Granite U joint came apart - replacement/upgrade?

[Elwood]

I recently upgraded my mega granite to brushless and I just had my right rear driveshaft outer u-joint come apart. I took it apart and forced everything back in place and it lasted maybe 30 seconds.

Before I go nuts looking at options I thought I would ask.... Any upgrade suggestions or should I just get new stock driveshaft assemblies? I am not out to replace lots of parts with metal, unless it is with good reason. As much as I still run into stuff the flexible parts probably serve me well.

I maybe could have had my slipper clutch too tight, it wheelies like crazy! I don't think it was that bad though, I used the "drag the wheels and adjust method".

For perspective, I just got my first 3s battery, been running 2s, and this happened to happen.

I appreciate any suggestions.

 

[419RC]

Might be worth upgrading your rear only, but I’d still opt for a replacing with stock.

 

[Jerry-rigged]

I have the Arrma CVD's, and while they are pretty good, I still break them every now and again.

Might be worth upgrading your rear only, but I’d still opt for a replacing with stock.

Funny, with the stock u-joints, I broke the fronts before the rears...

 

[~Kaos911~]

I broke my front U joints on my BR as a result of slipper too tight and running on pavement. Since I have been using @jondilly1974 slipper adjustment video on YT and haven't broke or snapped anything since.

 

[Elwood]

and running on pavement

and that was right after running WFO on pavement. I thought that was how I had the slipper adjusted. Maybe I try new stock driveshafts and re-do my slipper adjustment, and cross my fingers. Thanks! I see some reviews of metal upgrades that folks seem to have other issues with.
I'm not trying to build some super monster but I do like to play hard and I'm still learning so there are lots of crashes. I just was trying to use a iPhone camera on my controller and hit some landscape bricks so hard it pulled one of the screws out of my motor, the stripped threads came out with the screw. Got that fixed with rotating the motor 120 degrees and using slightly longer screws.
I guess I'll get fresh stock driveshafts, adjust the slipper, again, and cross my fingers.
Thanks for the feedback!!!

 

[GRC]

Loosening the slipper is the first thing you should try. A tighter slipper gives you snappier throttle response, easier wheelies, faster backflips. A looser slipper will keep all four wheels on the ground so you can actually steer while accelerating hard and can greatly reduce popped driveshafts.

In my opinion, jondilly's slipper adjustment is still way too tight. If I ran that tight, I would pop a driveshaft on just about every jump landing. But everyone runs differently. If the wheel slip method works for you, great. One thing's for sure, you should never go tighter than the wheel slip method. But if you still continue to pop driveshafts, I recommend loosening 1 to 2 full turns looser than the wheel slip method.

If that's still not enough, the CVD upgrades stop popped u-joints completely. Downside is they are expensive, and I think they tend to snap wheel axles more easily. If you don't have a problem with snapping axles already, it probably won't be a problem. But if you jump alot and have snapped or bent wheel axles before, the CVD upgrades will make it worse.

 

[Elwood]

I just took it apart to check. My slipper was barely 1 turn out from tight. I set it to 1 3/4 turns out and will try that. I think that "drag wheels" method leaves too much for (my) misunderstanding.
Oh, it was sure snappy! Hopefully this will give me back a bit of reliability (for a bash and crash driver, getting better). If that is still too aggressive I will back it out again. At least now I have somewhere to measure from. Doing some wheelies is fun, but it was pretty crazy. Thanks!!!

 

[GRC]

You should also be a bit careful that you don't go too loose. Once you start going much more than 2 turns, the slipper can start slip so much it creates tons of friction and heats up. I melted a spur gear when experimenting with slipper settings once. As you go looser, put a finger on the slipper to check the temps. You will definitely feel if it's so loose it's heating up.

 

[Elwood]

I would expect that if it is too loose it would resemble a slipping clutch in a (Ford) truck, I know I don't want that. I also don't want to be rebuilding slipper clutch assemblies after every couple of runs. It sounds like you gave me some guidance that clicks with my way of thinking. Now I do the set it and test thing for a few days, after I get my parts on Monday. I know that I'm right around 1 3/4 turns out from carefully watching the letters on my driver as I turned it. I also ran it tight until it was just good and snug, and used that for the starting point for loosening. Here's hoping!!! Thanks again!

 

[VinnyMac]

+1 for the cvd upgrades in the rear

 

[Elwood]

I'm optimistic! I did a repair to the outer driveshaft that came apart twice. It lasted through a full run on 2s, long wheelies, bumps, jumps, it worked so far!

What I did was that I took the driveshaft and forced the u-joint back into place. Then I put it in boiling hot water and clamped it around the u-joint with long nose pliers, and then put it under cold running water. I can still see that the holes are slightly enlarged, but the driveshaft arms kept it's "memory" of the tightened grip around the u-joint. I also moved the repaired driveshaft to the left rear (from the right rear where it failed).

So far so good. I will try it on 3s soon.

I started thinking about how you would form a thumb pick for playing a guitar and used that method. Even if it lasts for a few runs It's worth the few minutes of time the repair took. I'll tag a post back if it fails, or if it seems to be lasting. I beat it fairly hard today, so there is some hope!!!

This was also after re-adjusting my slipper clutch, it's still real peppy though!

Last time I just forced it together it failed straight away.

 

[Elwood]

Oh well, I got a couple of battery long runs out of my repair. Came apart again on 3s. Now I wait for my new axles.