RC10Talk - The Net's Largest Vintage R/C Community

I was sent these in a bag by a friend of Don Ison of NODIS. The Optima belt conversion parts from my other thread were also included, but these items pictured are a bit of a mystery to me at the moment. Does anybody have any suggestions as to what they might be off?

The smooth diff barrel in the background looks a lot like the Schumacher CAT rear drum NODIS produced, albeing without the external teeth... and the narrower front one is similar but is too narrow for the CAT rear and too wide for the front. I was wondering whether that one might be what was used as the front diff on the NODIS 4wd RC10? The thin one with the groove down the middle - i have absolutely no idea. There appears to be a Yoke spur gear adapter there, plus a couple of other well-worn gears.

Any ideas?

In the 2nd pic, that black gear on the shaft looks like it should be for an Optima/Ultima.

Does the thin split gear have the same number of teeth on both sides? Also does the teeth count match the diff gear in your Nodis RC10 trans?

That gear might be the diff gear for the shaft drive 4wd RC10 conversion mentioned in this ad . One side of the gear might mate to the contrate/crown gear that drives the shaft to another diff in the front of the car.

Blimey - great thought process there. I will have to compare the sizes, athough the gear pitch is obviously different. Sounds good though. I must admit I hadn't really taken that part of the advert in fully until you just made me re-read it again.

The guy who sent me the bits and bobs also mentioned that Don had tested smooth belts which could be cut and re-joined making them any length, running over smooth barrels so i am kind of assuming that is what the smooth wide diff drum might be?

The split gear might also be grooved out for a v-belt.

Edit: Does the smooth pulley have a curved surface? Flat belt pulleys tend to have one to keep the belt from sliding off.

Hey Dingle,

The Drum diff with the o rings on it looks like it could be for the topcat/ cougar. I’m not at home with a diff gear to measure for you but they run a 8 mm wide belt.

Retro rc wrote: ↑Sun Jan 09, 2022 3:25 pm Hey Dingle,

The Drum diff with the o rings on it looks like it could be for the topcat/ cougar. I’m not at home with a diff gear to measure for you but they run a 8 mm wide belt.

Hi mate - I have zero experience with the Schumie 2wd cars, but having seen the NODIS CAT rear diff drum it does look just like a wider version of this so you might well be correct.

No worries the original topcat cougar diff drum was also the centre section of the procat rear diff.

On the procat they had the short belt pulleys screw either side and on the cougar topcat they had a fence side plate that screws on either side.

If you have a procat diff in your stash of bit you could possible check it against that…. Or you could just send it to me and I’ll check it next to one of my diffs

Well it looks like you guys were correct. After a little research I have uncovered a NODIS advert from the June 1990 edition of Radio Race Car which confirms that they did actually produce an alloy diff for the TopCAT. Another one of the bundle correctly ID'd