Gear plate question

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amstel78

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What is the second smaller aluminum piece (looks like a K) for shown in the image below? Does the 7075RC gear plate also come with this small piece or is it OK to use the stock XB plastic piece?


050004-alum-gear-mount-.jpg



Edit: had a look at my XB and found that corresponding plastic piece; appears to be a support for the output shaft. Anyway, question still stands. Does the 7075RC version come with this and if not, is it fine to continue using what I have now? Has there been any premature failures of this part?
 
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That is a pinion gear holder that connects the gear plate to the center diff. If everything lines up you could use the XB piece. I would double check the measurements before you bolt everything up, just in case it is different.
 
That piece will fit your xb. Cant say if its better or not. Has the same size bearings, just aluminum.

I used it since i had it but i bought that plate before the 7075 came out. If i was buying now i would go with the lightened 7075 plate just because it looks awesome lol..
 
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I've never seen anyone post that they had a failure with the stock plastic one. You don't need to use loctite on the grub screws for the brake adjuster if you stick with the plastic. The alloy one will help to absorb and reduce heat that the bearing may get though.
 
I use the plastic MT plate with the plastic pinion holder and have had no issues that were not caused by me.I have a bow and twist in my chassie and is still holding
 
Well the MT plastic plate does use larger bearings; this I know. Is it also thicker than the XB plate?

Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2
 
By the way, is it truly a matter of "not if, but when" in terms of plastic XB gear plate failures? I had another close look at my gears and plate this evening, and this was after the car's 5th tank of fuel. To me, the gear plate and gears look just as good as they did when the car was brand new. Of course, I had lathered the gears in a good synthetic hi-temp grease, and checked the gear nuts to ensure everything was within tolerance.

I'm interested in either upgrading the gear plate to an aluminum MT or 7075RC version if and when my plate fails... or go straight to a 7075RC plate with belt drive once they're back in stock. However, I'm genuinely curious to know how many XBs have had their plastic gear plates fail prematurely? There's no sure way to know; I realize that, but just from searching and reading this forum, it doesn't seem to me that the percentage of reported failures is particularly alarming. There's also no way to truly know whether or not those failures have been the result of user error, poor maintenance, shoddy construction, foreign debris entering the gear train, or a combination of factors.

I did read about one owner who's plate broke after the initial break-in. I think one of the bearing cups cracked, but if I recall, was the result of the D shaft gear nut working loose. I chalk that up to shoddy assembly work though.

So is it truly a case of "not if, but when?" To be honest, I'll be perfectly happy running my XB until the need to replace it becomes evident... which might take some time. I'm not a racer. I don't even bash my rigs that hard. I enjoy the occasional jump here and there, but I'm also happy to do donuts and high-speed runs on tarmac.

Thoughts?

P.S. Most of the reported failures I've seen were back in 2011. I don't know what improvements Redcat made since then. I know the XB I received has what I think are the latest updates; i.e. 10mm axles, aluminum chassis brace block, etc.
 
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I had the bearing in th b-c shaft fail, on the stock one.

It melted the bearing holder.

Just now I had a set screw loosen up on the d shaft coupling....took the teeth off three gears and cracked the Mt plate in half.

Waiting on 7075 plate, and belt drive.

I think it would still be ok if the set screw on the coupling/brakes never happened. ...haven't really inspected the drive pinion-center diff gear.
 
Ouch. That sucks. I hope the belt drive conversion solves these issues for good.

Only thing about the belt drive system is the lack of ratios. I hope that's something that'll be addressed soon.
 
Once I get a belt drive kit, I was hoping to find other sizes.

I was looking at McMaster Carr...

They have pulleys, but are like $35 each.

Need to find out pitch/tooth size etc.
 
Most of the plate failures are from the 2 most common issues. 1 is undersize bearings that get hot and melt the side out of the bearing seat in the plate and 2.. is chassis flex. I am willing to say that most X series owners that run them the way intended will have this issue.I went through 3 stock plates before going to MT plate with larger bearings and problem solved ... 8 months of beating the tar out of it and no failure.
 
BertR said:
Most of the plate failures are from the 2 most common issues. 1 is undersize bearings that get hot and melt the side out of the bearing seat in the plate and 2.. is chassis flex. I am willing to say that most X series owners that run them the way intended will have this issue.I went through 3 stock plates before going to MT plate with larger bearings and problem solved ... 8 months of beating the tar out of it and no failure.
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My mt plate looks to be good bearing wise.

I think the set screw did it in..or chassis flex.

It split between the b-c and d shaft...

I "think" the screw loosened. let the d shaft walk out toward the cover, and sheared off the teeth/ broke the plate.
 
I have a plastic gear plate from my TT/MT that I no longer need with my beltdrive setup..

Anyone who needs it can have it for shipping cost..
 
Is the plastic mt plate beefier than the xt plastic plate?becuase i got a basket case xt that needs a gear plate and just wondering if that mt plate would work.i just want to get it going for now.
 
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