New to Nitro / T-Maxx w/ broken reverse

[nintendodude]

Hello! I am new to this forum and new to Nitro RC. I used to have a T3 that I ran a 12 turn motor in, but I wanted something more fun. I picked up the truck used for $90 and threw a new engine in it - good as new.

Shortly after breaking in the engine (the 2nd quart of nitro) I heard a loud snap from the tranny while backing up and since then, reverse has served me as a neutral incase my idle is set too high...

I have the T-Maxx 3.3 - it has the onboard OptiDrive module and it came with a hump pack for the Rx instead of the AA - I know there were various revisions so I wanted to be clear about which one I have.

My question is, should I replace the broken parts with Traxxas spare parts, replace them with a good set of metal gears (please provide link!), or just be done with it and do the ROC? (also, a link would be appreciated, or part number). I have not yet taken apart the transmission, but I have removed it to replace the rear half-shaft that I snapped (i've been beating this thing pretty good)

Thanks a lot for the help, guys

 

[Racer 1966]

IMO you should just do the FOC and be done with it. Reverse is neat sometimes but once you learn to drive well,it really becomes unneeded and the truck runs/drives a lot better too.

 

[nintendodude]

Thanks for the advice. Is the Traxxas FOC pretty robust - has anyone ever stripped the gears out?

what is the part number for the 3.3?

 

[olds97_lss]

Here's the link for the FOC:
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/WTI0095P?FVSEARCH=5394x&search=Go&sourceid=Mozilla-search

I have the FOC in my revo and it's served me well so far. When I had a revo with reverse, it didn't last long and I put in the FOC and didn't have a problem since. The revo trans is pretty similar to the 3.3 maxx trans.

Now with my current revo though I'm running a big block. I keep burning up the top shaft two speed gear. I'm on my 3rd one this season and just fried it this morning. I'm replacing it with a steel set. Hopefully the other plastic gears will hold up since they are all decently sized. That top shaft gear gets the most rotations compared to the rest of the gears, so it's the hardest worked gear in the trans. I'll find out soon enough if it just moves the weak link to another gear like the FOC. I don't feel like forking out $100 for the full trans to be steel, but time will tell I guess.

 

[nintendodude]

Would loosening the slipper a bit maybe help with your problem?

I guess reverse "going out" is a fairly common problem with the 3.3 - good to know

 

[nintendodude]

Fantastic, forward broke too - got the tranny apart and there were plastic particles everywhere and a few completely stripped gears

A small plastic, grey pin was sheared from one of the halves of the transmission... this is getting costly.

 

[Metalhead Matt]

Your tranny's forward gears most likely failed from the broken reverse parts floating around in the tranny. You should be able to find a 2.5 tranny with foc for around $30 on fleabay.

 

[nintendodude]

I bought the two new tranny halves today (turns out the broken axle inside the transmission that prompted this purchase is part of the reverse gear system, and not needed for FOC...) and the FOC. After just a little screaming, everything is back together and working well... so far.

I had some shims left over that i'm pretty sure are part of the reverse gears... should the output shaft (where the two half shafts connect) have just a tiny bit of side-to-side play? When I put the shim in, it was a little too tight and would not freewheel as nicely as I thought it should.

 

[olds97_lss]

If it spins nice without them... then yes, no shims.

Take a look at the parts explosion from traxxas. That's how I keep an eye on where they think shims should go.

 

[dub c]

kinda off in left field here,

one thing to look for, there is 2 different, yet visually identical output shafts. one steel one Aluminum. part #s unknown.

you definately DO NOT want the Aluminum.