Hot Racing Drilled Aluminum Slipper Pads (BLX 4x4 3S)

[AimlessRC]

I've seen these things since I've been searching for hop-ups... $3.88 a piece (BLX needs 3), and they replace the 3 tabbed fiber clutch pads in the slipper within the spur gear.

I'm thinking of giving these things a whirl. Dissipate heat better, less noise, more positive engagement, all that good stuff.

Has anyone actually tried them out?

I popped my slipper apart today during a maintenance check (2019 Granite 4x4 BLX 3S) and noticed a lot of black gunk building up on the slipper plates. This is after a couple weeks of hard use, slipper set to 2 turns out from softly tightened on both 2S and 3S (12 packs give or take). It almost looks like smear from the aluminum pressure plates mixed with any sort of dust that would enter though the bottom of the spur housing... potentially has some assembly grease or lube from the bearings wandering up in there. Also, between the two plates (where they meet on the brass bushing) there was a LOT of gunk in there.

It's near impossible to get the gunk off of the plates unless I sand it down with some 800g wet sandpaper on a piece of glass with a block ontop of it. Which I did to one of them (the center one)... the other two I just flipped around for now.

 

[jondilly1974]

I own them but am not currently using them. I had some slipper hub issues when I did try them, so it’s not a fair assessment of them. I ended up just buying the stock 4S assembly for my Typhon 3S and a stock 3S assembly for my Granite 3S. Of course I stripped the plastic spur on the first use of the Granite so I swapped in an HR steel spur, but the Typhon is still running well so I haven’t touched that one yet. I only bought 3 at the time because I was running the 3S slipper in the Typhon at the time. I will give them a shot in the Granite when/if I smoke the stock pads.

 

[AimlessRC]

I popped on a set. Figured why not. Cheap enough.

 

[slick2500]

I have them but never ran the car with the stock ones so I have nothing to compare them too. I will say that setting them is more precise than the stock ones. When you are adjusting your slipper you look at it like a clock face and adjust it by like a min or two at a time. They are aluminum so they tend to grab more than the normal slipper pads and the difference between too loose and too tight is less.

 

[AimlessRC]

I have them but never ran the car with the stock ones so I have nothing to compare them too. I will say that setting them is more precise than the stock ones. When you are adjusting your slipper you look at it like a clock face and adjust it by like a min or two at a time. They are aluminum so they tend to grab more than the normal slipper pads and the difference between too loose and too tight is less.

I just installed them and you are exactly right. I tried 2 turns out like with the stock ones but it seems way too tight. Went to 3 turns out and the screw backed off under acceleration.

Tried the bench method of holding down the rear tires and jabbing the throttle... but im just getting clicks, no movement of the front wheels or lifting the front end.

Do you have a preferred method for adjustment? I don't need to be snapping axles anytime soon.

 

[slick2500]

I just installed them and you are exactly right. I tried 2 turns out like with the stock ones but it seems way too tight. Went to 3 turns out and the screw backed off under acceleration.

Tried the bench method of holding down the rear tires and jabbing the throttle... but im just getting clicks, no movement of the front wheels or lifting the front end.

Do you have a preferred method for adjustment? I don't need to be snapping axles anytime soon.

You just have to mess with it as each one is different. Finding that sweet spot is like I said rather tricky.

 

[AimlessRC]

Sounds good. I just put my old ones in and adjusted to 2 turns out where it was working really well... I used the red spline and driveshaft to spin each side of the clutch as I held the spur gear.

Then I tossed in the metal ones, set to 2 turns out and it was waaayyy harder. So, I started backing off 1/8th turns until it felt the same. 2 3/8 turns is darn close. A good starting point at least. Any adjustments now will be made using your "minutes" unit of measure... haha.

Thanks again!

 

[AimlessRC]

Alright... well, dialed the slipper in at 2.25 turns out... took it for a rip and it un-threaded itself in 5 mins on 2S. Dialed it in to 2.125 and it lasted 15 mins before backing out.

Took it back apart, slight evidence of the pads grabbing on the outer rim of the clutch drive ends and center washer... so it's slipping.... barely.

Thoroughly cleaned the threads with acetone, put it all back together with a bit of blue loc-tite, and its been solid through 2 2S packs abd 1 3S pack at 2.5 turns out.

I'm not noticing a huge improvement anywhere, but I have noticed a disadvantage. Lots of aluminum powder in the spur drive housing. Hopefully that dies down as these plates break in.

 

[slick2500]

I never had any aluminum powder.

 

[AimlessRC]

I never had any aluminum powder.

It may have been generated during the few times the slipper unscrewed itself. Since the loctite has held up, I haven't noticed it back.