[RCRick]

This is by far one of the easiest things to get done in the effort to water proof your offroad / crawler vehicles. The longest part of this process is remove the axles from your rig. As for tools, likely everything you have in your RC tool box already. As for grease, most people like Marine grease but most any grease will work.

Here is what I used to waterproof both axial scx10 axles on a new crawler. The process is the same for the HPI Crawler, Axial AX10 and likely most other crawlers out there. Not sure about Axles with step downs but likely the same.



Lets get started with the wheel removal. Super easy, sure youve done it before. Stack the rims and tires, toss the caps and nuts in them. Keep them to the side. Wont be needed till reasembly.




Start removing any linkages & shocks from the axle. Note how the axles and control arm are setup. On the SCX10 the shocks are mounted to the outside of the vehicle while the link is to the inside.


Remove the piece holding the upper links from the axle.


Remove the drive shaft pins. Try and keep these grease free. We will be using the thread lock when returning back into place.
Remove the piece holding the upper links from the axle.


Time to remove the end caps that house the outter axle bearings.


Make sure to pay attention of how the axle and bearing are setup.


Once both end caps are off split the axle. Very simple to do, if you require force, check to make sure you remove all screws.


The grease kit I picked up was from Canadian Tire. Total cost for the grease and the pump was $12. This kit to date has done 10 sets of axles. Thats a TON of axles. You could use the grease for servo waterproof as well


The amount of grease you want to apply really is upto you. People will comment that the axles will bind with too much grease. I have yet to encounter that myself. This is not to say its not true but my personal rig has about 4x the amount of grease I show in this tutorial. Our man goal is to repel the water from the bearings and protect the hardware.

There is a bearing on each size of the gear. Pop the bearings off and grease both sides before reapplying. Apply more grease when bearing is back mounted.


This drive gear is a bit of grease from the factory but not enough as far as i'm concerned.


Lets add some grease to this Bearing, housing etc.


As you can see in this photo I even greased the axle shafts, gears, bearings and around some of the screw entry points where water can come in.


Time to pump the end caps full of grease. A lot of this will pop out the other side once you slide it back over the axle casing.


Reapply Not even sure it needs a pic, but its done.
Things to consider.. The grease is messy and you should wear some gloves when applying.
2nd note, grease is messy Have some towels or something to clean your hands as you work. Clean your tools, nothing worse than greasy day old tools :/ I also bought some good hand wash solution because I got tired of not being able to get the grease off my hands

Doing the front Axle on an SCX10 is essentially the same proces.


Lets get this link off quick and easy


Servo tray has to come off. Make sure to keep track of your screws.


Remove the steering / control arms. 2 screws per side.


Removed.


This is the issue with trust the factory grease job. Tons of grease here on the gear set but the axle tubs have 0 grease. Every axle I opened even when minimally ran outside had signs of water entering..


Full disassemble. Time to grease it up a bit more.


All these items need grease. The bearings in this new axle (ran once) were already dirty. You can use break cleaner to clean out the bearings if you feel its warranted.


Now this is how I prefer to grease my axles Where water can enter the easiest is greased. My AX10 axles have slightly more than this front axle from an SCX10.


Reassembly is messy when the axle is greased so much. So again, towels of some sort. I greased the threads going in too. In some instances, bad idea if you are concerned the screws will back out. I am not.