i remember there were a few batches of bad ones. some broke off when the set screw was tightened. I've had one wear out fast. just call mike and get another. Just think how lucky you are getting the only bad one left out of thousands.LOL!

I haven't had any issues with Mike's pinions running against a steel spur. More often that not it is user error in setting up the mesh. I aim for the slightest bit of play, usually the plastic package the gears come in between the gears. Haven't had any issues since I started doing this, except on my nitro REVO when I had it and that was due to a broken motor mount.

Definitely a bad gear. Either it didn't get hardened (and was too soft) or it was hardened to much (and was too brittle). I own a bunch of Mike's pinions also and I have no complaints at all. Another variable that comes to mind is that most steel spurs I've seen are only half the width of a plastic spur, probably to keep weight down. But this also increases the stress on the area of the pinion that is meshing with it. With a spur being roughly half the width of the pinion, you could say that "3.5X wear" figure is more like 7X more wear on the pinion.

OK. I'll drop him a PM about the gear and see what happens. I'm sure the mesh is right, and the mount is screwed in plenty tight (and thread locked in). Most likely just wasn't hardened right and it wore out. Currently it's on the opposite way it used to be, the pinion is much wider than the spur so I had room to spare.

I use the rcm 17t on a RRP 47t spur (8T) and have no issues, (not to mention the 10 32ps i use from RCM.. Mike had a shipment hardened wrong or somthing awhile ago, made good to everyone. New purchase of yours or had it in the tackle box awhile ?

I ordered it a few weeks ago, possibly even a month ago, I don't remember exactly when.

I always put a thin splash of graphite with molybendum (sp?) on the metal to metal gears as it quiets them a bit and I hopes make them wear easier.

This is similar, the one I use is in a red tube though a dry lube, guys here use honda 21 moly/graphite. Im not all pro lol Im sure a search in here would find the honda stuff or something better. http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXKR89&P=7

i use mikes and rrp pinions. they look identical to me, except the rrp have the number of teeth stamped on it.

You could wait for castle to come out with their titanium coated ones :)

So that's how you tell the difference :lol: I have a 20T RRP and a 24T RC-M pinion sitting here and there really is no difference. For the record, I did run the 20T (old gear from my Revo that I don't need anymore) in the Muggy for a while and the only actual wear on it is it's shiny on the part that made contact with the spur.

No thanks....I'd like to run my truck again this year :lol: Maybe in 2-3 years when they are actually available I'll try one out (I hear it just makes the gears more quiet though, it doesn't actually wear better).

I ran it today with the gear reversed and it's working fine...for now. Until Mike gets back to me about my pinion I'll just stick with what I've got until it wears out the other part. I broke a "spindle" today on the Muggy (I call it an axle carrier, but they call it a spindle) so I'm out of action until next week anyway :cry:

I was assuming titanium coated = titanium nitride coated. I cant make that stuff wear off my shock shafts with any grade of stone or sandpaper I had on hand, thats the hardest wearing stuff I've ever seen :P

I have some shock shafts that are coated in it but they haven't seen enough use to really tell. I just heard that TiNi was mostly to quiet the gear noise but if it makes it harder to wear out that's sweet. Maybe they'll send me a prototype :smile: I'm good at breaking things that aren't supposed to be broken, when someone tells me something is indestructible I take it as a challenge :lol:

I got a butt load of mikes pinions and have used them many times under hard use with steel spurs and they are as bullet proof a gear as your gonna find.

It is very rare to have a pinion wear out like you describe - in fact we have seen about 5 or 6 pinions with issues in the last couple years since we started selling them (so less than 10 bad gears in about 10000 sold) - as a rule, the gears are rock solid. Nothing is exempt from the occasional error, though - send your worn out gear back and we will replace it. Simple as that. I don't think you will find a better gear, though.

Well, it's settled. I'm shipping it back soon and we'll see what Mike comes up with. 5 or 6 gears out of 10,000 is a pretty good track record! Looks like the new pinion for my 2.5D and the pinion I'll probably need in my Hyper will be RC-M.

Got my replacement pinion today. Thanks Mike!!! Too bad I screwed up my motor and can't test it :diablo: Hopefully it will hold up.