DF03 Question

[sansoora]

Hey RC Enthusiasts!

I have a questions re the DF03. I have a Dark Impact Buggy and a FS Racing Travel King, which is a clone of the Dark Impact. If you rotate two of the wheels at the front or the back simultaneously, I have found the drive to not be that smooth on either. I have had a nose around but can't find any issues. I have loads of other 4wd cars, DF02, DF01, Avante, Thundershots, TL01B, TT01 etc. But they are much smoother. would the DF03 be like this by design? Also, do you know where I can buy a rear diff for this?

Any thoughts would be really appreciated.

Cheers!

[TurnipJF]

I am not intimately familiar with any of the cars you mention, but I doubt a rough drivetrain would be an intended design feature.

 

The DF-03 is known to have a rapidly wearing alloy idler gear. Could the fault be linked to this perhaps?

 

[TwistedxSlayer]

Do they have motors in them? The DF03 is belt driven isn't it? Are the others shaft? I'm not 100% sure the on the DF01/2. I know the others are shaft.

[Wooders28]

Try without the motor to eliminate that.

 One of mine (others in the loft) is ok.

44 minutes ago, TurnipJF said:

The DF-03 is known to have a rapidly wearing alloy idler gear. Could the fault be linked to this perhaps?

 

Really only an issue (I believe!) with brushless motors, but swapped both mine over to a hardened gear.

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?/topic/79446-df03-dark-impacthardened-slipper-gear/#comment-626823

[WillyChang]

3 hours ago, TurnipJF said:

I am not intimately familiar with any of the cars you mention, but I doubt a rough drivetrain would be an intended design feature.

The DF-03 is known to have a rapidly wearing alloy idler gear. Could the fault be linked to this perhaps?

 

3 hours ago, sansoora said:

I have a questions re the DF03. I have a Dark Impact Buggy and a FS Racing Travel King, which is a clone of the Dark Impact. If you rotate two of the wheels at the front or the back simultaneously, I have found the drive to not be that smooth on either. I have had a nose around but can't find any issues. I have loads of other 4wd cars, DF02, DF01, Avante, Thundershots, TL01B, TT01 etc. But they are much smoother. would the DF03 be like this by design? Also, do you know where I can buy a rear diff for this?

Make sure you've got the correct pinion on it, stock they're some odd size (0.5 mod?)  

Freshly built with new gears DF03 drivetrain is plenty smooth afaik. Full BBs so less chance of worn out bushings.

Grit ingress, if you run on sand.

Havent bought any spares since initial stockup when Dark Impact first came out, back then you had to manually piece together extra diffs from its component part packs. Other than common "TA03" and "M05" sets T doesn't seem keen on selling balldiffs as OPtion part packs.

 

 

2 hours ago, TwistedxSlayer said:

Do they have motors in them? The DF03 is belt driven isn't it? Are the others shaft? I'm not 100% sure the on the DF01/2. I know the others are shaft.

No, all Shafters.

Gears in drivetrain are a lot finer teeth than most other T 4WD off-roader.

[Fruitfly01]

The big diff difference between the DF03 and the other cars you mentioned is the DF03 having ball differentials and the others are all geared diffs, unless you have modified any of them.  Ball diffs will always be stiffer than gear diffs of any design, but that's a good thing.  If you run your cars on loose dirt, you'll find the DF03 has better traction off the line and under acceleration, helping it to pull away faster and keep a straighter line.  

Make sure you use the right grease in a ball diff and replace any worn parts as often as necessary.  Ball diffs are considered high maintenance and are used in many race oriented cars.  Gear diffs are easy to assemble, build and maintain.  Using thicker grease in them can help make them stiffer in order to make your car quicker under acceleration.  Many people use Tamiya's Anti Wear grease in their diffs, or there are putties now available.  It might be worth experimenting if you are racing or just want to improve your car's performance.

[Wooders28]

12 hours ago, WillyChang said:

Make sure you've got the correct pinion on it, stock they're some odd size (0.5 mod?)  

That's correct, the 0.5 module gear looks remarkably close to 48dp.

I've accidently mixed some dark impact pinions up with my RB5 pinions, nightmare trying to separate them!! 

[WillyChang]

To add to the confusion, have seen a DI with a modded slipper & shaft which takes std Spurs... hmm can't remember if I kept that on the DI that's here now. Haven't peeked inside the gearbox cover for long time now.

[sansoora]

Gentleman,

I can't thank you all enough for your help on the matter. It was something that was confusing me a great deal. I have a number of Tamiya buggys but it was only my two Df03s that don't run as freely as the rest, but they do perform quite well with silver cans. I'm going to compare their pinions as a start and then look at the grease options, I have to admit, I did not consider either of these. I will update you once I've had a look.

Thanks again All!!