RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Hi all, I am currently learning to fault test gearboxs and other electrical parts.

What is the best way to test a gearbox. I have them out of the tank with just the motor attached. Can I power them using a regular AA 1.5v battery?

What is best?

I have a multimeter so Im trying to work out all the electrical systems and how they are powered.


Thanks! I have tried the search feature to find running in or testing gearboxs but it seems there are loadssssssssss of posts!

Ok I have worked out how to test and bed in a gearbox. Just run it off the main 7.5 volt battery whilst on a flat wood board. I cut each wire. Then you can run the motor forward or back if required in order to run in the motor.

Answered my own question!

One thing about running in the gearboxes if they are brass or metal set. Many use cam grinding compound to smooth the mating of the gears. This produces a smooth running gearbox and does allow the units to move more freely, quieter and since they are smoother the gearboxes require less power to achieve the same torque or speed.

Saxondog

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I have low ratio boxes in my Tiger and a PIII hull, the Tiger weighs almost 14lbs and will coast to a halt using the Elmod kit. I ran the gearboxes in using valve grinding paste, and they run very smoothly, there is also little or no resistance. I can almost spin the tracks by hand. I had a pinion come loose on one side and I didn't even notice because one motor was enough to drive both tracks.

It really does pay to run the gearboxes in, it staves off wear in the long run because all the teeth engage cleanly, and everything rotates freely. Noise is massively reduced too. Just a few dabs of valve compound, run the motors backwards and forwards a few times until they are nice a smooth, then remove the compound using WD40 or similar. Then grease the boxes.

Rob G

Thanks guys, I have run the gearboxes in by hand using a silicone heavy duty grease. That seemed to work ok. They are turning fine. However, I am having some control problems.

I can only get the gearbox to work when the middle slider on the handset is set fully forward or fully in reverse. If I put the slider in the middle not much happens when I try to go forward or back.

Also,the same can be said of the right side slider, It needs to be fully left in order to work.

If i put it in the middle nothing happens when I try to engage drive. And I also get an electric whine sound. But no movement from the tank.

I wanted to try and post a video but Im not really sure how to do it on here?

Any ideas?

Mark

Hi When you have the tank fully assembled,you should be able to turn the tracks(grab hold of the sprocket and try to turn it should ),if you cant ,check the tracks to make sure they are not fouled/jammed.The tank should start to move as soon as the right stick is pushed either up or down,if you have a whine when it is stopped the trim needs to adjusted till it stops.Check the battery is fully charged to make sure this is not the problem(do you have a good charger or are you using the heng long one)Sometimes the heng long charger does not put a full charge in the battery.

regards pete

hey pete, thanks for your reply. Ok, when you say adjust the trim what exactly do you mean?

Is that a setting on the handset? Or on the tank! Sorry, Im guessing I should know.

oh yes, I have a multimeter and have checked the batteries, I have a couple, they are all fine and fully charged.

Hi The trims are the little sliders on the controler,normaly set in the middle (but sometimes they need to moved to make the tank run in a streight line).If you have a whine when the tank isnt moving use the trim switch to stop it ,if its whining when not moving its using power will reduce the run time.

regards pete

Thanks Pete. I have the slider set up like so, the middle slider is set to the top as high as it will go and the slider on the right hand side is set to the far left. This works fine with no whine at all. However, the tank seems very fast. It is running standard HL metal gearboxes, I had assumed that the sliders controlled the speed of the tank as well? Maybe this is wrong! In order to slow the tank down, Im guessing that I would need an alternative gearbox?

Also, the tracks keep coming off via the rear idlers. I am currently considering getting the asiatam hull to address this as it seems like a cheaper way to get a better hull with tensioners included.

Thanks for the help

Mark