Short version: I have acquired an Outrage ST with a busted diff gear and am restoring it to functioning condition
Longer version: when my brother was in college he bought an RC boat at a garage sale, took out the radio and servos, and had me sell the remainder (hull and motor) on eBay. He got more for that than he had paid for the whole thing and bought an Outrage ST (no body, radio, or servos) from eBay. He put the radio and servos from the boat into it and had a grand time. Later it was upgraded with a Futaba ESC, and some time after that it stopped working. "Something wrong with the transmission" he said, and gave me the truck. By that point I was in college and didn't have any money to put into it (I was too busy spending my money on skateboards, but that's another story) and eventually forgot that he had given me the truck.
Fast forward about a decade to now; I have a four year old who loves it when I get out my old toy-grade RC stuff (Nikko Road Shredder, Land Shark, Aero Thunderbolt, Tyco Fast Traxx, Radio Shack Bedlam (yeah I loved anything with tank treads)) and I decided it may be fun to get something hobby-grade. Problem is, I still don't have much money (the four-year-old has two younger siblings) so I told my brother to keep an eye on craigslist for me (he loves craigslist).
He texts back the next day with, "you've got that one up in storage that you haven't done anything with..." and I realized I had forgotten all about his giving me the old Kyosho. I drove up to where it was and stopped at a local hobby shop on the way home to see if they could tell me anything about it. It mostly drew low whistles and "I haven't seen one of these in years... good luck!" but they were gracious enough to figure out what model it was and give me some pointers on what to look for.
Armed only with "there's something wrong with the transmission" I decided to tear it apart and see what was wrong. Spoiler alert: one of the side gears in the diff had been shredded into four pieces.
Since making that video I ordered a set of Optima diff gears for the re-release of that vehicle because I had read that the Outrage used the same gearbox as the old Optima. Long story slightly longer, they don't quite work but I sure got close. I have now ordered the correct gears and am waiting on USPS to mosey to my house with them. In the meantime I've completely disassembled the truck and cleaned nearly every part of it (time-lapse video forthcoming) and it's starting to look decent. Now if only USPS would show up...
thankfully the same eBay seller that had the correct diff gears also has the correct wheel shafts along with beefed up (hardened steel) outdrives.
