Hello! My team has the AM14U5 chassis for this season. We were planning on using Falcon 500s and the 3 ball cim shifter. IS this gearbox compatible with this chassis and kit drivetrain? Or are there other modifications we need to make to use this gearbox? Thanks!
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VEX published instructions to use the 3CIM ball shifter with an older version of the AM14u. I’m not sure if there’s a more up-to-date set of instructions for the AM14u4 or AM14u5, but my team followed this setup in 2018 successfully and I think it is likely still compatible:
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If I can expand this question slightly for whoever answers from AndyMark (@Nick_Lawrence?), are there any standard Am or VEXPro drivetrain gearboxes that are not compatible with the u5? e.g. I vaguely recall isye with the Evo years ago.
Hi!
You’ll need to follow this guide, which includes using some of the Ball Shifter components as a match-drilling template. The guide pictures a (now very old) version of the KOP chassis, but the process is the same since the AM14U family of chassis does not have native mounting patterns for the Ball Shifter gearboxes.
The AM14U family of chassis has native center mounting (same place as the Toughbox Mini) holes for the following gearboxes:
- Toughbox Mini
- EVO Shifter
- EVO Slim
- Sonic Shifter
It also has mounting holes for the Toughbox Micro gearbox in the corners, as part of our Mecanum Upgrade kits.
Sincerely,
-Nick
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Thanks! Kick me off this thread if you want, but the Evo Slim page says " it accepts 2 or 3 NEO, or CIM Motors as input." The Ratios section also lists Falcons, though. Is there any reason we wouldn’t be able to swap out our 2-CIM Toughbox Minis to 3-Falcon Evo Slims on our KOP AM14U5? I can’t think of one, but we had a heck of a time with an old KOP chassis and something about not being quite drilled right (not sure, was years ago).
This should work fine, with a couple notes:
- EVO Slim gearboxes ship with a long hex output shaft, that if you’re running the standard 3.375" churros in between the Inside and Outside Plates, this shaft may protrude and may need to be trimmed.
- You’ll want to pick up an EVO Mounting Kit which includes the necessary hex bearings for supporting the end of the EVO’s output shaft (since the AM14U5 went to a round bearing) and also provides the right spacers and hardware to make everything line up.
- The 15T Pinion Gears for Falcon 500 are not sold with the EVO Slim gearboxes, but are an additional separate item.
Sincerely,
-Nick
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We are doing this exact same thing right now. I dont have the exact measurements of the locations but easiest way is to follow the instructions from the older versions. Place the output bearing in the plate and clamp down the plate before drilling.
Here are some photos from CAD of our layout.
We haven’t decided if we want to run 2 or 3 Neo’s or what the gear ratios will be yet. We had some issues in a past year with 3 Neo’s and breaking teeth of the final 3rd stage gear, so we need to revisit that and do our calculations still.
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Hey all! Thanks for the replies and help! My team is still having trouble as we ordered the 2 stage kit and the instructions seem to be for 3 stage. Can this gearbox not work with the chassis in it’s 2 stage form? Thanks again!
Honestly I’m not sure. In all the years of running this gearbox we have never considered only using it as a 2 stage. I would recommend that you run your design through the JVN calculator Calc — Fail Harder
And make sure it’s going to work the way you expect it to.
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