6 gear trans limit

[wiremonkey73]

Whats the hottest motor a 6 gear trans will handle without blowin idler gears? Im runnin the black delrins not the nylon peices of #%^*&%^

[knucklebuster]

The six gear and I have a love/hate relationship. I love to rebuild them correctly and they hate me for it, fighting all the way. I built and rebuilt many 6 gears and can proudly say mine are almost as smooth as a stealth.

The three extra gears obviously add resistance. I found running bearings in the outdrives actually tightens it up too much. I regularly run a 14x2 trinity with 4200 nimh batteries and have no problems. The motor dynos at 45k.

I think the six gear sounds cool running... reminds me of a tiny lawnmower compared to the stealth. If you didn't know any better you would think it was ready to tear apart.

[Ruffy]

I have run a 10 double in it back in the day with no problems. It's mainly about terrain, the grippier the terrain, like grass, the more you should allow the diff to slip OR accelerate very smoothly.
Not too long ago, I ran a 13.5 brushless motor in one of my original 6 gear trannsmissions from the 80's at an indoor track here and she held up just fine so I don't see any reason you couldn't go with that or even quicker. Again I think this limitation is mainly on the driver's end. If you like to just punch throttle and expect miracles, then go with a very mild motor, if you are smooth and will only use full throttle smoothly, then you shouldn't have a problem running an 8.5 brushless in it.

[Chris K]

The six gear and I have a love/hate relationship. I love to rebuild them correctly and they hate me for it, fighting all the way. I built and rebuilt many 6 gears and can proudly say mine are almost as smooth as a stealth.

I too had this very same love/hate relationship with the 6 gear - and you could very possibly have just shared the secret with me that could contribute to smooth, fast and LONG LASTING. In my case, i could build them smooth & fast or I could make them last - but seldom in the same transmission! AND, I can truthfully say that I never tried using bushings OR fiddling too much with the lower/outdrive gears. So I appreciate that tip, might cause me to dig a few out and mess with them a bit!

In my son & my case, we used to regularly run 17 & 15 turn motors with 7 cells on hooked up tracks; on NOT so hooked up tracks it was generally a stock motor and 7 cells. Although I remember one time when Darrel at Quarter Flash wound us a SWEET 25 turn modified - smooth, fast and lasted pretty much forever even on 7 cells!