Pinions for breakfast

Hello,

I was using a plastic spur gear on my E-Truggy and thanks to some changes I'm now using a hardened steel spur gear. I popped on a brand new 13 tooth pinion and in less than 5 mins it was toast. The pinion is all kinds of unhappy...With the old spur, these pinions were amazing, they had almost no wear. So the question is...when using a steel spur, does one have to use special pinions? What kind?

Thanks!

DM

(PS- all this is Mod1 stuff)