Tekno RC conversion - its the clutch mandatory?

[BrianG]

I'm not familiar with that conversion personally, but the Tekno conversions usually place the motor quite far back to allow room for the clutch. This has two disadvantages:

1: The motor is mounted directly to the chassis at a point away from the CD. When the chassis bends/flexes on jumps or whatever, the mesh may suffer causing premature pinion/spur wear.

2: Since the motor sits so far back from the CD, you need a long shank pinion to reach the spur. This can place a lot of stress on the motor shaft and bearings unless it is set perfectly. Also, this problem can be magnified during chassis flex as described in point 1.