Cutting teeth from drive belts

[Rick]

I've just read a thread on the Losi section that suggest if you cut every other tooth off the drive belt it gives less grag and a smoother run.

Do you think this would work on a Mission??

Has anybody tried it??

[rice98w]

in theory it would still work on a mission yes.. BUT, and its a big but!

1) the losi diff pulleys are much bigger, and therefore have a greater surface area on the belt anyway, so if you remove somne from the losi belt, you still have a good location of teeth onto pulleys

2) it will increase the wear rate of pulleys and belts, as you are asking the car to put the same amount of power through hafl the teeth!

3) its a waste! the mission is a GREAT car... why hurt it by butchering it with the scalpel?

4) correct me if i'm wrong, but the losi belt material appears to be more "plasticky" than schuey belts, therefore the losi belts may be easier to do it on...

try it at your expense mate!

[Rick]

The reason for this post is so that I can learn from others mistakes, or benefit from there ideas.

I will not be trying it myself unless I hear differently

[colin_jackson]

hi rick

i have tried this last week!! ;)

i wouldnt try it for the reasons matt said. the belt was ok to start with but after 1 run the belt started to skip and then in run 3 it snapped!!

it was worth a go to see wot it did though ay ;D

colin

[Rick]

Cheers mate.

differently :P

[axpayne]

COlin, did you cut every other tooth off?. As the comment was made about smaller pulleys and increased belt loads on the mission over the Losi, what about cutting every 3rd tooth off. Was it easy to cut the teeth off?.

[colin_jackson]

hi i cut every other. i tried it in the grey mod front belt. to be honest i dont think the belt will stand up to cutting any teeth off! at close inspection you can see where the belt has strectched and started tare on nearly every place where the teeth had been cut away. the losi bely does not do this as it is made from a plastic material.

the methord i used was with a craft knife. i think that dremeling them down would be a better option and perhaps every 3rd tooth would work??? who knows?, try it!! and let use know "axpayne".

colin

[MikeS]

Colin, I was interested in your findings.
Just trying to help here, and is just my analysis of the situation.

If the Losi benefits from it, is it most likely due to the belt being made more flexible to bending backwards. Remember that single belt has to reverse bend over the (small) idler pulley and "losing" those teeth would definitely allow the belt to bend backwards more easily, so less power loss - although I have no idea how much.

I must admit to being surprised at any major gain, unless their belt-tooth/gear-tooth profiles are not working together correctly. In use the belt backing should not actually run in contact with the gear teeth, and all the power is transmitted directly through the teeth, so removing teeth might marginally reduce the friction drag between the gear and belt teeth, but it is potentially increasing the power transmission loads through the individual teeth by a factor of 2, while this less likely to be a problem on the diff pulley, it is the laygear pulley which could be more problematic?

[colin_jackson]

yes mike i agree

i did not find any advantage from doing this for the reasons stated, just thought i would have a go due to losi drivers using it. i think you may well be right about them using it to help the belt bend backwards.

i wouldnt advise anybody to try this but if you want to its up to you.

colin

If you do this make shure no one disturbes you while doing it! I only had 3teeth left to cut and some one shouted upstairs to me and made me jump...........cut to deep! :'(

[dhamblin]

Josh Cyrul run his X-Ray Evo 2 at the recent Novak race meeting in the USA with a front diff that had every other tooth removed...

Was there a noticable difference in the car?

[dhamblin]

Quote from other forum by Josh Cyrul:

"I tried it but I didn't notice much difference.... Other than that just setting the belt tensions right is all you can do to free it up - no other tricks as of so far..."

So no! ;D

Fair enough!

[B3buggy]

hi all,
regarding the xray.

Link (http://www.rctech.net/events/novak2004/index13.shtml)


Ross