Hardened Steel Pinions?

[BrianG]

I've read various discussions on using the hardened steel pinions with the stock steel spur found on center diffs and the general consensus seems to be that the spur and/or pinion will be eaten. Well, I would like to keep the steel spur on my center differential for a few reasons and was looking into why it would be so bad. I mean, Nitro trucks use a steel clutchbell and they hold up fine, so why would a hardened steel pinion be any different?

I have an extra 14T regular pinion laying around so I tested the mesh. I noticed right away that it seems to bind as it turns.

In the picture below, there is a stock 14T clutchbell that came with my Hyper8 and my 14T pinion. The pink arrows point to the peak of the tooth and you can easily see that the pinion is definitely wider. Also, the clutchbell tooth seems to have a wider base, which makes the tooth slope not as steep, as seen in the green circles.



The picture of the hardened steel pinion in Mike's store is a little too blurry to see how it compares to the picture above, even after attempted enhancements to it. I'd like to get a clear picture of this so I can see if it has the same look as a regular pinion. That would explain the problem.

I really don't want to accept the fact that it's just "bad" to use hardened steel pinions with steel spurs without some type of explanation. How is it that clutchbells work fine and the steel pinions don't?