Your comments and suggestions are welcomed, no need to be sorry. My slipper is set correctly, I'm pretty anal in checking it often. I can hear it work constantly when I get on the throttle. That short ''whizzzz'' it makes when it slips. I will check my punch control settings and I will probably make sure my slipper is set correctly again (anal I told you).
I will definitely not avoid running on any surface I wish to though. But maybe I'll try to remember to take it easy on high bite stuff. I feel that a construction site where I bash most often is the worst for the drive train. Sand, rocks, dirt, wood, piece of concrete, bumps, ruts, hills etc. All these give different traction to each wheels. Slip, grip, slip, grip a lot, grip a little, slip a lot, slip a little, grip a lot, at a different rate for each wheel all the time, I think that is way more difficult on the diffs then the linear traction you get from asphalt or concrete. I may be wrong but I noticed that I never seem to break drive train parts on concrete, asphalt or grass, always when I go have fun in those construction sites. Anyway.
After I opened the diffs and cleaned every part, it was obvious that it was the spider gears again that stripped a few teeth which caused a little damage to the output gears. Here's what I'm going to try, I had a couple sets of rebuild kits for the Thunder Tiger S3 buggy and I'm going to try those spider gears. After comparing them with the Losi ones, they seem better made with more meat on the teeth.

The Thunder Tiger spider gears are on the left

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...ider_gear1.jpg http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...ider_gear2.jpg

Here's a different view that makes the differences easier to see. Both gears have the same number of teeth and the same pitch. But the Thunder tiger spider gear has a slightly bigger diameter and is thicker. This results in the teeth being longer and having more surface to mesh with the output gears. I hope that it makes them stronger.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...ider_gear3.jpg

The Thunder Tiger diffs also use thin shims behind the spider gears and the output gears. So I installed the shims and the spider gears from Thunder Tiger and all the rest is Losi diff parts. It all seems to work together and the diffs are very smooth. Now to go out and try them.

After 4 cycles on 6S the Thunder Tiger spider gears are still holding.

We went out to play with the trucks this morning and after bringing the LST back after the first set of lipos, I noticed that the rear diff felt notchy when turning the wheels by hand. And all of a sudden, it locked. :neutral: I took the diff out again opened it, cleaned every part and the problem was a single tooth broken from one of the Losi output gears. The severed tooth was floating around in the oil and locked the diff. The Thunder Tiger spider gears are fine so I replaced the Losi output gear and put everything back together I'm out of diff parts and diff lube. :smile:

After spending some time this morning rebuilding the rear diff, I blew it again this afternoon and I was running on 4S. Same problem as last time, the Losi output gears broke a tooth or two. It seems that the Thunder Tiger spider gears are too hard for the Losi output gears. I'm thinking Hot Bodies Lightning buggy diffs

http://cgi.ebay.com/HOT-BODIES-C8178...item3effd0febe

With a 13 tooth pinion also from Hot bodies

http://cgi.ebay.com/HOT-BODIES-C8030...item5ad96933ff

I heard they are really tough, I just don't know if they fit the Losi LST XXL diff cases. I searched these forums for an answer and I got a conversation between ''its me'' and ''angry alien'' about it but never found a definitive answer. So I'm still wondering if it would work. Anyone know for sure?

On another note, we all know that it's not good for our sensitive equipment but a perfect mud puddle is totally irresistible. Pics of my LST and my son's Brushless E-Revo from this afternoon.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...XL/th_mud1.jpg http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...XL/th_mud2.jpg http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...XL/th_mud3.jpg http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...XL/th_mud4.jpg http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...XL/th_mud5.jpg

Hmm, I have never had an issue with breaking the diff output gears, I run nova rc al cups, with the tin coated gears. Stock lst diff internals. Are you using the al cases for the diffs? I run the dull looking aftershock cases. I also run 30k diff fluid in the diffs...

Yes I run the aluminum diff cases, 10K in the rear and 30K in front. Here's the problems I had with XXL diffs. Snapped off drive cups twice, broke teeth on the little spider gears in the front diff once and two times in the rear if I remember correctly. Changed to Thunder Tiger S3 Buggy spider gears that I had lying around in the rear diff. Now it's not the TT spider gears that break, it's the output gears which are the original Losi ones. Looks like the TT spiders are too hard for the Losi output gears. My slipper slips like crazy, I can't even wheely. The LST XXL diffs were very tough in my E-Revo, but the LST weighs about 3 pounds more. The diffs don't seem to like that. I got a set of hardened internal diff gears from Hot Bodies coming in. I bought them even though I don't even know if they will fit. I think they will, at least I hope they do.

