It's the 1/8" shaft, and yes, the Traxxas pinion is almost totally at the end. I've since ditched 32p completely and gone with mod1 to find it's sooo much better, running 12/52 gearing like the article says.
That article was done up before I was a member here, but I got the pinion and 9918 from Mike, so I guess that counts. :D