chuppy

My 8043 worked fine when I built it the first time following the instructions. But reading all the problems you have all mentioned, I decided gearing down some of the drive train was the prudent thing to do. May be one of these suggestions would solve some of your issues. 1. Replace the gears shown in step 53, replace 12T bevel gear to 20T idler to 12T second idler to two 20T bevel gear, with 8T to 32T idler to two 20T bevel gears. It takes 1.5 times the motor revolutions to do the same thing, but somehow, raising the main boom seems faster. Picture attached. I prefer this much more than rubber bands. 2. In step 36, replace axle 4 with stop, with 6 axle. It's the same thing Jurgens did in his MOD. This stabilized the top end of the axle and reduces friction. 3. Used a differential instead of the stacked driving ring and clutch gears to pass power thru turn table. This removed the slight delay in one of the tracks when switching from forward to backward. I also added the modifications suggested by others. Swapped the two 16T gears for a 12T and 20T for the switching function. Placed both bevel gears on the same side at the LA's in the main boom. Been playing with it for about a half hour and everything is still running smoothly. I hope these steps will protect my LA's and motors.