Monday, January 26, 2015

Blowing out diffs

One problem I was constantly having with my Slash 4x4 was blowing out diffs.  The diffs were constantly leaking, and I think I rebuilt them 3 or 4 times.  The diff rebuild kits are only $5, but the diffs are the most difficult and time consuming part to fix on the cars, so it was a pain in the butt.


A tip my friend Otto gave me was to buy new diff assemblies on ebay or amazon.  They’re $15-20 and totally worth it to not have to take apart the diff, and they come from new cars so you know they’re good.  Slash’s come with diff oil in the front and grease in the back, so you might end up with them switched (the diffs are the same, so you don’t know what you’re getting unless you open them up), but at my level it doesn’t matter.


I also found that one of my wheel bearings was crunchy, so I think that was the cause of some of the leaky diffs.


But I think I finally found the real cause of my leaky diffs – one of the things you sometimes end up with, is the car on its side.  Basically if you go off a jump or roll or something, the car will end up on its side, basically lying on the side of two wheels.  To get out of this, I would just turn the wheels and hit the throttle full backwards, and this would get my car back on its feet.  But I’ve read this is REALLY hard on your diffs since one wheel is at full blast and the other is stuck on the ground.  So don’t do this guys, just go down there and flip your car over or wait for another car to push it back on its feet.


My tip for the day.