Squeeling noise from inside.
 

I just put the orange gears and motor in my MT. The increased RPM's are making a horrible squeeling noise at high speeds. It sounds like something inside the gearbox needs to be lubed. If its a lube problem, is it a big deal to take the truck apart? If its another problem, please advise. Thanks.

Re: Squeeling noise from inside.
 

I've had the same problem before. If your's is the same as mine, the problem is not the internal gears, but rather a little play or "slop" in the external idler gear.

Try this:

Hold your MT in the air by the body while pressing the throttle, it should probably make that screeching noise. Then, while doing the same, push slightly inwards on the external idler (middle) gear. No more noise?

If so, here's what I did. I bought a few nylon/teflon washers from the hardware store, and I installed one of them behind the idler gear (in other words, slip on the washer *before* slipping on/installing the idler gear) in order to take up the slack. Note that if the washer is too thick, the idler gear will stick out too far and won't mesh properly with the smaller gear on the motor... simply trial and error using various thicknesses of nylon washers.

Anyhow, if that's what's causing your problem, the above will help fix it -:)

my noise is definitely coming from inside. is there any way to fix it?

Hmm i would say ,
Try to get hold of a needle end bottle , you know those ones used for really precise oiling ? . there almost like a injection needle on the top of a bottle . Fill a bit with oil insert the needle into a small crack / make a very small hole ( pinhole ) and sqeeze some oil inside . This should work , if not
I HAVE NO IDEA :rolleyes:

Thanks for your input guys. I decided to dissasemble the drive train and lightly oil it. WOW! What a pain in the you know what. The rear wasnt a problem but when you take apart the front end you have to be very careful of the springs, dogbones, steering rack. Its actually kinda neat how it all works. Reassembling it is where the real challenge lies. Its a testament to child slave labor because only small hands could do this job. I didnt find any specific sequence of doing it. Just trial and error. Be patient, it can be done!

my bro's truck had the same noise problem and i oiled it and it made it worse. so i disassembled both of them and cleaned up the oil in my bro's truck and then put it back together. I put some teflon powder in mine at all the moving pieces and it helped a little but my bro's was suddenly quiet again after removing the oil. I'm guessing there was dirt in it somewhere that i didn't see.

anbody have any other ideas? teflon powder works but not too well, oil just made a dirty mess... i've run out of ideas...

vaseline ?
grease ?
Heard of something called " dry lubricant " i have no idea what it is but apparently its good for rc's.:rolleyes:

i used teflon powder on mine. it's dry... it didn't help that much...

Oh well , just a thaught.:rolleyes:

Sounds like your bevel gears aren't being kept meshed properly, but it'll be a lot of trial and error to fix it, plus the plastic bushings aren't the best for keeping parts perfectly aligned.

My guess would be that you need to move the bevel gears out slightly longer on the driveshaft. But that might not be where your issue is even though it seems the most likely.

Folks,

While I shudder at the idea of using any form of oil on the Zaps' internals, If you're going to use any sort of oil I'd reccomend "Labelle 108" -> http://www.google.com/search?num=100...22&btnG=Search . It's a real clean/fine machine oil, and has a small metal needle at the top of the bottle to apply small ammounts to tiny areas -> http://www.trainjunctionpro.com/HO%20Gau208.jpg

actually, that's exactly what I used on my bro's MT. after I got the oil cleaned off it worked properly again with no squeeling. but with it it was much worse... :rolleyes:

Great thread!

Now that I've grabbed a couple of motor kits, my MTs squeal too.

Any links on where to find those washers for spacing out the idler gear?

While you're out buying the MT motor/gear upgrade kit to get your orange set, pick up an SE gear kit (or head to your parts box). But, before you go, look at my fast gearbox mod tutorial--it has a better gear ratio (thus speed) than you can get with RS's MT motor/gear upgrade kit. You'll have to build some of your own gears. For me, that's a part of the fun; perhaps it will be for you, too. If you give it a try, let me know how it goes.

chilli
www.gcrossett.com/zipzaps/

First of all, you are insane. :)

Your site is really nice.
The fast MT gearing stuff is beautifully photographed!
So darn CLEAR!

I have all those ZZ and MS/BitcharG gears, plus multiple sets of the Hot Wheels/BitRacer gearsets also.

When i get the time I am going to study the MT mods on there very closely.

Thanks for the link!

I simply went to my local Ace Hardware store with my ZZMT in hand. Ask them where the teflon washers are, and simply test-fit a few -:)

Michael.mt2k--

Yes, and as rfnagel will probably attest, I am insane. There's a reason my wife makes me stay at home and off the street.

With all the other gears you have, you might find the gear ratio calculator on my site to be of help. Then, using the speed calculator Rich Nagel and I fabricated, you can compute your estimated speed.

I'm willing to add the ideas of others to my tutorials (and giving credit) by adding notes in the various sections. Not everyone wants to do it in my style. But worthwhile ideas are valuable and will be added. If you'd like to contribute, let me know.

Thank you for your compliments.

chilli

Idler gear cavitation alternate fix!
 

I found another fix for the squealing!

I turned the pinion gear around on the motor but didn't push it onto the motor shaft all the way. (left a little space between it and the motor.)

Then I cut a small nylon wire tie off at about 1/4 inch past the head and used it as a spacer between the end of the motor and the chassis, pushing it in to move the motor back a little bit more in it's cradle.

Then I ran the truck, pushing the pinion gear in a little at a time so that the idler gear is kept from running out too far by the ridge on the pinion gear, until the squeal was eliminated.

This keeps the gear in check while keeping everything running loose.

That's done the trick on all my MTs, and confirms that the squealing noise is indeed the idler gear wobbling just a tiny bit (or cavitating) on it's shaft when it runs out at high speed.

Go to your local hobby store and pick up a tube of graphite lube (its dry). Poof some on to the outside gears, put some under the idler gear, put some on the beveled gears on the back axel and the front too, but be aware that the front has a ton of pieces and it takes a while to put back together if all the pieces magically fall out. That'll silence everything. WD-40 works well too, but it may soften the plastic, or so I hear. But I would use the graphite lube (it's basically ground up pencil "lead").

It's not a lubrication issue, it's an idler gear cavitation issue, as I have already explained.

Graphite rocks, but if you read my posts you'll see that I've pretty much explained exactly what is happening when the gears squeal. :rolleyes:


EDIT

Take five minutes and see for yourself. It has nothing to do with the other drive train components.