Team Associated TC6.1 Build – Step 2 – Differentials

The Build – Part 2
Next on the TC6.1 build is the differentials. The TC6.1 comes with a front spool (very little build time) and a rear gear differential. The rear gear diff is quite unusual for a touring car but is starting to become more and more popular because of it’s extreme durability and requires very little maintenance. It is a pain, however, to adjust as it requires you to remove it completely from the car, dump all the old fluid and pour in new fluid.

Build Notes:
As with the shocks, you’ll be dealing with some diff fluids that can be messy. Gather up some freshy rags to help keep that mess to a minimum.

You’ll also be required to glue the spool gear together using CA. Be careful and try and keep it only on the side of the gear teeth, not on the face. Some CompetitionX Gloo Toobs will definitely help out in this area of the build!

Start by laying out the parts for the front spool.

You’ll need to glue the flat gear ring onto the spool gear. EASY glue application is required here so you don’t drip the glue onto the face of the gears. I recommend using some of my CompetitionX Gloo Toobs. They make life a WHOLE lot easier. NOTE: You’ll notice the flat gear ring will have a completely flat side and a slightly curved side. The completely flat side will face AWAY from the gear. Set it aside for about 10 minutes to make sure it glues completely before moving to the next step.

Take your freshly glued gear and slide it over the spool. The long side of the spool should feed through the opening in the gear. Attach the 4 2x4mm screws into place. A dab of loctite here is recommended.

Time to piece together the 4 bearing cams. The best advice is to just take your time and follow the manual instructions. You’ll want to build two front and two rear and keep the separated from each other.

Slide the bearing shim onto the spool. Take your bearing, press it into the bearing cam and slide that onto the spool. Make sure you slide it on bearing-first. Take your plastic spool outdrive and key it into the end of the spool. Follow that up with the 2.5x10mm screw. A little dab of loctite here is recommended. Repeat for the other side.

Now for the fun part…the rear diff. Actually, it’s not quite as bad as a ball diff. Just build it and forget it! Start by getting all of the rear diff parts together. You’ll also want the black grease and diff fluid handy.

Take your outdrive and set it on it’s end. Slide the shim onto the outdrive (make sure you use the correct shim – it’s the larger of the two shims) followed by the larger o-ring. Once the o-ring is in place, liberally squirt some black grease on top of the o-ring. More is fine in this instance.

Now take the smaller o-ring and slide it over the outdrive shaft and seat it into the small recess on the shaft. You can coat this o-ring with black grease too.

Slide the outdrive into the larger diff half. Take the smaller shim and drop it into place over the shaft. Carefully slide the retaining pin into place. Coat the pin with a bit of black grease to help keep it centered.

Drop the sun gear into place. If you coated the pin with black grease as stated in the last step, the sun gear should stay in place also.

Build a pair of satellite gear sets. The shims go on after the gears are in place. Again, a little black grease will keep things in place.

Take one of the satellite assemblies and lower it into the diff half, aligning the pins with the slots. Make sure the first assembly has the ‘slot’ pointing up as shown.

Now lower the second satellite assembly into place, but this time make sure the ‘slot’ is facing downwards. Done correctly, the ‘slots’ from the satellite assemblies should align and fit together. Set this assembly aside.

Take your second outdrive and slide it up into the flat gear half. Slide the shim and pin into place like you did with the other half. Again, black grease will hold things in place.

Drop the sun gear into place.

Take the larger diff half and fill it up with diff fluid until it’s about 80% full. SLOWLY rotate the outdrive to help distribute the fluid into all the nooks and crannies. Refill it up to about 90%. You don’t want it too full or it’ll be a mess in the next step.

Take the thin rubber gasket and feed it into the slot on the larger diff half. It is extremely important that the gasket be seated completely before moving on! Align the holes in the flat diff half with the holes in the other diff half and lower into place. Use the 2.5x6mm screws to secure the halves together.

Press the bearing into the bearing cam. Slide a bearing shim into place followed by the bearing cam. Make sure you install the bearing cam bearing side first. Boom! Done!

Part 3 – Assembling the drive axles and turnbuckles.
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