Central bearings weakness ?

[Facelvega]

Hi there,

I faced some troubles with the 2 central bearings with my B-MAX. I broke them very soon.
I switched from the steel factory bearings to ceramic bearings and I add the cool Aluminum Main Gear Cover from Yokomo.

I do not feel confident with the new bearings as my partner who is using the same car with the same set up broke his ceramic bearings again.

Did you face the same problem and how did you solve it ?

Thanks for your help.

[bluebeetle]

When I assembled my bmax, I found that the center gear cover (BM-302C) was putting too much pressure on the bearings if screwed tight. I took some material off it with my dremel, until the center gear spinned freely even when the screws were tightened.

A friend reported same kind of problems, but after the same treatment the bearings have been fine. He measured the broken ones, and they were elliptical by over 0,5mm.

[ttso]

Do you remove material on BM-003 only? or both BM-003 and BM-302C like this blog said?

http://www.sosidge.com/2008/12/13/ra...-modification/

[sosidge]

I'm glad to read this thread (albeit sorry to hear that you have blown your bearings) - it justifies the mod I made to my car which I documented in my blog.

You don't need to modify the lower half of the centre bearing holder - the bearing sits in that fine - but you do need to open out the edges of the top deck and also the top cover. Just remove the material gradually until the bearings drop in without resistance, and spin freely.

Interesting to hear that the aluminium top cover doesn't solve the issue - I had sort of assumed it might. The good thing about the aluminum top cover is that it shouldn't deform when tightened down, which is a drawback of the plastic one.

I do hope Yokomo address the moulding of the transmission housings because to my mind it is the only weakness in an otherwise solid car.

[gazhillAE]

Glad I'm not the only one who's had issues with this

Last Sunday my whole slipper housing melted. The spur was a burnt melted mess and the two bearings had disintergrated.

I've had to buy new top deck, spur, central housings and bearings to sort the problem.

What a state and all because the instructions are crap and don't explain what to actually do to make slack enough

Mine feels reasonably free now with pinion disconnected now and all housings attached with the top plate a little looser.

Is this going to be ok or am I going to have more problems

[gazhillAE]

Had a crack at this last night.

When you say that it spins in the housing I doesn't spin any where near as well as the b44 slipper but it spins a couple of turns.

Anyway, didn't touch the bottom housing, spun a few times in there, took quite a bit off the vertical bits of the top deck and it spins in there the same as just in the bottom Housing now.

The top housing no matter how much I take off it doesn't appear to change that much. I don't want to go over the top with it.

I have cut the top bubble part out of the top housing as per the b44 miles better to work with now.

I've backed the 4 screws off a good 1 turn or so and it's free but doesn't spin.

I definetly agree that the plastic housings on these are crap! Never had to do this with anything other than a predator in 1890 lmao!!!