locked driveshaft

[Tony R]

Not sure if there's another thread for this but i'm having a difficult time with the front drive-train/steering on my talion. I realize it may be my fault partly, but whats goin on is if the pillow balls are screwed in all the way even with the stock spacers on the arms soon as you turn left or right one or the other driveshafts lock up when you hit the throttle depending on which way you steer. I know loosening the pillow balls helps but it eventually ends up being the same and if you keep it loose you end up having to loosen it even more to free it up and if you just choose to run it like this eventually, the driveshafts will just yank out of the diff cups cause of the stress or how close they are from popping out and will just wear them and the arms down. That said i've replaced everything that was causing this and it was actually good like it was when i first bought the car. Diff was moving smooth even when steering all the way left or right suspension flexed or not. Took it to a local track(now i'm not a very bad driver lol i make mistakes sometimes but i'm not bad and i tuned my suspension a little bit to make it a bit more plush i guess) but this track isn't very heavy on your car if you stay away from the walls etc and i ran it for the day and it was fine for the meantime. So I took it home and now im having the same problems, they're locking up again. I really don't know what i'm asking, just trying to see if anyone has been having the same problem.

 

[Afro Samurai]

Not sure if there's another thread for this but i'm having a difficult time with the front drive-train/steering on my talion. I realize it may be my fault partly, but whats goin on is if the pillow balls are screwed in all the way even with the stock spacers on the arms soon as you turn left or right one or the other driveshafts lock up when you hit the throttle depending on which way you steer. I know loosening the pillow balls helps but it eventually ends up being the same and if you keep it loose you end up having to loosen it even more to free it up and if you just choose to run it like this eventually, the driveshafts will just yank out of the diff cups cause of the stress or how close they are from popping out and will just wear them and the arms down. That said i've replaced everything that was causing this and it was actually good like it was when i first bought the car. Diff was moving smooth even when steering all the way left or right suspension flexed or not. Took it to a local track(now i'm not a very bad driver lol i make mistakes sometimes but i'm not bad and i tuned my suspension a little bit to make it a bit more plush i guess) but this track isn't very heavy on your car if you stay away from the walls etc and i ran it for the day and it was fine for the meantime. So I took it home and now im having the same problems, they're locking up again. I really don't know what i'm asking, just trying to see if anyone has been having the same problem.

how far left or right are you turning the wheels?..to full lock?...

hmmmmm...going back...waaayyy back to my engineering classes...there was something called transmission angle...when you have a shaft something transmitting power through a joint at extreme angle...I won't go into torque pulses etc...but in this case...the joint can't turn...it's kind of like when you drive a 4 wheel drive vehicle and you make a sharp turn you can feel the steering wheel try to straighten out a bit then go back the straight..over and over as the u joint rotates...

to improve this some companies went to constant velocity joints...because the velocity component due to the new design is constant and not pulsing (as much)...and has a increase in transmission angle over typical u joints but there is a limit.....lots of animation on this on internet...try Wikipedia universal joint and cv joint...

I don't have a talion...but I am wondering if maybe with the extreme steering angle you may need to upgrade to cvjoints if available. ..

so...if the talion has universal joints...i would expect a problem like you are stating..just depends on how severe the steering angle is....if it has cvjoints there may be another problem or your steering angle is still quite severe and we are back to another design flaw in the steering geometry that will have to be avoided by tuning out some steering in the remote by setting the endpoints...

and resetting the steering endpoints may solve your problem altogether. ..so try that first...

 

[Tony R]

how far left or right are you turning the wheels?..to full lock?...

hmmmmm...going back...waaayyy back to my engineering classes...there was something called transmission angle...when you have a shaft something transmitting power through a joint at extreme angle...I won't go into torque pulses etc...but in this case...the joint can't turn...it's kind of like when you drive a 4 wheel drive vehicle and you make a sharp turn you can feel the steering wheel try to straighten out a bit then go back the straight..over and over as the u joint rotates...

to improve this some companies went to constant velocity joints...because the velocity component due to the new design is constant and not pulsing (as much)...and has a increase in transmission angle over typical u joints but there is a limit.....lots of animation on this on internet...try Wikipedia universal joint and cv joint...

I don't have a talion...but I am wondering if maybe with the extreme steering angle you may need to upgrade to cvjoints if available. ..

so...if the talion has universal joints...i would expect a problem like you are stating..just depends on how severe the steering angle is....if it has cvjoints there may be another problem or your steering angle is still quite severe and we are back to another design flaw in the steering geometry that will have to be avoided by tuning out some steering in the remote by setting the endpoints...

and resetting the steering endpoints may solve your problem altogether. ..so try that first...

Ah i see what you're saying , but I really think it has something to do with the pillow balls(it feels like it idk) like i said i realize it's probably my fault that somehow i screwed them in too crooked so thats causing either the caster block or the driveshaft to lock up sometimes. I bought new arms the other week so i can try again and i screwed them in as straight as i could this time and it was considerably better but it just ridiculous that a few light runs can damage the threads in the a arms enough to where i'm having the same problems all over again. I have heard of other people not liking pillow ball suspension for similar or various reasons. Now I don't know too much on cvd's but It might also be what your saying because after looking at some of the other race kits and theyre running universal. About it being in full lock that, that can be too much stress on the cvds to keep rotating but the thing is i have tried spinning them them same way on other kits with my hand , other truggy's and it doesn't happen no matter what you do. I even asked a racer at my local shop who knows enough i think and he said that, that's just not supposed to be happening at all. with any car. Right now though, I'm really considering selling it and then when I do I'll be getting my hands on one of the losi or a hotbodies trucks.