[RCP57]

So I had a bunch of mechanical problems yesterday. The loader lost it's bucket curl actuator and the Hayes had some driveline issues. The wire broke off on the actuator on the loader at the circuit board. This is the second time I have had this problem with it. Re-soldering it back on is no treat but with some care it can be done. I got it back up and running within a few minutes this morning. The Hayes started to have trans issues and the hot glue failed in the rear diff. The diff was an easy fix as I just took it apart and replaced the glue with more of the same. When I did it the first time I was running out of glue and didn't have enough to fully cover the gear teeth. This time it should stand up just fine! I also decided to lock the front drivers too although after doing a test drive I may open it up again. Traction is improved a bit but when fully loaded on loose soil it doesn't steer very well anymore. I'm not really surprised and to be honest that's why I didn't do it in the first place. The trans was an easy fix as well but required removing the battery, cab, floor, fender brace and then of course the transmission itself. I used a cordless screwdriver for power and it has been working very well up until yesterday. It has a clutch inside it much like a better quality cordless drill. I think in this case it is more intended to provide protection for the gears than adjust the torque output but at any rate it started to slip so I needed to fix it. I have a couple of spares so I took a look at one of them prior to taking the truck apart. A quick look at the new one confirmed my theory of what was wrong so I started tearing into the truck. In the pictures you will see that the sun gear is steel along with the other pieces of the clutch type thingy. The problem is that the outer case is plastic and the steel dowels that keep the assembly from slipping sit in that outer case. As the plastic stretches from repeated abuse the dowels sink and that allows it to slip easier than it should. My solution was to remove the dowels all together and weld the sun gear to the slipper parts. It seems to work and there is no way for it to slip now unless it tears the gears up!

Once it was all back together I had to do a quick test...

http://youtu.be/NygVu6A11n8