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Unread 02-12-2014, 03:19
Mike Marandola Mike Marandola is offline
Lead Bumper Mentor
AKA: Mike Marandola
FRC #0316 (Lunatecs)
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Re: Ball Shifter High Gear Issues

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryce2471 View Post
I can almost guarantee that you are experiencing a worn out shifting shaft/plunger.

When you were geared so low all season, I assume that you usually used high gear, which means that the shaft was consistently exposed to large compressing forces that deformed it. You probably didn't notice the damage because not a lot of input torque was required to drive around with such a slow gear ratio. After all, you had low gear for the heavy stuff.
When you switched to the taller ratio, there was an increase in load that made the ratcheting start. The part I am referring to is made out of aluminum, and vex may be changing it to steel for future years.

There is a possibility that i got this wrong though. You can confirm my theory by disassembling the gearbox, but that's a pain...
Thanks for the suggestion. We recently disassembled them since we suspected the issue to be wear on the plunger or gears but that was not the case. Also, I believe the majority of the force is put on the ball carrier, which is why it's steel.
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Last edited by Mike Marandola : 02-12-2014 at 03:34.