Will Traxxas warranty this?...

[Lessen]

Hey guys. I broke my Summit again yesterday but I wasn't running hard with locked diffs this time I was trying to climb up my boys slide with no success so I backed up, unlocked the diffs, put it in high gear then promptly mashed the throttle. Poof. All of a sudden I'm FWD only. I stopped to check it out and the rear wheels are showing now differential action. Great, my diff is shot right? Sort of.. After a lengthy disassembly process (I'm new to the Summit/Revo construction) I finally got the rear diff out of the truck. I take apart the case and much to my surprise, one of the outdrives just falls right off! That's right, not the pinion, not the diff internals, not the cup... the outdrive was torqued apart in two pieces. Do you guys think Traxxas will warranty this?

 

[jnjritz]

WOW!!! Man i bet they would. They are pretty good at stuff like that. I would get on the phone and see what happens. The worst they can do is say no right? I have called needing stuff and they asked a few questions and i was really nice about things (even tho sometimes hard) and they replaced everything i have ever called about. Just keep saying to them if they try to give you run around "Man i love my traxxas stuff i have been with you for a couple years But if stuff lik this is going to happen i don't know...
And be persistant if one guy tells you no, Call again in an hour or so and tell them you wasn't happy with the last call that you made to them. I know it sounds silly or what ever but it does work.

It worked for me

Let us know what they say.

 

[Lessen]

I just did a quick google on this part (#5678). One link I checked out took me to the Traxxas forum. Apparantly, this is a common failure and one post that I read stated that a Traxxas employee informed somebody that there had been a bad batch of these parts. Traxxas is replacing these basically no questions asked.

So obviously my question is answered so this thread can just be an FYI to Summit owners.

 

[olds97_lss]

I wonder what makes those different than the regular revo diff. Are they longer? It doesn't appear to have broken at the actual pin, which is where I would have guessed a failure would occur.

 

[beason]

the summit diffs are totally different. they have the locking assembly on them.. lmk how it goes lessen. guess i need to drive mine more. i havent broke anything yet!

 

[olds97_lss]

I only meant the shaft. The shaft looks to be the same design as the regular diffs. Except they have a pin through them it appears. Just seems odd that by lengthening the shaft a bit makes it that much weaker.

 

[Lessen]

Traxxas is sending me two of those parts, just assuming the other one will fail in the future as well. He said they got a batch of those parts in which the casting was just bad. There's no way that that part should fail like that before other parts within the drivetrain. Like I said, I would have expected a pinion or planetary gears to fail, not an outdrive, and certainly not at the solid section of it. Fotunately this won't cost me anything as the part (bag of parts) is like $11 @ Tower and they don't even have them in stock today.

Olds - The two outdrives are different. Upon a short research it looks like the short outdrive (opposite the side of the locking mechanism) is an EMaxxRevo outdrive. The part that is failing for everybody is the outdrive on the side of the locking mechanism. This outdrive is longer and specific to the Summit. The extra length is necessary for the locking mechanism. I dont' believe the length has anything to do with the failure though. From what I've read and also from what Brian @ Traxxas told me, they got a batch of parts with bad casts.

Blake, I know you are running 12 cells right now. I wonder if that's enough power to shear the part with 14.4V. You might have a newer release as well in which the part might not be bad.

 

[olds97_lss]

Got ya. Got any photo's of the diff other than the one above? I was curious how the locking mechanism works. Couldn't tell real well in the mags. Not that it matters. Did they have to make the spider gears smaller to shrink the diff a bit or did the make the diff housing wider to fit the mechanism in there?

 

[Lessen]

Got ya. Got any photo's of the diff other than the one above? I was curious how the locking mechanism works.

I hope you can get the jist of it from these...

When it's unlocked the locking mechanism is pulled away from the cup, thereby allowed the differential to do it's thing. When it's locked the mechanism is moved toward the cup and locks to it. As you can see the mechanism is also locked to it's own outdrive via a crosspin. Since the cup and one outdrive now turn together that means the opposite oudrive will turn with them as well.

 

[olds97_lss]

Thanks! I appreciate the explaination and photo's. I had read about it, but I'm a "see it to get it" kind of guy.

They must use a different rear diff housing/bulkhead to fit that diff in there too. I wonder if the assembly would fit on a nitro revo. Would be kind of cool to be able to lock the rear diff for nitro just for fun. Make donuts and drag racing easier.

 

[jnjritz]

Glad to hear you will be bashing again soon.

 

[Hyster]

Traxxas is sending me two of those parts, just assuming the other one will fail in the future as well. He said they got a batch of those parts in which the casting was just bad. There's no way that that part should fail like that before other parts within the drivetrain. Like I said, I would have expected a pinion or planetary gears to fail, not an outdrive, and certainly not at the solid section of it. Fotunately this won't cost me anything as the part (bag of parts) is like $11 @ Tower and they don't even have them in stock today.

That's good to hear.