Losi LMT Noise

[LipoShirly]

Can anyone with Losi LMT experience shed some light on this noise ... haven't torn into it yet. The truck is brand new, picked it up as a roller and just took it out for its maiden run. As soon as I hit some throttle it started to make some loud clacking noise, actually stopped coasting to a stop a few times as if someone hit the brakes.

 

[LipoShirly]

I think I figured it out, but still interested in how it should sound.
The problem seems to have been caused by the Jesus clip (e clip) coming off the "cush"drive assembly.

Its supposed to be as shown above, and I'm guessing mine was there originally , but jumped off at first hard throttle, which explains the noise I heard, as the clip was getting ground between the gears. Which explains the noise I was hearing afterwards as many of the pieces were still stuck between the teeth.

So below are before/after videos... its better, but still sounds crappy , is this about as good as I could expect?

Before with Diff
Before Without Diff
After Without Diff
After with Diff

 

[Hammer Down]

Mine don’t sound like that.. something is still a miss.

 

[LipoShirly]

Mine don’t sound like that.. something is still a miss.

The more I listen to it , the more I agree. I'll try Horizon tomorrow and see what they say, I think the gears got chewed up more then the e-ring.

by the way... Here at Purdue we say "Boiler Up" and "Hammer Down" any connection ?

 

[Hammer Down]

by the way... Here at Purdue we say "Boiler Up" and "Hammer Down" any connection ?

Nah, I’m a carpenter and drive like a maniac, so it’s just kinda fitting.

Did you get that pesky noise figured?

 

[LipoShirly]

Did you get that pesky noise figured?

Not yet... but its going to be on its way back to HorizonHobby this week ( i hope, been to busy to get it into a box and ship)..... they listened to the same video clips, plus the fact that I asked for a new gear housing as mine was factory stripped, and said "just send it back".

When I first took the gear cover off, the threads came out with the screws. I've seen this happen if you use a driver too fast and heat up the plastic, but I was too lazy to get the powered driver from the garage that night and had removed them with hand tools. 2 out of the 3 were stripped. I was going to just buy the housing and replace it, but you cant just buy that one piece, so I asked for that under warranty too. Picture shows the amount of plastic I pulled off 2 screws.

Here is also a better picture of the most damaged gear

 

[LipoShirly]

I sent it , they fixed it, I'm happy....

Short story is they replaced all I thought was damaged, the idle gear and the cush gear, but also replaced the pinion. They also replaced the back side cover for the gears that I mentioned was stripped. The drive train is back to silky smooth....butta

Extended version.... I've had just a few interactions with Horizon Hobby regarding warranty parts, they have always treated me VERY well, no complaints , but this was my first "return for warranty service". Getting it ready to ship I realized it would be smaller and lighter if I didn't include the wheels and tires, so I asked HH if I needed to ship them, they replied no. It still weighs a ton (and I'm cheap), so I decided the motor and esc should come off. The truck was a roller and I kinda splurged on motor/esc combo from HobbyWing, it worried me a bit to put it all that money in one box and ship it. So I asked HH and they again said no, they don't need it. In my mind I envisioned a Losi test bench where they would simply plug in a motor and test the unit... apparently that's not how it works. HH replaced the gears that were clearly damaged, but also sent me a brand new pinion too. As far as testing they noted in the repair that they couldn't test it because of the lack of motor/esc and radio. So lesson learned for me, but in the end HH stood behind their product and made it right, that's all I ask.