Forward-Only Conversion

Removing the reversing assembly, and the rest of its associated components, is a fairly easy way to give your Revo a little better performance on the bottom end. It's a modification often performed by racers, but many bashers see it as being beneficial as well. The forward conversion also eliminates the weaker black plastic gears on the reversing shaft. Usually these gears are the first ones to fail, and once removed the transmission internals are much stronger.

When removing the reversing assembly from the transmission, you reduce the rotating mass of the internals. Less rotating mass is ultimately less weight that the motor has to spin inside the transmission. This gives a noticeable performance improvement in acceleration. In addition to this you also remove the servo associated with this function, which further reduces the weight your Revo carries around. However if you frequently use reverse, this may not be an upgrade which suits your tastes very well.

The first thing you'll need to do, is to remove the transmission from your Revo. To remove the transmission, remove the four screws that hold it to the chassis.

Next remove the pins that hold the driveshaft yokes to the transmission with a 2.0mm hex driver. You will also want to flip the Revo over, and disconnect the brake and reverse linkages from the front of the transmission. Also, disconnect the OptiDrive sensor from the OptiDrive unit housed in the receiver box.

After you slide the rear driveshaft back, you should be able to wiggle the transmission off of the chassis with minimal effort. With the transmission out, we can now get to work on opening it up. A 2.0mm hex driver will make quick work of the six screws holding the transmission halves together.

Remove the gears and shafts indicated. In the areas marked remove everything, only the bearings held by the transmission housing should remain. To remove the top gear, you'll need to remove the screw pin with a 1.5mm hex driver first.

Remove the OptiDrive sensor...

...and replace it with the supplied blockoff plate. You'll also need to remove the shifting spring from the shifter fork's shaft.

The gears and components removed are the items shown below.

Install the top gear supplied in the forward conversion kit, and secure it with one of the supplied screw pins.

Slide the forward gear onto the supplied forward shaft, then secure it with one a screw pin.

Next, slide the forward only shaft into place.

Close the transmission up and install the plug in the hole where the reversing fork's shaft used to exit.

You'll need to remove the reversing spring from the transmission as well. Remove the nut the holds the throttle linkage coupler, and then slide it off followed by the spring. Then replace the coupler back onto the braking rod.

Now you need to ditch the shifting servo and it's linkage.

Remove the OptiDrive, and plug the throttle channel straight into the receiver.

Plug up the hole int he receiver box with the supplied cover.

All that remains at this point is to reinstall the transmission back into the Revo. This procedure is reverse of how it was removed, and should be self explanatory. It may take a little work to get it back in, and the yokes properly installed. However with a little patience, you'll have it done in no time.