Transmission Disassembly

Cracking Open the Case

Now unscrew the Phillips head screws that hold the housing together. I have two less than the stock Stampede due to installing a heat sink . Your housing may look slightly different if you have not installed one. I also recommend that you do not remove the Phillips head screws. This way you don't have to try and remember what length screw goes where.

You should now be ready to separate the transmission housing.

Gently pull the housing apart. Once you do this you may find that the internal shaft may lift off as well. This is fine for now as you will probably be removing everything inside to clean anyway.

The gear I'm pointing at with the screwdriver is the idler gear. You may notice that mine is already an aluminum one.

If this were a plastic idler and you needed to change it for another plastic or an aluminum one, you will need to remove the bearing from each side of the idler gear.

This is the Stampede differential.

This is the Stampede top gear.

If replacing the idler take great care and clean the transmission housing and also in between the teeth on the differential and top gears. Broken teeth can easily escape undetected in the grease found on the gears. Opening up your transmission, a second time, to remove a few teeth you missed when replacing an idler gear is not the most productive way to spend your time. A small flat head screwdriver works well for cleaning between the gear teeth.