Kraton What have you done to your Kraton today?

[crman1964]

Looks like she got hot and melted for some reason. I would suspect you have something not wanting to turn very easily, causing the center diff to work harder to push the truck which caused it to get hot and melt. I would check all your bearings and front and rear diff.

 

[cordell12]

On the other side I found more damage to it. Already ordered a replacement from lumidave35 on eBay. Trying to figure out how to remove it without loosening the motor mount. The motor mount screws are extremely tight and will require heating.

 

[nulli]

On the other side I found more damage to it. Already ordered a replacement from lumidave35 on eBay. Trying to figure out how to remove it without loosening the motor mount. The motor mount screws are extremely tight and will require heating.

Did you have what sort of oil in there? Those screws can be VERY tight so I'd strongly recommend some flame (pen torch) on them.

 

[cordell12]

Got it! Everything moves freely, front/rear drivetrain, just this center diff. I found the metal piece up under everything in the grease. Also the found the missing plastic piece lol.

 

[cordell12]

Did you have what sort of oil in there? Those screws can be VERY tight so I'd strongly recommend some flame (pen torch) on them.

I am not exactly sure, to me it looked like thick grease. I had bought the Kraton used, it is a V1 that was basically on a shelf and never ran. The guy put a bearing kit, stainless screws, savox servo, castle mamba X and 1515 set up. Runs like a beast when it is working, scared to run 6s through!

edit...by thick grease I mean dirty grimey grease

 

[Mongoose]

I ran it today...gotta good run in too. 45 minutes and was running all out 75-80% of the time.

 

[Jerry-rigged]

Took my Kraton to the local high school, ran it up and down the hill out back, and across the soccer fields. Made my way towards the baseball area and had a flip. Once upright I tried to go forward and was motionless. Kraton would not move at all. Upon closer inspection I found grease everywhere, then for the center diff had flown apart! How does this even happen?

Lots of wheelies? If the front end is ballooning, then the center diff is spinning like mad pushing power to the front. Thinker oil will slow that down, and keep the diff from blowing.

 

[cordell12]

Lots of wheelies? If the front end is ballooning, then the center diff is spinning like mad pushing power to the front. Thinker oil will slow that down, and keep the diff from blowing.

Yes and No, while on the parking lot I got a few good wheelies but in the grass not so much. What @crman1964 had said makes sense. I had installed some eBay mud flaps, then put some aftermarket tires/rims on. Well the mud flaps had rubbed against the rim and worn down a bit. I figured good deal, it will keep the inside of the rim clean. I was just looking over the rear diff and gave that input gear a twist and it has quite a bit of resistance. Think the center diff just got too hot and blew apart. I took the spur gear off and the bottom set of gears have shifted, there is no way to remove them now (without busting the housing up). New center diff has been shipped already, and now will take the mud flaps and trim them just a bit.

For ballooning I have wrapped 80lb braided fishing line around the tires. Works great!

 

[Lee Boyce]

I've done this

 

[RCROD]

So last week, I got a set of Louise Pioneer tires from the Hobbyking sale. They are silly huge, bigger than I expected. But decided to try them anyways. Sunday, my son and I get to run it, and it is just silly - bump the throttle, and it wheelies or flips over on it's back, (won't do a full backflip on 4s) and if you feather the throttle to get it up to speed,, massive ballooning at 3/4 throttle... But 15 minutes in, the front diff give up. No power to the wheels, I suspect a sheared pin.

So yesterday, my son tears into it (his truck, he works on it). We get the diff open, and the sheared pin is painted white. WTF? Then I remembered - about a year ago, we lost a pin while rebuilding the diff, so I clipped a piece of coat hanger to get us running again. The truck has been running a year on a piece of coathanger.... LOL

New proper pin now installed, ready to bash again.

Wow, amazing. Was this on 6S or 4S? Was it a "hardened steel" coat hanger LOL?

 

[RCROD]

Yes and No, while on the parking lot I got a few good wheelies but in the grass not so much. What @crman1964 had said makes sense. I had installed some eBay mud flaps, then put some aftermarket tires/rims on. Well the mud flaps had rubbed against the rim and worn down a bit. I figured good deal, it will keep the inside of the rim clean. I was just looking over the rear diff and gave that input gear a twist and it has quite a bit of resistance. Think the center diff just got too hot and blew apart. I took the spur gear off and the bottom set of gears have shifted, there is no way to remove them now (without busting the housing up). New center diff has been shipped already, and now will take the mud flaps and trim them just a bit.

