plastic pinions

[mattb]

Do any of you guys use plastic pinions and how good are they?

[Kevan]

Our club Racer BMW 320i's have plastic pinions and SW pods and have done thousands of laps.

[chrisguyw]

Hi Matt, Plastic pinions are OK(ish) when used with the motors commonly used in the plastic 1/32 cars, but, for the motors I think you normally use, I would stick with brass/steel, and preferably solder on.......there is a reason (actually many) you don't see plastic pinions on any high end slot car !!

A few of the reasons,....... 1/ molded plastic pinions do not have the accuracy/consistency of EDM cut metal pinions, 2/ Their relatively soft plastic bores are much more susceptible to deforming (causing runout) during installation, 3/ On higher torque/rpm motors, they are likely to slip............stick with quality steel pinions !!

Cheers
Chris Walker

PS If you are wanting to try plastic pinions, I would look at the ones from "Sigma",......likely the best of the plastics.

[gsnopoint]

From what I have read, plastic and/or nylon pinions are fine with the lower torque motors, they will last. One would run into an issue with the high torque motors and are not recommended by the manufacturers.

[SuperSlab]

There are plastic pinions and then there are plastic pinions... Thunderslot plastic pinions are great. Old Fly plastic pinions... not so much. Fly pinions are notorious for splitting and making you car sound like the bicycles we had as kids with the card in the spokes.

I believe you should be fine with using quality brand plastic pinions such as Thunderslot or NSR. But... high quality brass pinions are far more readily available in all diameters and tooth counts. Personally, I would struggle to justify the hassle to find suitable plastic pinions. I would rather just use quality brand brass pinions (NSR, Slot.it, Scaleauto etc. etc.) and be done with it.

[Billy boy]

a good pinion tool comes in handy as well

[chrisguyw]

More like "Essential" , especially with plastic pinions !!!

[mattb]

Chris hit all the questions I had. We do run heavy brass 1/24 cars. Lot of motors in the 25-30K range. I hate soldering pinions, but looks like that is still the best way forward. I can get cheap brass/copper 8 tooth pinions for 075 shaft, but they tend to wear pretty bad. I can use 078 brass like the old Cox and they last a long time., but do need soldering.

I maintain all the cars for the 5-7 guys that race on our track. Always a car or two that need work. I am always looking for the quickest and easiest way to do this mandatory work so I can spend my time on the stuff I want to work on.

[Kevan]

You posted the original question in the 1/32 forum so presumably you wanted experience based on that.

[gsnopoint]

Here is another pinion question, what would one use with the plastic/nylon spur or AW gears like what comes standard on a Slot.it?? does one keep metal with metal and plastic with plastic? or does it matter?
As Alwyn pointed out, the Thunderslot pinion/spur gear combo works well together. Would imagine that the NSR plastic pinions would be the same.

For the lower end cars I could see swapping out the plastic pinions.

[slothead]

All my RTR cars (around 150) have plastic pinions except a CG Slotcars Shadow DN4 and a few Slot It cars. A few Fly cars had cracked pinions out of the case which were replaced with Plafit plastic pinions and have worked flawlessly for years. My take is for basically stock home track cars plastic pinions are fine, for higher levels of competition with cars built from acquired parts it makes sense to go with brass pinions. Be sure to match the pitch of the teeth between pinion and crown or spur gear, something I never even considered when swapping plastic pinions.

[Aptosc6]

General engineering rule: use unlike materials when rubbing/contact fits. Think steel axle with bronze bushings.
I have been experimenting with Ergal (aluminium) pinions with plastic spur gears recently. So far so good.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

My contribution: Plastic pinions on RTR cars- temporary, scheduled to be replaced. Plastic aftermarket pinions- no trouble so far.

[chrisguyw]

Chris hit all the questions I had. We do run heavy brass 1/24 cars. Lot of motors in the 25-30K range. I hate soldering pinions, but looks like that is still the best way forward. I can get cheap brass/copper 8 tooth pinions for 075 shaft, but they tend to wear pretty bad. I can use 078 brass like the old Cox and they last a long time., but do need soldering.

Hi Matt, I am sure you are aware that there are several .078 48P press on pinions available (also lots of solder on ones),....that are of much better quality than the vintage Cox stuff.

PCH Slot Parts, has press on pinions from Parma (the least expensive, but still quite good) , JK, and ARP (the best, and, most expensive).

They have solder on 48P pinions from JK, Sonic, and ARP,...........all high quality pinions.

Cheers
Chris Walker

[Fathead59]

The JK and the ARP pinions , are they for drag cars ? I was looking at pinions for those types of builds to see if they would work , was looking for your opttion

[chrisguyw]

Here is another pinion question, what would one use with the plastic/nylon spur or AW gears like what comes standard on a Slot.it?? does one keep metal with metal and plastic with plastic? or does it matter?
As Alwyn pointed out, the Thunderslot pinion/spur gear combo works well together. Would imagine that the NSR plastic pinions would be the same.

For the lower end cars I could see swapping out the plastic pinions.

Hello, .....For 1/32 plastic cars, and the motors they commonly run, there is nothing wrong with plastic pinions, nor is there anything at all wrong with using various combinations of gear materials (plastic/plastic. plastic/metal, metal/metal), no matter what the motor orientation. It is far more important to ensure that a good gear mesh (correct lash) is obtained, than the materials the gears are made from.

The plastic pinions from Thunderslot,NSR.Scaleauto, are all just fine,....and if you want a better plastic pinion, look at the pinions from Sigma.

While there are several advantages to metal pinions (particularly steel) , unless you are competing at the highest level, or enter proxies with numerous rounds, there is little need to swap out a plastic pinion .......assuming that it is in good shape, and of decent quality

Hope this helps
Cheers
Chris Walker

[mattb]

Chris for the Chinese motors aren't .075 press on pinions, correct? I thought press on .078's are for 16D motors. I am not finding press on 8 tooth .075's in stock at most place unless I move up to expensive gears and I try to keep cost low for all the guys. I pretty much have an endless supply of Cox 8 tooth.

[chrisguyw]

Matt, both the Chinese plastic car motors (except for the "slimcan") , and the 16D type motors both have 2mm (.078) shafts, so any .078 pinion listed as a press fit should work............I have used several "press fit" pinions (JK/ARP) on a few plastic car motors with no issues..........that said, there is always a first time, as some of the cheaper made pinions may well vary a tad on their bore diameter.

If you have tons of Cox 8T, and the lads are happy,.............keep on truckin !!

[Rastas]

When I brought my first Plafit chassis I was surprised to see a plastic pinion on the 1/24 steel chassis . sceptical of the longevity I brought some brass ones so I'd have them on hand for when the plastic pinions failed , I have brought quite a few Plafit in both 1/24 and 1/32 and still haven't had to use the brass ones . Grant it I'm not competition racing, and I haven't heard anything from people who are racing them they seem to be more reliable than year's ago.