One
time or another every racer has blown the gears
out of their servos. In many cases racers just
go out and buy a new servo to stick in their car
or truck. Why waste all that money when it is
so easy to replace the gears?
If
you have an old servo lying around that needs
to be fixed, just head on down to your local hobby
shop and have them order a gear set for you and
the next time you crunch the gears you'll have
one ready to replace it with.
Here is what you need to do to replace those gears.
Each servo is a little different but you can follow
the same general instructions given here. Just
unscrew the 4 screws holding the case together.
Some are located on top of the case, some on the
bottom.
You may first want to apply a little tape to the
bottom part of the servo to hold on the bottom
of the case when you take it apart. If the bottom
falls off while replacing the gears, it can be
a real pain to get everything back into place
properly.
Carefully
remove the top of the servo taking note of how
the gears meshed.
Note that the main gear also has a tab on it.
This tab fits into a slot on the case and it is
very important when reassembling that this tab
fit into the slot on the case.
After you take note of how all the gears mesh,
remove the gears from the servo and remove any
bearings from the gears that you may have.
If
possible try to replace the stock plastic gears
with metal ones. Metal gears are not only stronger,
but also give the servo more torque because of
the gear design.
In
most cases you will be replacing your gears with
the exact same gears that it was originally equipped
with. Most metal gears cost about twenty dollars
and a whole new servo is anywhere from sixty to
a hundred and thirty dollars, quite a savings.
If you aren’t sure if there is a metal gear
upgrade for your servo contact the manufacturer’s
customer service department.
You
will want to take what grease you can from the
old gears and spread them on the new gears. You
can also take a small dab of white lithium grease
to add to it, but do not put on too much as it
will only gum up the works.
Note
the small tab on the main gear. You must make
sure this tab is in the proper position so it
engages the slot in that case. Different servo
types may have this tab located in other places,
but all servos have this tab in one form or another
to limit the servo's travel. If the tab is not
positioned in the correct place you servo will
not work properly.