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Chapel

SRB gearbox upgrades?

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I was wondering if there's any upgrades to the gearbox on the SRB that would make it stronger?

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There's a ball diff from Tamiya.

There are also vintage Thorp parts but very rare and very expensives.

Max

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The SRB gearbox is pretty bombproof. Not sure you're going to find a stronger one. I have always used a brass middle gear for an all metal gear set up.

What problem are you having that you want to solve?

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well, my concern is the original 30+ year old nylon gears are going to shatter eventually.

I wanted to get the most robust replacements.

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If you can find them, there are vintage brass gears to hop it up. Both MIP and CRP had middle brass gears. Both RCH and CRP had brass spool gears. MIP and Thorp and recently Tamiya made ball diffs for the SRB tranny.

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IMO the Tamiya ball diff is a piece of junk . Hard to keep adjusted correctly and even when done is a total waste of money . All metal gears would be good but i would just buy a set of new plastic gears as their strong and reliable as is .

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I heard really bad things for the Tamiya ball diff. If you can find and afford a Thorp diff. or else those nylon gears are cheap to replace.

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Chapel,

The gears for the re-release Buggy Champ (Rough Rider), Sand Scorcher 2010 and now Fighting buggy (Super Champ) are the same as those found in the original SRB vehicles from the 70's/80's..

The only exception to this is that the re-releases have aluminium pinion gears whereas the originals had brass pinion gears.. I would suggest upgrading to a STEEL pinion gear for any of the SRB models..

The gear sets could possibly be ordered from your local hobby shop, or failing that try Stella Models in Hong Kong or eBay..

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I disagree that the tamiya ball diffs are junk, I assembled mine once and once only when building my buggy champ/scorcher and it has been bulletproof. Extra threadlock on the adjusting screw is the key I feel.

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I disagree that the tamiya ball diffs are junk, I assembled mine once and once only when building my buggy champ/scorcher and it has been bulletproof. Extra threadlock on the adjusting screw is the key I feel.

maybe i just got a bad one - maybe not . I have tried everything , cleaned it , new balls , tread lock ect ect but it still don't work to my satisfaction . Only my personal opinion obviously but i still think its a rubbish piece of overpriced tat .

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Hmm. One thing I did with mine was tension it up but not detension it (back the screw off) like the instructions said. This reverse movement I feel would break the threadlocker's bond on the parts as it sets very quickly when in the absence of air ie under tension.. Result is a diff that is very tight but thats what I wanted anyways so I could still succesfully run it at the beach. Most of it's running has been at Boondall though.

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what are the benefits of the ball diff?

I know how regular car differentials work... here's one I rebuilt and installed this past year in my BMW:

QaSefdC.jpg

but what's going on with the Tamiya one?

I assume the standard differential is simply a spool diff (both wheels turn at the same rate)

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what are the benefits of the ball diff?

I know how regular car differentials work... here's one I rebuilt and installed this past year in my BMW:

QaSefdC.jpg

Nice work. What BMW is that for? Just bought myself a 1989 E30 model 320 which I hope to do some work on myself.

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gold star to me then lol . BTW a ball diff is in effect a LSD . No real advantage on a Scorcher unless your mostly running it on tarmac . For the beach best left as stock .

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yeah, beach, dirt, etc...

leave it stock then in that case .

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I have a front spoiler/lip for that model sitting in the garage.. I forgot what brand it was. :blink: One of those popular names i could not remember at the moment... Zenderi or something else. For the srb I have both the thorp & new ball bearings both are great..

that it is. - http://imgur.com/a/sln8d#0

f7YMid1.jpg

E30s are cake to work on.

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