I have a 4.1 savage that I dont know why but it keeps tearing the diffs. up the bevel input gear and the big gear on the diffs..So after putting two sets of diffs. in my 4.1 I had it.So I go out and drop $400.00 on a brand new Savage 4.6 go thru the break in and one tank later I'm shearing screw shafts in the rear up by the tranny.And ever time I put one in it shears it in about two minutes.So I can't take this crap anymore so I take my brand new 4.6 to my local hobby shop and ask him to take a look at it .Well what do you know?He takes it apart and finds out the rear diff. is destored.What the hell? I've had it with these Savages as far as I'm conserned they are a piece of poop! I thought they were a good truck so I was told by different people.Well not in my book my two trucks will be for sale by the end of next week.And if anyone ask me about Savages. I will tell them they SUCK!!!!I never even got to have fun with these pieces of crap.You would think for $400.00 bucks you should be able to jump a two foot hill without breaking your truck.. NOT! Never agian ,I will be looking into the Traxxas Slash.Maybe I'll have better luck with eletric?
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savage let down
- Thread starter poorman
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beason
Bash, Fix, Repeat..
wow. you have had some bad luck. I have owned 3 savages and the most i ever did was pop shock caps off. or smash the roll cage.
replacing diffs is a part of life. if you dont shim them correctly, they will destroy themselves. a shim behind the pinion would have probably helped. you have to remember the savage is a big heavy rig with a powerful engine. if your blowing rears, the slipper was probably to tight.
i will pay shipping if you want to send them both my way. i will give them a good home.
replacing diffs is a part of life. if you dont shim them correctly, they will destroy themselves. a shim behind the pinion would have probably helped. you have to remember the savage is a big heavy rig with a powerful engine. if your blowing rears, the slipper was probably to tight.
i will pay shipping if you want to send them both my way. i will give them a good home.
I can understand your frustration,that's some bad luck. However the Savage is a GOOD truck. Like beason said,there are other things that can lead to an early demise for the diffs. I think you should rebuild the diff,shim for proper mesh,reset the slipper and try it again.
Remember too that just because it's new out of the box doesn't mean everything is right. They are mass produced and assembled so you should check everything over before running it.
Remember too that just because it's new out of the box doesn't mean everything is right. They are mass produced and assembled so you should check everything over before running it.
bergoff
RCTalk Addict
Don't give up on the savage. They are awesome trucks but if you want to I will send you a stampede rtr and will pay shipping for you to send me one. Lol
I run mine pretty hard for many hours at a time with no issues. I'm running an LRP28 in mine with a 3 speed trans. The LRP has quite a bit more power than the engine your running.
All I can think is that you may be expecting too much out of a diff, or your slipper is too tight, or you just have some horrible luck.
The difference with mine though as well is that i"ve upgraded my diff cases to alloy and shimmed the ring/pinion to have minimal slop:
That photo was taken 11/08/2008. I'm still running those diffs. It's probably had 3-4 gallons of fuel ran through it.
My only constant issue is that the center diff/axle cups wear big slots in them which cause binding and busted shafts.
All I can think is that you may be expecting too much out of a diff, or your slipper is too tight, or you just have some horrible luck.
The difference with mine though as well is that i"ve upgraded my diff cases to alloy and shimmed the ring/pinion to have minimal slop:
That photo was taken 11/08/2008. I'm still running those diffs. It's probably had 3-4 gallons of fuel ran through it.
My only constant issue is that the center diff/axle cups wear big slots in them which cause binding and busted shafts.
gnarkill
RCTalk Talkaholic
Don't go away mad, Just go away.
Seriously though, all the above posts could solve your problem. I wouldn't be so quick to tell anyone that the savage is a bad truck. The only diff I have ever blown was because a bearing blew up. That was my fault though.
I've got about the same time on my diffs- still stock cases with a locker in the rear but only running a stock .25. Yeah for less power! 
sounds like improper setup to me.
Get a set of cen diff's from bada$$ savage on savage-central and never have to look at your diffs again.
Get a set of cen diff's from bada$$ savage on savage-central and never have to look at your diffs again.
Take a look at this:
https://www.rcnitrotalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=47876&highlight=shim
Snagged it quite some time ago. Pretty decent write up. The only downside is that newer savage diffs cups are way larger and don't fit through any aftermarket cases that I've found. I bought XL/X alloy diff cupp'd and HD machined gear diffs off ebay for around $25 a piece, then bought Hot Racing diff cases to put them in. Didn't realize they wouldn't fit until I had them in my hands... had to use the old output shafts from my old diffs. Still worked fine, just letting you know in case you go that route.
Do you have to regear with that setup? Although... with the "bullet proof" HPI diffs, it may not be necessary to jump to a different brand. The gears on the bullet proof ones are milled and the teeth are quite a bit larger, just fewer of them.
i didn't have to regear when i ran them. If there was a ratio difference, it wasn't enough to worry about. They are just super strong. There was a guy doing wot drops from chest level with a savage flux on 6S trying to break them. The did something crazy like 23 standing backflips and 15 or so wot drops before chipping a tooth.
Wow! That's some tough stuff! Kind of surprised they didn't snap axles doing that!