parts wear (motorized technic builds)

[powerwindows83]

Hello all!

There's a thread called "parts wear" which deals with such things as discoloration of bricks over time and tire deformation, but that's not quite what I was looking for. This one, as the title suggests, is geared towards motorized technic creations... Many people who build complex technic things and love their motors know that ABS plastic on plastic doesn't make for the best bearing in the world, often resulting in extensive deformation and/or failure of parts, or the creation of "dust" from a once-useful axle under load. Fast mechanisms, even under little to no load, also like to disintegrate very quickly...

What building techniques (or even slightly non-vanilla tricks) do others use to keep their models going, or at least keep the parts usable once the model comes apart?

Happy Building!

I got some wheel hubs (left) a few weeks ago because they look like they can handle heavy vehicles much better than standard axle-in-pinhole hub designs (right). I don't know if there's any real advantage to using them, but it seems like the greater surface area plus a drop of oil or something would make them far better at holding up in the long run versus just an axle in a hole

[Johnny1360]

I think you are on the right track, I've seen others even use turntables for wheel hubs. As far as oil is concerned make sure it's safe for the plastic and use minimal amounts and you should be good. Use to much and it could actually attract dirt and grit causing premature wear. 

[powerwindows83]

ive always wanted to make a fast lego rc car, but the wear is just ridiculous bc technics werent made to do that really... im still gonna try, but it looks like the only sure-fire way to make a fast drivetrain that wont explode is motors directly attached to the wheels, but thats not "real" like a conventional 3-diff awd drivetrain or a 1-diff 2wd... i guess what im indirectly asking is whats the best way to make a preferably awd drivetrain that will stand the test of time in terms of wear?

[dr_spock]

Lubricants and cleaning can help but at certain point parts replacement is required.

gbc wear and tear by dr_spock_888, on Flickr

[zux]

You can find more details on safe lubricants in recently started topic in Technic subforum.

Speaking about "exploding parts" it is quite familiar thing with high torque applications. It would be wise to design high torque being applied on the very small set of driving elements (gears, drive shafts) of your suspension. CV joints are known to popup from hubs and universal joints break under high torque. So keep that in mind. There are certain workarounds for such cases.