crawler prep for comps.

hey guys ive been looking over my rig and trying to get all the kinks (more like loose nuts) tight and ready for the comp season. i would like to know what all you seasond compeditors do to prep your rigs for the season. like i.e replacing the worn yokes with new tight ones. stuff like that that a new-b like me might not know about i think there is a lot of info on this but its hard to figure out without lots of expeirence so anything you know please post it up and help us out thanks!!

Pretty much just nut and bolt it. Go over the truck and check for worn or broken parts. I like to take my tlt axles apart from time to time. Just to check the ring and pinion wear. I also clean and lube my bearings. I also like to freshen up my shocks. New oil and o-rings if needed. On a crawler this doesn't need to be done to much.

thanks for the info! right now im switching to ny-loc ? nuts. the stock stuff that came with the tlt kit kept coming loose and if i would tighten it the shocks/links would bind. i took apart my axels to install bearings this week and i was really suprised at how much ring and pinion wear there was. the teeth looked pretty worn. i guess the metel is softer than i thought, also the hyperion i think has a little to do with it i switched to metel yokes on the tranny side also because i snap the plastic ones frequintly

one more question i had i guess depends on what type of batteries you use. do you guys use one pack for all the rounds or do you peak in between or switch out packs? i have a 1500 2/3 a and the run time is like 45 mins. i think i should be ok not peaking off between rounds right? thanks guys

You should be fine with one battery. Just as long as there is no playing between courses. I ran the same battery for all 3 courses in Augusta. Had plenty of juice to spare.

hey Revin9k

You are right that the diff is very very soft. I melted one with a torch and the melting point was much lower then ALU (660 C) so I think that the diff contains Tin. I am going to run some material on some of my machines to figure out what it actually is. I just need to find a customer who is willing to let me play arround.

when you figure out more about the mixture of metals in the diffs do you think you might know somthing to improve them? like what about a differnt type of grease? if you used a higher temp say bearing grease would it help with the breakdown / wear of the metal?

-are there any options for running a differnt ring and pinion? i have not seen any but just wondering if anyone had any ideas.

-oh yeah one more question (for now ) i have heard of people shiming their pinion. does that help with wear and do you think it is neccacery?

thanks guys for your insite! im sorry if i ask too many questions

Shimming the pinion will help a little. It reduces the amount of lash. The problem is the metal. It is very soft cheap metal. I have heard of some people criogenically (spelling) treating them. There has been rumors of a couple companies making aftermarket pieces. Would be nice to have some made out of good old steel,

wouls be great to have steel ones!! there is a company that treats car stuff like rotors and what not. i might look into seeing how much it would cost to do some ring&pinion's