TC3. Too much power?

[OldSchoolGuy]

So I have been having a lot of fun with my ol' TC3 lately. So much so that I bought a second one for my son to run with me. My car currently has a Novak SS5800 brushless set up, and I'm running a new 6 cell 3300mAh Dynamite NiMh battery. I've got it geared about the maximum recommended load for the car and motor setup. But like always, I'd like to go faster! Looking at the specs for my Super Sport ESC, the 5800Kv brushless motor it's paired with is about maxed out. So I need to get a new ESC to run a stronger/faster motor. I've been looking at the 3.5T Novak motor and one of their later ESC's. However, I just got to thinking maybe going all out to a 3.5T is too much for the ol' TC3? My composite outdrives are already showing significant wear. Upping the power surely won't help them. So I guess I have two questions:

1) Are there any other outdrives compatible with the TC3? I can find TC3 long/short outdrives but they are expensive! And I'd need two sets, one for front, one for rear.
2) Would an all out 3.5T motor be too much for the TC3 to handle? Especially with the original MIP driveshafts and the composite outdrives?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts on the matter.

[OldSchoolGuy]

I stumbled across a brand new set of 3908 outdrives (both front and rear) for a very reasonable price so snagged them! That should buy me some time in the wear department. I'll take a close look at how the CV axle pins are wearing when I rebuild the differentials next time. If they are in good shape, I may try the more powerful/faster motor/ESC combo, but if they are looking the worse for wear, I will most likely just leave the car as is and move onto a new car with plenty of parts available to take the load and abuse of a much hotter motor. I am realizing now with my ol' TC3 back in action that parts availability is becoming a problem and/or expensive to maintain. I should really stop thrashing it so much and be gentler on it. Probably best to get a new car where parts are still readily available to beat on. Oh, that sounded harsh! Makes me look like an idiot who just abuses their equipment! I'm really not, honest!

[JosephS]

I stumbled across a brand new set of 3908 outdrives (both front and rear) for a very reasonable price so snagged them! That should buy me some time in the wear department. I'll take a close look at how the CV axle pins are wearing when I rebuild the differentials next time. If they are in good shape, I may try the more powerful/faster motor/ESC combo, but if they are looking the worse for wear, I will most likely just leave the car as is and move onto a new car with plenty of parts available to take the load and abuse of a much hotter motor. I am realizing now with my ol' TC3 back in action that parts availability is becoming a problem and/or expensive to maintain. I should really stop thrashing it so much and be gentler on it. Probably best to get a new car where parts are still readily available to beat on. Oh, that sounded harsh! Makes me look like an idiot who just abuses their equipment! I'm really not, honest!

I think you've hit a common issue. Especially with cars that were designed to race the parts were built just tough enough at the time to survive racing conditions. If you look at a modern racers pack box they have multiple replacements for just about all parts. I'm going to guess that back in the day it was about the same.

I have full cars just to have parts enough to be sure I'll be able to run as much as I want.

At the same time modern power system between brushless and LiPo provide much more power for a longer time than any of the cars was meant for.


The crazy thing is that the outdrives you are buying for 20$ were likely bought from Associated for 50 cents

It looks like someone had the exact same issue you had on the rc tech forum. They didn't solve their problem but they did find that b44 diffs could be made to work in a tc3.

So that makes t3,tc4 and b44 possible parts subs for your diffs.

there is a steel pair in Australia https://www.rchobbyland.com/team-associated-tc3-tc4-long-short-outdrives-ass39 Prices are in AUD not USD