Hm and I who was thinking of getting building a lst due to the revo´s diff problems...seems to me like we need the manufactors to re design the diffs in the most Mt´s, beef them up a bit.

Nice mudding:party:

Pretty sure the hb hardened gears do not fit. I tried when I built my lst diffs and to the best of my memory they did not fit. The hb diff is wider than the losi, so the internals are thicker.

Well then I don't know what to do. The rear diff gave out again this morning. Again I was running 4S. I'm completely out of parts for now so I can't repair it. I have been racing and bashing for 25 years but I don't remember having this much problems with diffs. It's a bit sad, after all this work to convert this LST, I don't feel like repairing it right now. There's a problem on that truck but I don't know what it is. Until I can find what the problem is, I don't want to just keep on breaking rear diffs.

Have you double checked to make sure you are getting power to all 4 wheels? Wonder if maybe your putting all the power to the rears?

Troubling issue...hope you can figure out what it is.

yes I checked and the power goes to all four wheels, or front and rear axles. The power is equal as I use a center spool, not a center diff. Maybe a center diff would help the rear diff by unloading some of the power to the front end but then I think that by doing that, the front diff might start breaking. If I remember right, I was running the center diff when the front diff blew. I wish there was a way to make this truck 3 pounds lighter :mdr: But there's not. The LST is heavy because it has some heavy duty components on it. It is tough but heavy. I seem to be the only one having this much trouble with the diff so weight is probably not the problem. I do bash hard but I'm not a maniac and I don't intentionally try to break the truck. My driving is fine, I have a few trophies to prove that I am good enough to win races and championships. I have been lurking at the ERBE and I'm thinking of putting it back to use. Is that desperation or what? :lol: I'll keep trying to figure out what the problem is with the LST. Thanks for your input guys.

Linc said two things in one sentence. He's very full of himself so when he talks he literally spits out words. He's so cute.

Anyhoo, we've nailed down that you use alum. diff cases, but what about diff CUPS? http://cgi.ebay.com/DIFF-CUP-Losi-Mu...item5adaf26ac8

Or atleast the upgraded losi cup with the metal insert? With these alum. cups your output gears should last..........

I use the Losi Heavy Duty diff cups with the metal inserts. Are those aluminum cups really better than the Losi HD ones?

Not sure, I use both, but not in the same truck. My LST2 that has seen alot of jumping and bashing has the nova rc al cups. I used the HD cups in the center and rear of the muggy. Never had the output breaking issues that you have with either. The al cups will not flex at all, and that might give you that "extra little bit" of strength that you need...

i don,t know if it is normal, but on my LST2 diffs, if i hold the diff in one hand, and with the other hand i take the pinion and try to move it up/down and left/right, i can see the outer bearing move slightly in the diff case.

Yeah I noticed this as well. My drive cup (pinion) moves up down and sideways about 1-2mm inside my diff case. I thought I had a bad bearing, I havent torn into it or looked very closely. Its the case? Anyone else notice this? is there a easy fix? This is just asking for my ring gear to strip out.

CRASH - Maybe you could try the 8ight bevel gears. I think they seem to be made of a better metal. Just looked more clean and beefier when I compared the LST spiders next to the 8ight spiders while building a CD... Might be worth a shot. :neutral:

LST- http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_...l-Gear-Set-LST

8ight - http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_...Gear-Shaft-Set

When i see this, i,ve change my bearing, but the problem still present.

My solution for now is to put the LST to rest for a while. I have no choice, I'm completely out of diff parts. I'm going to think about those aluminum cups and also the 8ightT gears. Although the 8ightT gears look identical to the LST but that's just from crappy pics on A Main.
The MMM is back in the ERBE for now, I'll be running that until I make a decision about this LST. I'll tell you one thing, that ERBE better break more often than the LST did or else I'll go back to being a Traxxas boy. :lol:

Heavier trucks are just harder on stuff. I've been eyeing up that Losi Ten-T like it was Lincpimp in a dress on roofies. Yeah, I want it that bad.

I think tenth scale(revo) and Losi are the way to go. Perfect balance of size/weight/chassis room/stout drivetrain.... I'm rambling.

