Purpose of center diff mounting plate?

Hi,

In most nitro 1:8 buggies I see there is a CF plate mounted above the center diff bridging the two diff holders together.

I also see that part of that plate is there as a guide for brake cams. But what other purpose does it serve? In an electric conversion that uses the motor for braking can that plate be removed? Or does it also provide additional support for the diff holders?


Thanks,
Aragon

[Sylvester]

That top plate makes the overall diff holder alot stiffer and rigid.
Id keep it, the plastic diff holders can possibly flex under acceleration and cause problems.

In my experience you need a way to link the two diff mounts together, otherwise you will strip the spur gear...

Bye:018:

[Sylvester]

If you are putting the motor on top, than the braces have to be custom made, if you are doing the motor on the side there shouldnt be any problems.

[MetalMan]

Like Sylvester said, these pieces add rigidity to the center diff area. If you have an integrated motor/center diff mount (the center diff and motor mount to the same piece), then the upper plate is necessary to help hold in holding the weight of the motor.

I also like to use this piece to mount my ESC to, since it's out of the way and the ESC gets a lot of cooling when it's there.

Thanks!

The reason I was curious about it is that it looks like I might be using a large spur gear on mine. I can forsee that plate getting in the way of the spur gear unless I add shims/washers to raise it. That led me to thinking about rather doing away with it, but I see now that I would have to replace both diff holders with solid alu diff holders to make up for the loss of support.

Do you think that is a bad idea and it'd be better to just shim the plate and raise it enough to not touch the spur?

[MetalMan]

It's better to use shims than to not use it at all.

[Sylvester]

I seconds the shims, easy way to get around the problem.

Thanks. :)

[Sylvester]

Anytime, friend!