Summit for Christmas - couple of issues, need help

[jgerding]

Hi Guys,

I'm new here and saw the Summit at a local store; had to have it... remote locking diffs! Reasonable speed and crawling capabilities, seemed a great truck for my first foray into RCing - I love vehicles in general, a bit of a gear-head.

Anyway, I have two problems that I kindly need advise for:

1) The transmitter won't shift the trans into 2nd gear. I can move it manually, and it will shift it back to first if I flip the switch on the transmitter, but it will not shift it into second remotely. Any ideas on how I can troubleshoot this? This issue was present straight out of the box.

So I ran my first batteries in first gear taking it easy on the truck (after a short water break in as per various advice around the web.... only to see that Traxxas doesn't recommend a water break in? oh well, I digress) and my second set of batteries with the truck in second gear, but still took it easy)

2) On my third excursion, I was ready to let it rip and we have packed snow on the ground here so I let it rip around here for a bit. Now the left front tire doesn't want to spin (locked) and I think what happened is that I was retarded and either locked or unlocked the diff while the truck was moving. I know better than that (since it's obvious to anyone with some mechanical knowledge - really mad at myself) but I'd had a few glasses of wine and must've "forgot". I think this because when the wheel "locks" when I gently try to turn it, I can see it slightly move the linkage that goes to it's locking servo. Any other ideas are welcome, but can one just buy the front (which is presumably the same as the rear) differential as a complete package? I did not see it for order on the Traxxas website. I don't /really/ want to take the differential apart if I could just buy another.

Thanks for any insight into these two problems... Not having the best start over here, and a bit sad that an expensive truck had a problem right out of the box with not shifting to 2nd. I thought of reversing the servo per the chart in the manual but I don't really want to hit that Menu/Set sequence every time I want to shift lol.

Cheers

[TMaxxcrazy33]

on my summit i have to drive forward a little to get it to drop 2nd gear.


as for the diff. you can buy a complete differential on ebay. its not that hard riping into it. its pretty easy

[Sectsy Stampede]

1. I'd check both the servo and it's connection to the receiver. Do you hear the servo move when flipping the transmission switch on the transmitter?

2. Sounds like you're gonna need to open up and check your differential, 9/10 2nd gear and a locked diff with shear one or both of the output shafts but you can't really know for sure until you check things out.

Hope i helped and welcome to the the summit forum

[jgerding]

Thanks for the replies guys.

As for 2nd gear: I can see that the servo moves back to first gear if I flip the switch to first. When I flip it back to second it makes no attempt to move to second gear position, so I have to do it manually. Switching down to first always works fine, but the servo makes no attempt to switch the trans to second. So I'm not really sure with how to continue troubleshooting that.

As for the diff - yes I suppose I will have to open it up. I will have to order the correct oil and whatnot I suppose? I figured I'd be OK experimenting with locked diffs on snow... It turned a lot better, the opposite of what you would get on concrete. Anyway, lesson learned (a stupid one at that). How long does it take a guy to get the diff off the truck?

Thanks again

[Gizmo1988]

I wouldn't mess with the differential yet. I would either call Traxxas or take the truck back to the hobby store and tell them about the servo not shifting into second. If the servo is only moving one way I would almost say that's a receiver transmitter problem. Also Traxxas might work with you on differential. They have sent me a new motor one time.

[jgerding]

Maybe I will call them tomorrow... I was looking for a way to email their support but I don't see one. The store I bought it from is a big box store (Best Buy) and I'm not sure what kind of service they would be able to provide me compared to a dedicated shop.

[Gizmo1988]

Oh dang I didn't realize bestbuy sold them. None of our bestbuys sells any rc cars lol. Yeah I would just give them a call than.

[joethejammer]

Hopefully you will get everything sorted out. The Summit has been a very great and reliable truck to me. Just note that you should only shift gears at a dead stop and then slowly apply throttle, or when you are coasting very slowly. As for locking the diffs, you can lock them while the truck is stopped, or even when moving slowly, just not when each wheel is spinning at a different speed (for example when going around a turn or the differential is "diffing" out). It helps to open up the transmission and differentials just to figure out how everything works and understand what you can and cannot do.

[Crock]

Have you tried removing the servo horn on the shift servo and see if it works? It may be binding on the wires that are in that area or the rear shift rod. The shift rod should be on the outside of the rear diff lock rod. I doubt traxxas will do anything about the diff. The bearing failed on mine within the first few runs and they told me it was user abuse.

[mbonesiii]

That's a bummer man. My summit went down Christmas Day, the esc burnt up. So I just put in a mamba monster 2 combo.

[OlorinTharkun]

It still might not hurt to take it back to retailer and explain the shifting problem and ask for an exchange.