Steel or Plastic mid gear in my TOMS build?

[LoCoCNC]

Steel or Plastic?
Using the standard ball diff
Not ReRe

gears.JPG (29.99 KiB) Viewed 503 times

gears.JPG (29.99 KiB) Viewed 503 times

[radioactivity]

Guess it depends if you will run it and if so on what type of surface.
The steel gear will hardly wear but may take more of a toll on the diff gear.
The plastic center gear that came in my TOMSE was all chewed up.
A steel gear will possibly be noisier than the plastic. XLR8 has a steel gear in a mid and told that it's quiet.
I have tried both the Robinson and the Pargu center gears. Both of these gears are aluminum 32p. The other gears in the diff are .8mod. The pargu and Robinson also seem like they have a lot of extra play.
Is your steel gear the same diameter as the plastic? If so the steel gear would probably be a good alternative.
Also very curious as to the outside diameter of your center gear...

Chuck

[Frankentruck]

In my first gen Turbo Optima, the OEM aluminum final pinion gear would wear heavily, and then the worn gear would only make contact with the tips of the gear teeth on the diff gear. This would then ruin the diff gear. A Thorp hardened steel final pinion solved the wear problem. Plastic with plastic and steel with plastic both seem to work well. I avoid aluminum gears whenever I can. Similar poor experiences with aluminum motorcycle sprockets accelerating wear on motorcycle drive chain.

[juicedcoupe]

I avoid aluminum gears whenever I can.

Cast aluminum gears suck. Tamiya might be the worst I've ever seen.

Hardened aluminum (Trinity, etc) are a different story. When paired with a quality spur, they hold up nicely.

[Coelacanth]

I avoid aluminum gears whenever I can.

Cast aluminum gears suck. Tamiya might be the worst I've ever seen.

Hardened aluminum (Trinity, etc) are a different story. When paired with a quality spur, they hold up nicely.

I agree. If I remember correctly, wasn't the Kyosho Option House Optima hard final pinion gear hard-anodized aluminum? I believe it was, as I have that one as well as the Thorp aftermarket gear, and the Thorp one is steel and noticeably heavier than the Kyosho hard final pinion.