1:18 Ruckus Differential Problems and Upgrades Discussion

Hi guys I posted at rctech forums about the new shimmed diff, anyway my truck is still going great but Im thinking of doing a metal diff upgrade, do you guys mod both front and rear diffs or just the rear one? Ive ordered the parts mentioned in page 2 plus 1 set of hpi a557 but wasnt too sure wether you guys are modding front diffs as well or not?
 
I modded both. Front is a 3racing ball diff and rear is a vaterra diff. If the ball diff will break , then i will replace with the vaterra diff.
 
I modded both. Front is a 3racing ball diff and rear is a vaterra diff. If the ball diff will break , then i will replace with the vaterra diff.
Thanks for quick reply! So the a557 would work for the front axles? Also I have ordered 2 metal diff parts VTR212003, would those parts be for both front and rear i assume?
 
Thanks for quick reply! So the a557 would work for the front axles? Also I have ordered 2 metal diff parts VTR212003, would those parts be for both front and rear i assume?

vaterra diff works for both. a557 is fine for both axles. You will need some shims and new wheel hex / nuts. For rear dogbone, the sportswerks ones mentioned work fine. For front you can:
1. Find a discontinued a552 set, and modify one ball end to reduce the size
2. Build a franken-bone retaining the stock wheel nut / hex / axle and half of a dogbone
3. Find a dogbone that actually fits and tell me about it so I can order it too. :)
 
Thanks, just a quick update before I go to sleep, I've decided to do 2; the franken bone option :D
I re-read this forum again and hellfish mentioned on post #24, that stock driveshaft fits his balldiff axle, so I checked the fitting with vaterra outdrive part# 212010 and it seems to fit nice and snugly, just wondering about the angle, do you guys think with that angle the shaft gonna bind anything?

Also the diameter of dogbone:
ball 5.45mm
shaft 3.35mm x 9.5cm
pin 8.45mm x 2mm

Inside cup of vaterra outdrive is 5.6mm, hence the ball fits nicely.

2016-09-19 02.28.44.jpg 2016-09-19 02.29.10.jpg 2016-09-19 02.36.44.jpg
 
Last edited:
It looks good. I can't tell from your pictures, but just make sure the pins don't stick out past the edges of the outdrive or it might catch on the diff housing.

Also just as an update, my car is fully reassembled and working now :)
 
I know the "new" trucks now come with the diffs preshimmed, but I am yet to hear or confirm if the outdrive gears still use the buttersoft plastic. Anyone with the "new" trucks been able to test this?
 
I forgot I ordered these adjustable length axles before I went out of town and they were here when I got back. Since the only axle the right length seems discontinued this may be the only way. The plan was if they don't work as-is to chop a normal dogbone and make it adjustable. It can even have two different sized balls. My front stock diff is still holding up but probably because it pops an axle at the u-joint every time I drive it so I've wanted to figure something out for it. Been busy with a new micro crawler but when I get a chance to play with this I'll post if it works.

pRJYxUd.jpg

Got them here.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Adj...3mm-For-3Racing-Sakura-D3-CS/32624830635.html
 
I know the "new" trucks now come with the diffs preshimmed, but I am yet to hear or confirm if the outdrive gears still use the buttersoft plastic. Anyone with the "new" trucks been able to test this?
Found the answer to my own question when browsing videos of the Roost on Youtube, the new diffs are still made of butter soft plastic.
 
It looks good. I can't tell from your pictures, but just make sure the pins don't stick out past the edges of the outdrive or it might catch on the diff housing.

Also just as an update, my car is fully reassembled and working now :)

Ok it's been awhile since my last post, been busy last few weeks... I have managed to mod my truck to all metal-diffs thanks to people from this forum here. Amazing thing is that this Vaterra metal diffs fits ECX diff housing like it was meant to be. The stock bearings fits nicely onto vaterra outdrives as well.

