RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Hi all. Has anyone else used the Taigen black steel gearboxes? I bought some to use in a scratchbuild, then decided I'd see if they'd fit in my Bulldog (they're sold as being for a Taigen Jagdpanther). The motor positioning is different to standard, but I removed the smoker and then the G/boxes fit fine.

On the plus side they're so much quieter than the gearboxes I took out. Unfortunately that's the only good thing I can say. The 2 issues I've got are:
1. the tank will no longer steer straight, no matter how I set the trim tab on the TX, it always pulls to the left, taking the top off and watching, the left hand motor doesn't start moving at the same time as the right hand.

2. When using the tank at slow speed it is so juddery I was worried the turret or gun barrel was going to work loose!

3. It's ridiculously fast, looks like some fool has fitted it with Nos!

I'm not sure what to do at the moment, contact the supplier assuming its a problem with the units, or try swapping the motors out and seeing if that helps, or put the old metal gearboxes back in, grease them up to try and quieten them down a bit, and use these Taigen boxes in the scratchbuild, and hope I can set the ESC's to eliminate the slow reaction of the 1 motor.

Good afternoon,
I run the Black Steel gearboxes, (the high end set ) in several of my tanks and they have always been a seriously good upgrade. The 'Palace' just had a set put in last week and what a tremendous improvement it was over the zinc set from previous years. You may have a dodgy set so I would contact the seller. The mention you made of not being able to trim might mean that a bearing is sticking or a motor has a problem.
regards,
Painless

Should be fairly easy to troubleshoot. Physically swap the motors and see if problem follows the suspect motor.

Barry

If your gears are juddery perhaps fitting output shaft bearings would help to cure the problem,
Have you checked that the gearbox is secure to the mounting plate?
It is generally only held in place by three screws so that could be worth checking.
I prefer Taigen Black Steel Gearboxes and apart from a regular spray of a thin silicone based lubricant I have done nothing to keep them going.
They just work

My bet would also be that one of the motors is broken, or the collector twisted a bit. It happens in machine-winding cheap motors. It’s hard to get two motors to run exàctly the same forward and backwards.

Take the gearboxes out, remove the motors and check by hand if the gears run free on both, before You start changing motors. You can even re-fit the original Heng Long motors in the Taigen gear boxes, just to be sure. Teethcount and pitch of the pinions are the same.

Then check the motors if they run the same fwd and bckwrd

Note: Be careful with the little screws that keep the motors and the adapter plate on. They’re made of butter, and strip vèry easy when torked too hard. Better even: replace them when You’re at it. I believe they are 2.8mm x 6mm.

Thanks for the replies, I've got the kids for the day while my wife is off on some training, so might not get a chance today, but I'll keep you all updated on the outcome.