Hardened steel pinions
 

Howdy, I'm in the process of figuring out a setup for a Revo conversion. I've noticed several posts saying to only use the hardened steel pinions with a steel spur. Well I've got a bunch of plastic spur's and wanted to give them ago, but alas I cannot find any non-hardened 5mm steel pinions!

Are these an old product line or just something that should be available elsewhere that mike doesn't sell? will it even matter if I use the hard steel on plastic? I'm competent and setting the mesh properly and have never stripped a plastic spur since one time I got the mesh wrong on my first nitro rc car years and years ago...

It's not the fact that they are hardened, but the tooth geometry is slightly different than the non-hardened versions. You may be ok with the hardened on plastic, but watch for odd wear.

Weird, any reason why that happens? for the same pitch and size you'd expect them to have the same shape teeth. Is that for all hardened gears or just these ones?

Also is there anywhere to get non hardened ones?

Hey Brian, think this could be why I keep stripping plastic mod1 spurs on my e-revo ? ? ? If so, what spur or pinion SHOULD i be using ?

They're made that way. There is a thread I started way back that talks about this. RCM Mike explained the difference in good detail.

I've never looked anywhere else for those so I have no idea.

Usually, stripping spurs is an indication of an improper or inconsistent mesh. Even though the mesh is set right at rest, the weight of the motor could cause chassis flexing on jumps. Do you have the optional Traxxas motor mount brace?

I was running a hardened pinion on a plastic spur in my CEN for a long time and never had an issue. No strange wear or anything. I wouldnt think that the hard pinion would bother the plastic spur at all.

Cheers for the link brian! it clears it all up. And I have a 3.3 which I'm pretty sure comes with the brace. I'll link you up in your thread 83gt in case so u can check.

Yeah, i have a 3.3 also and am using the brace.

you could hit up a local hobby shop that sells century heli stuff, as they use mod 1 pinions as well and I believe they aren't as hard as the RCM one

Consider the century pinions non-hardened. I have ripped the teeth off a few and worn others badly. You can heat them red with a torch and then dunk them in some 10w30 oil. Do it twice and they will work great on a steel spur. I have modified a few tranny gears to be used as pinions and always harden them that way.

Isn't that thread talking about the older clutch bell type pinions. Are the pinions we use now the same?

Same Q here.



and how does the pinions sold now hold up to being used on a hardened steel center diff?

Dunno. Since there are different methods to creating hardened pinions (hardening regular pinions vs using a modded clutchbell), you'd have to look at how the pinions are shaped I would guess.

Both clutchbell type and hardened "regular" pinions work fine on a plastic and steel spur, but a hardened version of a regular pinion does not work well at all on a steel spur. Mike's hardened pinions work on either steel or plastic.

Thanks! man.

Another question about these RCM pinions... I bought a couple a while back when I started my brushless phase. I had a 14t unused, and I needed a new motor for my rustler. So I bolted up my 40t revo spur, went and got a ammo 36-50-3300 for the ol rusty ($30!) and pulled out my as yet unused 14t pinion as was greeted with it covered in rust!

http://issima.customer.netspace.net....f/gearrust.jpg

Now I don't live near too close to the sea or in a particularly humid environment, and I've never seen a pinion rust up like from just sitting there. Should I be worried?

Nothing to worry about, but I would use a wire brush on it to clean the rust off and spray it with WD-40 or similar product to keep it from rusting again.

They are steel... which will rust without a coating of some kind. Many pinions on the market have a coating... paint/varnish, nickel/chrome, etc... and some are alum or stainless... which is why we normally don't see rust.

Now I have a question about the gears...

I have a few RCM gears and only one of them was made from a clutch bell, with the more narrow pointy teeth. The others have a tooth shape just like the other gears, such as the (soft) Century ones and Megamotor ones. They don't look much different at all.

