HPI 5B Baja Gear Mesh Issue, New to Large Scale!!

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Supradude26

New Member
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Hey all, new to this site and fairly new to large scale RC. I've been doing 1/10 and mostly 1/8th niteo and electric since I got my first "real" kit, theTamiya Frog, in 1997 or 1988 and have had probably around 50 rigs since, starting with electric, then qhennthe RC10GT came out went nitro with everything for the next few years, and now about 10 years ago when the LiPo's and brushless stuff came out I've been back to electric.

Anyway, my buddy gave me a HPI 5B Baja in trade for some work I did for him. So first thing I always do with either used cars or prebuilt RTR's I get, I 100% take them apart, then rebuilt them following the manufacturers instructions. I do this because half the fun for me in buying a new rig for is putting them together. Because of this, the only time I ever buy RTR's is when I really want that particular rig and it's not available in kit form. There have been several times over the years that I didnt end up buying a car because they weren't available in kit form. I on used cars it also allows me to find any part that's missing/broken or not assembled correctly. Other than needing a new fuel tank and a few screws here and there, this car actually cleaned up quite nice and it appears to not have much use. Anyway, my question is this.... before I took it all apart, the pinion/spur gear mesh was perfect IMO, just enough play between the 2 gears. Now that I've put it all back together, the mesh is pretty tight. The gears turn, but it still much tighter than I would ever run on any of my smaller rigs. If I ran it this way I would burn up the spur gear and bearings I'm sure, and I would be losing a ton of speed simply because it takes quite a bit of force just to spin the spur. I've checked everything that has to do with mounting the transmission and motor, and everything I can think of has been checked and I cant find anything wrong or out of alignment that would cause this issue. I'm especially confused because it was fine before I took it apart.. I see from searching around that there is not an actual way of adjusting the mesh on these particular cars, so I just wanted to start here and see if anyone else can give me any insight on what may be wrong, if this is a known issue or if there is a quick fix that I'm not seeing... Thanks in advance!!

Also, sorry for the long ass post haha
 
Gear mesh is fixed and smooth. Sounds like he may have changed either the spur or pinion by itself. You can't do that. They change in a pair to different tooth count. If you change just one, you could have too tight or too loose of a mesh. Designed as pairs.
 
Should probably read the whole question before answering. Since it was a perfect mesh before he took it apart and then only too tight when he put it back together, it's unlikely the gears. I had this same issue when I replaced my clutch carrier with an enclosed cover. The tolerances of everything were just enough different that when everything was back together the mesh was too tight in my opinion. Mine was also perfect when I took it apart. I was able to gain a few micro-fractions of tolerance by taking a little material off my backing plate where it goes around the spur carrier. Everything was so tight it was kind of pulling the gears together ever so slightly. It's still tighter than I would like, but it's loose enough I don't think I will damage anything and I'm hoping the steel to plastic/composite gears will work themselves out a bit. I know this probably doesn't help you, just sharing my experience in case it helps someone. Hopefully someone with a better idea of your specific issue will chime in with some ideas.

Good luck.
 
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