Building, Breaking-in, and Setting a Ball Differential

Mugen Seiki Racing's Adam Drake walks you through the steps of building, break-in, and setting a ball differential and slipper clutch.
www.mugenracing.com
www.thedrakeracing.com

[@robertkakela2068]

Like the tip on understanding which is loose the slipper for the diff thanks Adam always learning something new from your videos!!!

[@AdamDrake]

Thanks 👍

[@nighthawkj30A4]

I remember in the old 1993 RC10T manual it says how to adjust and set up the ball diff.

[@rutbuster1]

Very good info. I've some older buggies with ball differentials like this I'm about to restore. This video brought back good memories. Good job on the explanation of the process. Thanks.

[@bmxking6582]

excellent video, helped my understanding so much! Thank you Adam for all the content you share!

[@AdamDrake]

Glad it was helpful!

[@madvente]

Some very good pointers - many thanks for this video!

[@mwickman13]

Thank you for another helpful video adam.

[@nathan-n14nismo12]

Awesome stuff 👍🏻. Will be very helpful. It’s the slipper and diff slip I struggle setting right. . Will be way easier now.

[@AdamDrake]

Glad it helped!

[@AdamDrake]

Glad it helped!

[@brianlee6166]

Another great video Adam! I am setting my Msb1 up for carpet. I see you did some laps on clay are you going to do any testing on carpet in the future?

[@MOONOVERMIAMI]

Hello great video information Adam

[@nelsonquinones8285]

Thank you for the tips!👍

[@AdamDrake]

Happy to help!

[@marcowerner8739]

I drive on a clay surface and I absolutely hate ball diffs. I find them to be very high-maintenance items and can mess up the car's setup as soon as they get a little grindy. Are the benefits of ball diffs really that substantial on a clay surface? I am thinking of ditching the ball diff completely after I saw you driving with regular gear diff on a clay surface like a champ.

[@fuzzfreak1967]

I agree with you entirely, they are rough, highly sensitive, and are very easy to destroy. I have destroyed/barked many many diff’s in my time; trying to learn there ways. Now when I use them I check and retighten them after every run

[@marcowerner8739]

@@fuzzfreak1967 I’ve become super paranoid since I have been using ball diffs. And I have destroyed so many along the way too. I thought it has something to do with my car’s brand, but I saw that even AE RC10B7s are not free of ball diff issues. I hate ball diffs!! But everyone uses Ball Diffs at my local track.

[@marcowerner8739]

@@fuzzfreak1967 I am using ceramic balls. Even on my thrust. That helps a lot.

[@fuzzfreak1967]

Hey, sorry it took me so long to respond, I was at work on lunch when I ran into this video and I really didn’t watch it, I skipped right to the comments because I was short on time and I have developed my own ideas when it comes to ball diffs and slipper clutch adjustments. I am home now and I have watched the whole video and Adam has some very good tips here; I am not surprised, he always has good videos. I really like the thrust washer grease on the rings, that a new one for me, sounds good, I’ll try it. I also like how to check the slipper by holding the tire and gear and spinning the other tire. I have actually heard that one before but I forgot about that, definitely good stuff. I use to race RC years ago and I did it for a few years and had a good time. I got burned out though and stopped. Well a couple months ago I just started again and having a good time with it again. I am trying to have some boundaries though so I don’t get burned out again. I definitely feel your pain on ball diffs, I get a little paranoid over them too when I am using them. I have all TLR 2 wd cars and they have no quick diff access so it gets pretty old tearing apart the whole rear end of a car to get to the diff. When it comes to ball diff’s though they do work and are effective in certain track conditions. Check this out though, my local track use to have an outdoor track too and we raced everything outside, 1/10 and 1/8 scale. One local fast guy use to use gear diffs on his 2 wd cars on it because he would say that you couldn’t use a ball diff because you couldn’t set the ball diff loose enough for the track cause it would surely slip and bark if you did. I never asked him what oil he had in his diff, probably shock oil 😂. I never tried it in my cars outside I just stuck with the ball diff. That fast guy use to blow us all away every week though so I think that with a little time, work and trying multiple diff oil weights, you can get a gear diff to work anywhere, probably even your track. Give it a whirl if you have a gear diff for your car. I would maybe start off with 2000 weight. I have a hard time trying to tell if my diff is too tight or too loose, your car basically spins out with either of these conditions. As for your ceramic ball tip I am interested in that, it’s working for you, that’s good, I’ll try it; thanks

[@rcx8971]

Good information

[@boosted_dime]

Work those balls around! 😂 Great video. Thanks Adam!

[@AdamDrake]

Thanks for watching!

[@moldsrc]

is the ball diff better then the gear type

[@tubthumped]

Do you ‘warm up’ ball diffs before a race run?

[@rankin90049]

Are the two lubes available on the Flash Point site? Looked but didn't see them.

[@AdamDrake]

Yes, through Flash Point and www.mugenracing.com

[@PhilDugre]

Any numbers with the diff checker?

[@AdamDrake]

Start at 300 for break-in and you should end up in the 300-250 range.

[@PhilDugre]

@ thanks. I have a bad tendency of starting wayyyyy tooo loose. The last one i did i followed the way you do on the video and it ended up way better. I was putting to much grease so it was way harder to do the initial setup. Not tested on the track yet but it feel really good 👍🏻

[@ceh329]

What does it mean to bark the diff

[@marcowerner8739]

When the diff slips, it makes a weird barking sound. Meaning that the plates are both rotating at the same direction and the balls are essentially standing still. This creates friction on plates and balls and you run into the issue to flatten the balls.

[@marcowerner8739]

I think my explanation was not right…when there is not enough friction between the balls and the plate, and the slipper sends power to the diff, then the diff makes a barking noise because the diff is not engaging correctly.

[@profix25lo]

@@marcowerner8739 your first answer made more sense