Now about the drive shafts. I bought 2 sets of ECX212006 center driveshafts, cut them with good set of pliers to make it fit into stock telescopic driveshafts, fit 2 layers of 3.2mm heat shrinks on the dogbones and what you know? The dogbone fits in the stock telescopic driveshaft so snugly that it almost don't need to be epoxied. I did run few times with this setup and one of the dogbone manage to come slightly out of the tele-shaft. Simple solution: just push it back in with palms of my hands(very tight fit), the only negative thing is that you might need to readjust dogbone length whenever it decides to come out. Also if the dogbone breaks with epoxy in it, you'd have to buy new sets of stock driveshafts which would set you back with bit of $$$.

I'll see how I go with this set up for now, I bought an epoxy just in case I wanted to go epoxy route as well.
 

Attachments

  • 2016-09-20 00.59.01.jpg
    2016-09-20 00.59.01.jpg
    93.1 KB · Views: 52
  • 2016-09-20 00.59.56.jpg
    2016-09-20 00.59.56.jpg
    66.9 KB · Views: 52
  • 2016-09-25 16.20.17.jpg
    2016-09-25 16.20.17.jpg
    116.3 KB · Views: 49
  • 2016-09-25 16.31.00.jpg
    2016-09-25 16.31.00.jpg
    93.3 KB · Views: 50
  • 2016-09-25 16.33.45.jpg
    2016-09-25 16.33.45.jpg
    83.9 KB · Views: 48
  • 2016-09-25 16.35.53.jpg
    2016-09-25 16.35.53.jpg
    98.8 KB · Views: 48
So I went out for a few more runs and some of the dogbones kept moving out so I decided to epoxy them all. All I did was cut old heat shrinks to about 5mm and inserted with the dogbone on top of epoxy. That way it would stay in center. I made them to roughly 44.5mm as shown and they stay in the outdrive cups nicely.
2016-10-02 21.03.17.jpg
 
I agree with slick. I no longer use the 3racing diff, because the destroyed my outdrive pinion. See my earlier post.

I switched to Vaterra Kalahari diffs. The are full metal and fits. The set also includes the drive shaft pinions. No more plastic in the diffs. Unfortunately you need to buy some additional parts to complete the diffs.

Part numbers are :
2x VTR212003 --- Diff house and pinions
1x VTR212010 --- Diff outdrives , not included in VTR212003
1x VTR215000 --- complete screw set for Vaterra Kalahari, includes the screws for the diff house.

Losi 1/14 Mini Desert Truck and Losi 1/14 Mini Rally using the same diffs.

I still use the HPI A557 wheel Axles. I also switch the dogbones to HPI H72069 6x47mm(from RS4 Sport 2). They fits on the wheel axles site, but need some work at the ball to fits the Vaterra outdrive. But this is not realy a problem.

My son run this setup now for 10 sessions with 2s LiPo with stock motor and it still looks good.
Is it safe to assume this includes all the diff parts I would need? http://www.ebay.com/itm/152255678534 I know I would not need the diff housing.
 
^That looks right. I got two rears of the same thing from amazon.


And the adjustable axles work great. Hitting a curb not so much.

I'm surprised this is all I broke. Was running 3s with an 18t pinion and it got sideways and went like a rocket into a curb.

I8lkMJF.jpg




damn, it figures the a557 have tripled in price.
 
Last edited:
^That looks right. I got two rears of the same thing from amazon.


And the adjustable axles work great. Hitting a curb not so much.

I'm surprised this is all I broke. Was running 3s with an 18t pinion and it got sideways and went like a rocket into a curb.

I8lkMJF.jpg




damn, it figures the a557 have tripled in price.
Have you fixed this yet? Other than the curb hit has everything been holding up so far?
 
Yep. I noticed the stub axles were cheap again so I grabbed two sets. Put on some other wheels I had and am back up and running.
 

Latest posts

Members online

Back
Top