Savage Flux Fixed . . . Finally

[JasonB]

Love the beetle body! You will be surprised at how quiet the Flux can be. Most of the noise comes from inside the tranny, and the oil eliminates that! Only downsides are it's very difficult to completely eliminate seepage, and a pain to open up and reseal the tranny if you wish to change from 1st to 2nd gear. Small price to pay for eliminating the gear ware and noise issues.

[thzero]

It's a "Savage" why do you want it to be ultra-quiet?!?!? :) Even straight out of the box, its a heck of a lot quieter than nitros.

Originally Posted by JasonB

You will be surprised at how quiet the Flux can be.

[JasonB]

Metal on metal grinding is not a pleasant noise. One of the common complaints I have noticed about this truck, even before I decided to buy one, is the noise it makes. I used to be uncomfortable driving the truck in my neighborhood or near other houses due to the irretating noise . . . No longer an issue. If you like the grinding noise, don't make this mod.

it sound like your mesh is all wrong, in my flux the nice sound of the motor is the most noticeable. i dont even have any grease ore oil in the tranny

[JasonB]

My spur/pinion mesh is spot on. Regarding the tranny, if you don't have gear issues, then consider yourself lucky and enjoy your ride. Could be your driving style/frequency, could be that you ended up with hardened gears that will grenade in the near future, who knows. The tranny is a known problem area in the Flux; this post is for those that are looking for a proven fix.

My experience with this truck is that the stock gears graneded, and the next 3 sets chewed each other up to sharp points; ref previous post linked in the beginning of this forum for pics. My guess is that HPI changed their tempering process at some point on the problem gears . . . Thus the reason for the sudden verses slow gear death. Two of the gears in the tranny are much higher quality and will last a very long time with or without lubrication.

[thzero]

Well the real fix would be to replace the tranny with a center diff; but that isn't easy or straight forward. Might through be less messy than filling the tranny up with whatever.

Originally Posted by JasonB

this post is for those that are looking for a proven fix.

[JasonB]

Yea, I would be first in line for a drop in center diff; would really open up the truck. It would need to use an off the shelf diff with readily available replacement parts. Not interested in paying for over priced custom bones either. Not something I need though because I have done essentially zero maintenance on this tranny since adding the oil.

Other thing I'd like to do eventually is replace the servo/Rx box with a carbon fiber plate and possibly set up the rear for 4 wheel steering.

[thzero]

But then again, might as well bought a truggy at that point.

Originally Posted by JasonB

Yea, I would be first in line for a drop in center diff; would really open up the truck. It would need to use an off the shelf diff with readily available replacement parts. Not interested in paying for over priced custom bones either.

[josh9mille]

Originally Posted by JasonB

I have done essentially zero maintenance on this tranny since adding the oil.

I have done zero maintenence to mine either after putting in the HD gears. My tranny case is filled with air.

[JasonB]

Well, I do drive it like it owes me money, but that will never change.

[thzero]

Originally Posted by JasonB

Well, I do drive it like it owes me money, but that will never change.

So in other words, you drive it around it 15' circles very very slowly?! :)

[brainanator]

I shredded the stock gear in the tranny in a month, then got the hardened option, and slapped a little axle grease on the gears and called it good. Opened it up the other day (6 months later) since I was changing the spur to plastic. I half-expected to find slightly pointed gears (at least showing some wear, like my pinion was....) but they still looked brand new. Wiped them off a little, put some gorilla snawt on them. Will look again in another 6 months or so.
And with offset wheels with the stock rear link is a bad idea. I'd snap those like twigs with offset, but with no offset I haven' had a problem. I will get the rear link eliminator system when funds allow though, as it is obviously better.
Pretty good thread with lots of good ideas though!

But it does sound like you must be running it really hard to get those temps out of a 1520....with my stock setup I couldn't get the motor to break 130F even on the hottest day. Same story with the plastic spur and a slightly larger pinion to compensate for the larger spur. (21T pinion, 47T spur I think). I basically results in a net loss of half a tooth on the pinion side in gearing, but still plenty fast. I also use brakes frequently and everything is fine there.

[JasonB]

Interesting. So far, Freddy, Josh, and Brian have stated having no tranny problems with the known to fail 29T and 32T gears; are any of you running 6S as your main setup?

[josh9mille]

Originally Posted by JasonB

Interesting. So far, Freddy, Josh, and Brian have stated having no tranny problems with the known to fail 29T and 32T gears; are any of you running 6S as your main setup?

I run both 5s and 6s with a full XL conversion (tvp's, tires, and axles)

Originally Posted by JasonB

Interesting. So far, Freddy, Josh, and Brian have stated having no tranny problems with the known to fail 29T and 32T gears; are any of you running 6S as your main setup?

5s and 6s, before the first run i replaced the drive(102514) and pinion(novak 20t) gear to hardened.
i have two and the oldest is 2 year and runned countless of times and still the tranny is good, no wear..