SD Diff Out Drives!

[ukmaxx]

Is it just me or does anybody else have problems with the out drives on the SD. I have replaced the front ones twice now and had to buy 3 packs of the blue rings.

does anyone know if there are any stronger alternatives on the market?

[johnbull]

UKMAXX.

I suspect you must be doing something wrong.

Everybody runs the stock outdrives without any problems.

I have 2 SDs both running 2 to 3 packs of cells each in mod every day, and I am still on the original outdrives.

I have even run a locked front diff with the standard plastic outdrives, without any bother.

Do you use the standard drive shafts?

Regards

Joe from sunny Malta.

[ukmaxx]

I run completely standard.

One problem that may have caused it was I came around a hairpin to find another driver had spun just in front of me and ended up with a head on collision resulting in a snapped wishbone. I lost the blue ring and found a small chip in the outdrive.

Also, the other outdrives are showing signs of wear from the pins in the drive shafts.

[Arthur]

I'm building an SD for a friend - I was suprised at the poor quality of the moulding and materials used in the diffs.

The outdrives are particularly awful. Surely on such an expensive car important components such as this would be machined rather than cast out of some wibbly wobbly plastic.

The metal diff plates didn't fit well on the out drives. Out of 4:one plate snapped into place with a click, one didn't fit flush at all because it was too tight, the last two were a sloppy fit on the outdrives. Very very poor.

Perhaps something wrong with the injection moulding?

Other than that I am mostly impressed, but I'll be sticking to my XRay :P ;)

Mmmmm How bizarre! Mine were fine in the build-up! They is plastic to reduce weight and reduce friction I think, seem strong enough to me like!

Steve

[dale]

I'm assuming they're the same plastic as on the MR4 TC - they look the same.

This being the case, you'll want to cover the driveshaft pins in thick black grease where they meet the outdrives. That should stop all of the wear you're getting.

[Arthur]

I just read the Radio Car Action review of the SD, they mentioned the poor quality of the moulding of the diff outdrives. But they go on to say that the diffs are very smooth once built, I have to agree with that.

I much prefer the use of a spring to tension the diff rather than bellville washers.

I still don't like the metal dogbones in plastic outdrives, covering them in grease is surely just going to attract bits of carpet or grit and make things worse?

[stevieteee]

I second that! DON'T put the black grease in the outdrives!! It will just attract ming which will mix with the grease and create a nice grinding paste that will slowly destroy your outdrives and the dogbone end of your UJ!

No Don't do it!!!

[ukmaxx]

I have to agree. Anyway, selling my SD!!!

[johnbull]

Hi friends. greetings from Malta.

I have run 2 SDs since they first came to Europe, running 1 with a 21 turn stock motor and the other with a 10 turn mod. They both get alot of running.

I have never had any problems with the diffs, rebuild them very rarely, and they are as smooth as any others i have built, which means nearly every make. They are no different from Associated plastic diffs fitted on TC3s.

I don't know what all the fuss is about!

Regards

Joe from sunny Malta.

[andy east]

I can't beleive what I read sometimes on this forum, when I visit here I only tend look at the sections that I know about. Some of the comments made are just simply wrong.

If you go through diff outdrives at a rate faster than 1 set every 4 months (can easily be longer) then you are doing something wrong. Yokomo have used the same material for their diff outdrives for the last 6 years (ever since they brought out the original MR4) It has been tried and tested all over the world to 99% of peoples satisfaction.

Had they made them out of steel then you would moan and gripe about their weight and the wear they cause to the driveshafts, or maybe you would prefer to replace the driveshafts every 2 months @ £30 squid a pair? rather than £5 squid for a pair of plastic outdrives every 4 months.

Had they made them out of alluminium then you would moan about the wear rate of both driveshafsts and outdrives.

Yokomo have made the outdrives out of a lightweight, soft-ish plastic, this plastic will deform before it snaps under real heavy load which makes it a really good choice of material for them.

My guess is that the people having trouble with them are having far too many accidents, and when the car comes to a dead stop in about .1 of a second you are no doubt still hard on the gas? Do you seriously expect the car to take that kind of abuse?

These cars are not indistructable, when you have an accident something has to give, when you get away with it you should count yourself lucky, not moan about the car when through your fault something has let go.

This is not a "lets have a go at someone" post, this is merely only an observation that I have made over the last month or so.

Also, you should run a very small amount of the black grease on the dogbone/outdrive. Having said that, you should also make sure that they are well maintaned and kept with fresh lubricant after each days racing otherwise they will attract the dirt and increase the wear rate. If you keep them well maintaned then you will be able to run these plastic outdrives for 4 months without any problems.

Andy