Just an FYI, you said you hit a snow bank... which suggests your running in wet conditions (snow melts
). Water will ruin a servo pretty quick and 9 out of 10 times, the throttle servo goes first due to how they are mounted. They are mounted upright and the servo horn/output shaft pretty much creates a funnel that water runs down into the servo through. It runs through the motor, then saturates the ECB inside causing the servo to fry, fail or freak out in general. Also, 9 out of 10 times, when they fry, they fry and wander to wide open throttle. I have yet to have a t/b servo die on me and not go wide open. Regardless of a fail safe (FS) or throttle return spring (TRS), they always tend to overpower the spring and since water isn't a loss of signal or drop in voltage, the electronic FS doesn't kick in. Even if it did, the servo is dead and won't respond.
If you insist on running in wet conditions (as I do), I highly suggest you do what I do, get water resistent servos. You can spend a lot or a little, but if there isn't an o-ring on the output shaft, it will get water in it and fry. Trust me... I've burned up many because I run in snow or dew soaked lawn. I also hit my rigs with a hose at the end of a dirty bash session to clean them up to keep the dirt outside. You can try sealing them externally by using plasti-dip, balloons and an o-ring under the horn, but also IME, that doesn't hold up nearly as long or as well as servos built with o-rings where they need to be.
The stock t/b servo in the LST is a Z270 wich runs around 50oz of torque (weak) and isn't metal geared. I tend to lean towards a more expensive, stronger (torque and gears) and water resistant servo than what stock is. T/B servos in MT's last longer if you buy one that is too strong for the job. Leaning heavy on the brakes a lot overheats a weaker servo and they crap out as well because of it. MT's require a lot of heavy braking.
The cheapest route is to go with traxxas waterproof servos.
High torque, non-digital, waterproof:
2056
High torque, digital, waterproof:
2075
I want to say the 2056 runs around 90oz and the 2075 is around 125oz. Neither are metal geared though, but out of the two, I'd pick the 2075 for it's strength.
If you want to spend a decent bit more, I buy the
Hitec 985MG. Great servo for the money. Strong, fast and as water resistant as traxxas's "waterproof" servos are. Total overkill for a t/b servo, but they last a long long time. The one in my aftershock is 3 years old. The one in my savage is 2 years old. Both are used as T/B servos.
Even with the o-rings on the case, screws and output shaft, I still take them apart, clean all the areas the o-rings are and put a light coat of sensor safe RTV to ensure a good seal. I also work RTV into the seal/plug that the servo wire runs through and seal around the edges of that plug with RTV. Make sure to use sensor safe as non-sensor safe emits a acidic gas as it cures which causes electronic bits to corrode.
Sorry, will end the rant now.
Good luck!
