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so whats your secret? am i the only one who finds this a pia?

Are you talking about motor pinion to spur gear mesh? If that's the case, I've read so many varying tips but they all end up being so subjective. "Insert a piece of header card"; "insert a piece of plastic"; "insert a piece of paper" between the gears. But there's so much variation! How THICK a piece of paper? Regular writing paper, newspaper, printer paper? One half of a header card or both? Plastic what--plastic bag, a single layer of Ziploc bag, or the plastic from a header card package??

I remember reading somewhere to mesh the gears as tight as they'll go, then back them off "a smidge", until you no longer feel them binding against each other and they're as close as possible but rotate smoothly together. It's more of a "feel" thing than using some arbitrary sheet of material between the gears that's totally subjective in description.

On an Avante it isn't quite as easy remove the cover to see where your at, don't guess or go by feel

Me ignorant. No know Tamiya Avonty. Should keep yap shut!

Well, the motor pinion/spur mesh tip is still valid.

Yes your points are correct. I go by feel but how do you describe feel without showing, it's not easy! The paper trick works great but harder to do on a car like this one.

For all of my chassis, I go by eye and feel. I do this, because the paper trick doesn't always work the best (you can mash the gears together with paper between them and have a mesh that's too tight).

General rule of thumb here is to progressively mesh the pinion and spur closer together, each time rotating the spur by hand to "feel" the resistance (or you can do the other way around, starting tight and then going looser). You'll eventually reach a point where the mesh is too tight and you feel a significant increase in resistance. That's where you back off a bit. With the right mesh, you will feel a low resistance as you rotate the spur, but the pinion and spur are still meshed closely together with a small gap between them. Look closely at what happens when you rotate the spur by hand, how the pinion tooth moves into the spur gear and then out, and how it pushes against the tooth on the spur gear. If there is not enough mesh, then only the tip of the pinion tooth is pushing the tooth on the spur gear. With the correct mesh, you should see both the tip and the sidewall of the pinion tooth moving/rubbing against the tooth on the spur gear, while, again, at the same time seeing a small gap between the peak of the tooth and the groove that it sets into.

This is a bit harder on the Avante as you state, because of the viewing angle, but it's not that bad. So this is where it helps to have some sense of what it should "look" like when you have experience doing it by eye and feel on other chassis.

yea, I should of been a tad clearer. I know how to set gear mesh (i hope so, been doing this for ever) but with the Avante so many things come into play that make it a pain in the butt.The angle and the fact the spur isnt 100% secure when the top cover is off.

I wish Tamiya thought this area out a little better.

It's the Avante, a collection of unproven ideas and questionable materials in a hard to work on and underperforming package.

It's undeniably a Tamiya and that's a blessing and a curse.

I agree, it´s a stupid design for meshing the gears.
Tamiya gear alignment policy states : If You can turn the wheels by hand (not just the tires) it´s perfect.
If it´s stuck, apply 7,2 volts to the motor - If You still can´t turn the wheels... Buy a bigger motor