted as a precaution so I wouldn't break the shafts - however that's exactly what happened. The head at the cross joint broke off within 10 minutes of running and has only seen one mild cartwheeling accident on clay.


2. A set of 410 shafts. The shaft broke at the side of the outdrive in less than 10 laps of running, without problems or crashes that came before it. This happened on a carpet track.


3. A set on my 210 that had seen about 4 months of racing (1-2 meets each month). This time around it's not the cross-joint head, but the head at the side of the outdrive. It's not broken yet, but it's clearly cracked and it's strength therefor is compromised.


4. During maintainance I did just now, I noticed yet again a same crack/breakage of a driveshaft on my DEX210 at the head on the outdrive side! This time the cross-pin in the head also shifted to the outside by about 1mm. I don't know if this is the shaft I recently replaced or not, but it has seen a maximum of 6 race meetings because the car had been standing still for a while.
5. I found that the (long version) ball diff outdrives on my DEX210 wear extremely quick. After 6 meetings they are easily worn in 1mm, my last car (TRF201) did nearly two seasons with less wear on the outdrives!

I've mailed Durango about the first three occurances a while back - they did not respond. I emailed them to ask if they had seen my email, again no response.

I have ruled out binding in the drivetrain or wrongly assembled parts on both cars. I'm not a rough driver and I take good care of my equipment. I have to, I can't afford the hobby if my car breaks down regularly! I find it quite shocking how quickly the Durango drivetrain parts wear and break, and I recall other people with similar stories - whereas I NEVER had these problems with my Tamiya, which had less wear after 1 1/2 season racing it (to name just an example). Moreover, the breakages of the 210 driveshafts are from two cars: a first and a 'recent' (summer 2013) batch car. Finally, I'm utterly disappointed by the fact they did not respond in any way to the issues I've been having

Does anyone have advice how to get through to them?

[av4625]

I have never seen this before, i have a 410 and a 210 and run on high grip astro or wooden floor or anything really, my last 410 i had a year and i had no problems, the rear right pin in the shaft and outdrive wore a bit but its expected after a year, have u got a serious amount of power and r u a punchy driver?

[mattr]

Or is your slipper too tight?

Also, are any of the breakages on your diy car? I can remember some extreme drive shaft angles on there, they could cause this sort of failure.

[av4625]

i used to run a pretty tight slipper alos with no problem!?!

[jimmy]

usually it is wise to just contact the company and they will likely help.

cracks dont appear, they are there from the start. a manufacturing fault.

[Origineelreclamebord]

Thanks for the comments and questions guys.

I run mainly on low-medium bite tracks (clay/dirt, low-medium traction astroturf), occasionally on medium bite carpet. I always use the same HobbyKing X-Car 6.5T (5200kV)+ESC combo set at medium punch levels.

I use long 210 outdrives to prevent the driveshaft popping out at zero suspension compression. Throughout the suspension movement, the driveshafts don't hit the edge of the outdrive, neither do they touch the ball diff nut. There simply is no binding in the drivetrain.

The driveshaft angle at zero suspension compression is more than on the stock DEX210 (I have removed the droop screw stoppers on the chassis plate to increase rear droop), but it's angle is still considerably less than at full suspension compression. The slipper clutch is set to normal standards.

As such, I think it's safe to say that the DEX210 is running within it's intended design limits for the drivetrain. Just to make a comparison, before this I had a TRF201, which I used for one and a half seasons. By then the outdrives looked like the Durango examples now do after 6-8 races. The driveshafts had considerable slop but I never broke them, despite what was thrown at them, their durability is nothing short of amazing. This is a high benchmark and I can only wish another car can match that, but I think it's reasonable to expect the Durango parts can last longer than this.

A day after posting this thread I got a response from Team Durango and things from there on were handled quickly. Today, the replacement parts for all breakages and worn parts arrived. They asked me to keep them updated on how the replacements parts hold up, and I definetely will. It's in TD's and my best interest to not have any of these breakages occur again. Fingers crossed