The whole point to this thread is that we need your silly french behind here at RCM. PLEASE do not become a traxxas fan boy again:cry:

We went out and ran our trucks this morning. It seems to have become a daily occurrence for us, kind of part of our daily routine :yes: I forgot how nimble and fast that E-Revo was, even running on 4S. I gotta give it that, it's fast, corners really well, jumps nice and leveled, tracks straight on hard accelerations. I don't know of another MT suspension that works as well. It's a racer, so it's also a bit fragile for the kind of bashing I do. From the sound I heard at the end of the first lipo set, I am pretty sure that I stripped the rear pinion and ring gear. Sheesh! I should change my name to diffkiller. :mdr:

There's one thing I noticed when I was swapping stuff from the LST to the ERBE. One of the rear wheels has the hex rounded a bit. Not enough to keep from securing the wheel but enough for the hex to spin inside the wheel when gunning the throttle. This might explain why my LST wouldn't track straight under hard accelerations and maybe why I have been blowing rear diffs so often.

Ray, your rear hex being stripped could be the problem. But despite your being anal about the slipper, I still feel like this is where the problem is. I was blowing rear diffs like mad in my E-LST2 on 6s, and finally went with the HD diff and haven't had any problems since. It's not normal to strip diffs as fast as you do.

You may want to take a look at your rear wheel bearings. I had one blow and didn't notice. Also, advice that YOU gave me.... Sometimes it's hard to see a broken pinion tooth. In my case. My teeth weren't broke, but 3 of them had flattened a bit, and weren't meshing. Took me three tear downs to notice that! Replaced the pinion and all is well.

How much does your truck weigh fully loaded? I'm starting to wonder if it's just too heavy. But my money is on the slipper. I had mine where I thought it should be, and it wasn't enuff. So put it to where it should be, then go another 1/2 turn out and try that!

And like you, after spending so much time with my LST then switching to my ERBE...it was a very nice surprise. The ERBE is a fierce serpent, where as the LST is a bear!

For now, I am running the ERBE. I have lots of diff parts for it :lol:

With a pair of 5800 mah 3S lipos and the LST wheels and tires, the truck weighs close to 14 pounds. It weighs a little less with the Proline 40 series Mashers but not much. I use the Hot Racing heavy duty double slipper and if I give it 1/8 of a turn more, the truck won't even move :mdr: I ordered some new parts for the LST diff. When they get here, I will sit down and take out the rear end. I will take it all apart and clean and inspect every part, replace all the bearings, put two new CVDs, put a brand new complete diff in and then I'll see what happens. I'll probably take the whole truck apart and overall everything while I'm at it.

I completely took apart the LST. cleaned and inspected every single part. I replaced whatever was worn and started reassembling it. Even though not much was worn and nothing broken on the drive train, I put new shafts all around and in the middle, new bearings at every corner. I have brand new diff parts to build two new diffs but I'm just missing the sun and planetary gears which haven't come in yet. Once they arrive, I can finish the overall and start using the LST again and see if I still have a rear diff problem.

I dont recall your early steps, but did you shim your arms to make sure they dont slide back and forth?

One question I had was. Were you replacing gears into the same Diff cup? Or a Completely new diff each time? Only wondering if the cup itself is twisted...

So ReAssembled with stock parts or>???

Yes my arms are shimmed and everything else also to get rid of as much slop as possible. I used the same cups after inspecting them thoroughly. So I get your point there that it might have been part of the problem. This time, absolutely all the diff parts will be new. If this solves the problem, it will be a good example that cutting corners to save some money isn't always beneficial. The diffs will be reassembled with stock LST XXL parts.

I'm still waiting for the internal diff gears but yesterday I received the 5 mm Lunsford titanium steering turnbuckles I also ordered. I was still using the stock ones and they were often bending. Now instead of bending the turnbuckles, I'll probably break the steering uprights :mdr: The ball ends had to be drilled to 4.2 mm in order to be able to screw them on those massive turnbuckles.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...rnbuckles1.jpg

I received the diff internal gears yesterday, this morning I finished reassembling the truck and it's ready to go again for this weekend.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...e_lst_xxl3.jpg

I made a new front skid that houses the Muggy steering bellcrank. I shortened the bellcrank an extra 2.5 mm in order to use a single front skid instead of a doubler one like I had before.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...ront_skid3.jpg http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...ront_skid4.jpg

I have been beating the snot out of my LST for the last two days and other than a snapped steering upright (knuckle), everything is running great on 6S. After going over everything, I think the most important change I made is to the ESC's punch control. It was still at the default setting of 0%. It is now at 80%. Thanks for all your input.

Good. I think 80 might be somewhat extreme, but your on the right track.

Sweet! I wonder if it was a lemon. (Fluke) None the Less Good to hear. But Were You also running those truggy wheels or the Stockers?