I haven't used any of them with steel spurs yet, and would prefer to not have to. But I am curious about how they would do, and if there's a difference between the older clutch-bell gear and the ones RCM has now, which look "normal".

I just spray a little WD-40 on the pinions before I put the vehicle away and that prevents the rust.

Can't comment on the older "pointy" pinions, but the newer hardened ones wear quite well. The one in my Hyper8 is still perfectly fine and you've seen how I treat that thing. :smile:

LOL... yep your throttle finger has a bit of a "lead foot" disease ha ha ha

:oops: Yeah, but that power is soooo addicting! :smile:

Our newest style hardened pinions will likely outlast the steel spur gears - they are super hard and made from premium, high wear resistant steel, then treated to super hardness. I don't want to jinx myself here, but we haven't seen a single failure or worn out pinion in well over 1000 gears sold - I have run them on the Losi steel spur for quite some time and there is barely any visible wear, if any (discoloration at the mesh point, but not wear).

That rusted pinion shown above must have been shelved for a bit to get that rusty - that is a previous version (same as Brian G's), which was heat treated for hardness as well as black oxide coated to minimize rust(black oxide is technically rust anyways) - a little oil as mentioned by others will solve this issue, but I suspect it may have been stored in a somewhat humid, musty or otherwise moist environment - steel rusts, though. Clean it, oil it and run it and you will be fine. :)

Small corrections Mike:

I do have a "previous version" pinion, but only in 16T form and so uses are limited. In the time I ran it, it hasn't shown any wear either. I also have a few of your newer style versions and they are just as good, if not better wear-wise. The newer style is what I was referring to a few posts up.

And, shouldn't the order of operation be: run it first, then clean and oil it? :wink:

The newer pinions are made from superior material ( your pinion is the same material as most nitro spurs, which is fine, but the new material is stronger and much more wear resistant to begin with). Even the older one that you have hold up extremely well, and I haven't gotten any of these back, either. The new gears are superior, though. And we have 10t all the way to 25t, so you can almost surely find the one you need.

Regarding the "order of operations" - yes, in the future your order is correct, but based on the picture, I would clean it, oil it and then run it.
For future uses, the run, clean and then oil it "order" may apply, though. :)

Than pinion in the photo is one I bought from RCM in my first order just over a month ago (early feb). It has been sitting in my parts box in my house up until a few days ago when I took that photo...

Hmm ... don't want to be picky ... seems that i'm the only one who "killed" a rcmonster hardenend pinion (it lasted for 20 runs in a 11lbs Truggy, Neu 1515/2Y with 10s1p A123). I ordered mine 2 months ago. I now use a cut off clutchbell pinion with the same steel spur. I related the excessive wear to motor mount flex.

http://www.braintrust.at/2007/ds/rc/...ion_dead01.jpg

http://www.braintrust.at/2007/ds/rc/...ion_dead02.jpg

Another note, I bought 3 pinions in that first order (14,16,18) and 3 in an order a couple weeks later (17,18,19) and none of them have a black oxide coating like in the above pics. They all look like bare hardened steel - with that bronzish colour tinge to it. They have all started to rust like the photo I posted earlier since I bought them.

Not really complaining, just stating my experience. I cleaned them and oiled them and they look a lot better now.

The metal that pinion is made of looks different than the pinions I have, both the earlier "clutchbell type" and the newer style. Are you sure you got the hardened one??

I keep hearing people talk about 5mm mod1 pinions that AREN'T hardened - and ever since I heard of this site I've never seen them available at the store here. I got the only ones available through the RCM store, which yes are definitely hardened:
http://issima.customer.netspace.net.au/pinion.JPG

If you still don't believe me and think I somehow chose 'non-hardened' from that list, I'll PM you the order numbers and my email address so you can have a look at the receipts in the 'order tracking' section.

The RCM pinions I just got recently aren't black either... they are a sorta bronze color.

The only pinion I have that has a surface rust, is a lighter, more "silver" color.

All of mine are the bronze colour.