For ballooning I have wrapped 80lb braided fishing line around the tires. Works great!

Cordell, sorry to hear your problems. I'm sure the rear mud guards could not have rubbed that badly? They would have to rub extremely hard to hurt the diff, + composite guards/wheels would wear much more quickly & loosen up before the steel gear diff failed? Did you spin your rear tires in the air after installing the rear mud guards to make sure the tires at least turned somewhat freely? Are your aftermarket wheels a lot bigger & heavier, as this maybe part of the reason for your diff failure? Since you bought your older V1 Kraton used, maybe diff was dry from sitting long time, or diff needed to be shimmed, or possibly it may have been overshimmed (too tight)? Also check all bearings (diff, drivetrain, hubs). Interesting to hear how many shims were in your center diff?

 

[Jerry-rigged]

Wow, amazing. Was this on 6S or 4S? Was it a "hardened steel" coat hanger LOL?

4s. And the coat hanger was a bit harder than a damp noodle... lol

 

[cordell12]

Cordell, sorry to hear your problems. I'm sure the rear mud guards could not have rubbed that badly? They would have to rub extremely hard to hurt the diff, + composite guards/wheels would wear much more quickly & loosen up before the steel gear diff failed? Did you spin your rear tires in the air after installing the rear mud guards to make sure the tires at least turned somewhat freely? Are your aftermarket wheels a lot bigger & heavier, as this maybe part of the reason for your diff failure? Since you bought your older V1 Kraton used, maybe diff was dry from sitting long time, or diff needed to be shimmed, or possibly it may have been overshimmed (too tight)? Interesting to hear how many shims were in you center diff to possibly see what happened?

I had to cut about 1/8 inch off the flaps where they are inside the wheel well. This is after the wheel had already rubbed them down a bit. It had resistance, but after seeing that the flaps had already worn down I figured it would just wear them down some more. The aftermarket tires are slightly bigger, but are much lighter in weight, there is a whole thread about them around here somewhere, it's them $30 shipped tires/wheels. I think you are right about the center diff being somewhat dried up, there was no fluid, it had turned to a thick black grease, peanut butter like thick. Between the resistance, and the lack of fresh fluid, my diff melted and flew apart lol. Lesson learned!

 

[Pjs0123]

I've done this

Nice I’ve got the thrasher front bumper on mine and the same wheely bumper in back. Just watch out when you do wheelies... I’ve lost one of the rubber tires off the wheely bar already. The tires aren’t glued on. I suggest taking some tire glue and glue them on.

 

[RCROD]

I had to cut about 1/8 inch off the flaps where they are inside the wheel well. This is after the wheel had already rubbed them down a bit. It had resistance, but after seeing that the flaps had already worn down I figured it would just wear them down some more. The aftermarket tires are slightly bigger, but are much lighter in weight, there is a whole thread about them around here somewhere, it's them $30 shipped tires/wheels. I think you are right about the center diff being somewhat dried up, there was no fluid, it had turned to a thick black grease, peanut butter like thick. Between the resistance, and the lack of fresh fluid, my diff melted and flew apart lol. Lesson learned!

Damn, sometimes we're forced to learn the hard way. My ebay mud guards (clear) just came in the mail today for my Talion. Thanks Cordell.

 

[Iamtheoutcast]

Proline masher 3.8s , tb racing front bumper, traxxas summit body and a savox sw1210sg

 

[joostin420]

Got it! Everything moves freely, front/rear drivetrain, just this center diff. I found the metal piece up under everything in the grease. Also the found the missing plastic piece lol.

View attachment 16866

Is it just me or am I just seeing more and more grenaded diffs?

 

[Iamtheoutcast]

killed mine i picked the internals for the center diff up from all over the inside of my rig covered in 200k fun fun.

 

[Mongoose]

Did you do that with the Mashers on it?

 

[Iamtheoutcast]

I had the trencher 3.8s on when it happened but it wasn't the tires that caused it because I run 3.8s on alot of my rigs. But I was on 6s when it happened hard into the throttle then kaboom out of nowhere. But I've changed out the diff and havnt had any other issues. But I bought the masher to go with the summit body think they will look good on it.