I ran the stockers, then Proline 40 series Mashers, then Truggy wheels just like the ones in the pics above. The Mashers had one wheels with the hex rounded off, at some point I thought this might be part of the problem. But the rear diff had problems again running the Truggy wheels. I'm starting to be convinced that my rear diff problem was as simple as setting the punch control more conservatively. One more thing that is different, before I was running with the LST diff gears that didn't come with shims for the planetary gears. The sets of gears I ordered from ebay have shims for the planetary gears. That's what I'm running now in both front and rear diffs.

JT, I agree 80% is a lot but for the first outing after the rebuild, I wanted to have a big difference in this setting to really notice if it would change anything. It seems it did so now I can lower the setting 5% at a time until I blow a rear diff again. Repair the diff and bring the punch control 10% more then when it blew the diff and it should be set for good.

And finally, Lincpimp was right when he said the Hot Bodies hardened diff gears don't fit. The sun gears are too thick. Anybody need them? :mdr:

Good to hear you might finally find the problem with those diffs.

I love the clean results you always seem to get when fabricating a part, so (as many others have asked before me) could you show us your craftmanship in a video?
Just like how you showed us how you made the CF part with your router.

For example the skidplate, how did you make that?

I basically made it the same way I do with carbon fiber, but it did require more manual work with files to finish it. I used a hacksaw to cut the piece as close as possible to the final dimensions, leaving only about 1/16'' all around the edge. I used a stock LST XXL skid plate as a template to drill the holes then I used those holes to sandwich the piece I want to make to the LST XXL skid plate and used the router table to finish the cut around the piece just like I did in the video with carbon fiber. I would go along 1/4 to 1/2 inch along the outer edge at a time, then I sprayed some WD40 for lubrication and did another 1/4 inch and again with WD40. Without lubrication, the aluminum and bit heat up and the bit will gum up with aluminum. When that happens, you gotta stop and pick at the bit's nook and crannies with something to get the alu out or else it doesn't cut. It's slow and a bit messy, oily :mdr: The last part where the Muggy steering is secured to I finished up with needle node files by hand.

mistercrash your build is awesome, I have a LST XXL roller coming pretty soon and your fabrication is inspiring. I'm soaking up as much info as I can. Thanks.

Is there a way,or a conversion for the steering to ditch one servo and just have a single torquey sob? Also, how often does THE DUDE get mounts in? I havent checked today so maybe they'll be available:whip:.

As far as I know, the TDR mounts are a bit behind. He posted on another forum that his machine was down and it needed to be fixed.

EDIT: He just posted that the mounts will be in stock next wednesday.

To fit a single servo, ditch the saver and use a servo with metal gears. Use a solid servo arm and a short turnbuckle with captured ends. I'm running a Hitec 7950TH without any problems.

-JB

It seems that my diff problems are gone. I am down to 70% on the ESC's punch control. But now I have a new problem and it's bumming me out. We were out playing for about 18 minutes when I had to go turn over my son's ERBE that was on its lid. When I got back to my LST, I hit the throttle and this loud sound came from it, like some terrible cogging. The truck didn't move much, I let off the throttle right away and noticed a small puff of smoke coming from the truck. I ran over to it, ripped off the body, disconnected the batteries.

The ESC looked fine and so did the lipos. I got close to snif around and the burnt smell came from the motor. Looks like I may have fried my Neu 1521 1Y. :cry:

It's the first time I fry anything, I'm not sure of what I should do. It looks like there's little grub screws around the edge of the can but I don't have anything that fits it. Not that I could do anything if I could open the motor but I would've liked to see inside if I can detect what burned. I took a pic of the end bell and some burnt wires can be seen in one of the holes, but I don't know if that is the damage or just from the soldering when manufactured. This was bought at Offshore Electrics and I can't find my proof of purchase..

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w..._1521_1y_1.jpg http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w..._1521_1y_2.jpg

Regardless where you bought it, NEU is going to service it.
They will take care of you also, great customer service. You just have to be patient.
Dumb question, the screws your using to hold the motor to the mount aren't to long are they ?

Not a stupid question at all, they are the right length, I tripled checked that when I was building the truck. I wish I could find my proof of purchase, I bought it back in mid March but I can't prove it. I'll contact Neu on Monday and hope for the best. In the meantime, it's back to the E-Revo to have some fun.

Funny how I built this LST because it is tough and I keep going back to the ''fragile'' ERBE because the LST is broken. :mdr: