Toughbox Mini Gearbox Issue (?)

Hey guys,

My team was in the process of changing out our wheels and we were reassembling the gearbox when we noticed that one of them you could only turn in reverse and then the gears would “lock up” going forward. We can’t think of what the issue is as we did triple check to make sure everything was assemblied correctly in the gearbox (including key in the CIM motor shaft). We are using Toughbox Minis. Has anyone encountered this issue? The CIM motors have full rotation when the gears are not on also.

Any help would be amazing, thank you in advance!

There’s a few things that could be going on here. First ensure that the gearbox was assembled correctly, with the “flat” sides of the gears toward each other and the protrusion side of the gear toward the bearings.

Then see if the issue occurs when you wiggle the output shaft. Try pulling the shaft outward slightly and seeing if it turns both ways. Then try pushing it inward slightly and seeing if the same thing happens. If this fixes it, the gear is locking up on the E-clip and there may be too much axial play in the shaft. You may wish to add a spacer or something to help with this.

Other than that, I’m sure others will weigh in with possible causes, but [email protected] should be able to help you.

See this thread. I just searched “toughbox mini”, and it was the second hit behind this one.