# HO Gear Pullers.. What's good, what's not



## guinnesspeanut (Sep 25, 2009)

Need a bit of help with my first pinion pull.. I checked ebay, and there's half a dozen out there. I'd like something general purpose, so I'm considering the Walkera, GWS, and E-Flight. The project at hand is pulling pinion gears off of the 4 gear Aurora top plate, but I'd like this to do dual duty with gears in R/C cars & boats too. I don't do this stuff alot, but I'd like to be able to use it for more than HO slots. Anyone have experience with using these on HO slots/other things? Good or bad, I'd like to order this today, so any guidance is greatly appreciated....


----------



## Ralphthe3rd (Feb 24, 2011)

I use the Pinion Gear(Specific) Puller from RTHO...it's one of the best made, although specific to the job of Only pulling Pancake Pinion Gears... and FYI- you may find out, that any puller meant to pull a Pancake Pinion gear, will probably be specific to just that act, although a few of the pullers also claim to pull wheels as well....?


----------



## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

*Magic Wand?*

As Ralph is kinda hinting around at, most slot car pullers are model, if not task, specific. You may have a long wait expecting to find something that crosses hobby genre's.

If your referring to pulling the four gear design armature pinion, I'm not sure there is a specific puller for that job. It's a careful pry with the screwdriver if memory serves. 

Fortunately if you do butcher it, and it does happen; the T-jet nine tooth final drive pinion, the slimline 9 tooth armature pinion and the four gear 9 tooth armature pinion are all one and the same.

Re-install is straight forward using the rtho t-jet gear installation press with the 9 tooth install guide. (It comes with the 24 tooth, 14 tooth, and 9 tooth install guides. 

If in fact your referring to the four gear final drive cluster, most guys just bop out the rivet and use a 0-80 screw for remounting the cluster. There's an entire thread dedicated to the technique...easily found in the tuning section.

Good luck :wave:


----------



## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

Alan Galinko sells a very specific gear puller that I have a couple of.
http://agg.fsmra.com/images/GEAR PULLER2.jpg
it is designed to pul on most of the gear, not just two sides. 
pricey? maybe, all of Galinko's stuff is. but it does a nice job.


----------



## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

Thanx Al,

I gotta get me one of those!


----------



## Kurl3y (Mar 16, 2012)

alpink said:


> Alan Galinko sells a very specific gear puller that I have a couple of.
> http://agg.fsmra.com/images/GEAR PULLER2.jpg
> it is designed to pul on most of the gear, not just two sides.
> pricey? maybe, all of Galinko's stuff is. but it does a nice job.


Hi Al,
Thanks for the pic. Does his work better than the RTHO version that you see on the bay or are they one in the same? 

Thx

Kur


----------



## guinnesspeanut (Sep 25, 2009)

If these rtho pullers & presses will work on the 4 gear and Tjet pancake, it should work for my needs.. Best place to get them?? If it'll work for inline chassis gears too, all the better. This is my first foray into customizing, so I am clay in need of a mold..


----------



## alpink (Aug 22, 2010)

*everything you always wanted to know about .......................*

:wave: kurly, I think the RTHO version has a slot all the way across and the Galinko versions slot only goes halfway across. 
also similar ones(with the slot all the way across) to the one I prefer have a cross section of a tube or pipe with one side ground off(creating the slot) and the other side drilled and tapped for the press.
the one I prefer has a cross section similar but includes a depression in the side with the half slot that allows it to get between the rails of the gear plate and get totally under the gear.
it will not work with a slimline gear plate because of the width of that depression. not sure if depression is the best word, but is all I can come up with on a moments notice.
but porbably the very best and priciest is the one that has a huge base with a hole that the entire armature fits into and the plate rests on the base. the press pivots from the side to line up about perfectly with the top of the armature shaft and press down on that shaft with great force.
I also have a kit (SCM I think) that has an anvil of sorts and steel sleeves and a number of different tools that you use a small hammer to directly press/bang out the various gears on a gear plate and replace them with success and has a special peen for resizing the hole in brass gears so that they fit tight on the shaft again.
perhaps someone has pictures of all these devices and can post them for comparison. I will try to take some pics for that purpose too.
I also have a myriad of "wheel" pullers and presses from various manufacturers and each has it's own task depending on brand of chassis/wheel.
there is a variation of press/puller combination from Winning Edge (RIP Kevin) that is anodized gold and performs a lot of functions. alas, Kevin has passed and with him the tools he used to design and make.
long winded? that is only the tip of the knowledge about presses and pullers. I am sure this will prod some folks to add more detail about how some of them work and why they might be favored.
let's hope so.
in most cases gear pullers for pancake armatures are not going to serve the purpose for inline applications with exceptions. pancake armature shafts are generally .062 and inline armature shafts are .059.


----------



## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

Not the same .... as Al pointed out.

Although the actual jaw opening might actually (barely) snag the 9 tooth gear, the more robust rtho T-jet C-style puller version will not fit between the gear plate rails on a slim line or four gear design. As it is, the jaws are heavily beveled and the lower third of their jaw have a vertical relief cut that allows proper fitment on the t-jet plate . 

Noticeably, it doesnt have the stepped prongs (as shown in the pic above) that allow you to dogleg down into the narrower gap between slim line gear plate rails.

While I do still use my T-jet C-style puller from time to time for various applications; I prefer the install and removal presses. The removal press doesnt gerf up the gear teeth like the 2 jawed puller. The install press allows you to precisely set the gear to plate clearance. Eventually you pass the stock clearance point with your set ups, and go becomes no go for the C-style puller.


----------



## guinnesspeanut (Sep 25, 2009)

*You lost me..*

You guys lost me.. I emailed Rick at RTHO, and he replied that he didn't know which, if any, of his pullers would work on the 4 Gear Aurora 9 tooth pinion. Does 1 of the RTHO pullers work for the job? I only bought 2 4 Gear chassis to experiment on, so I don't want to wreck them and wait another week for another. I need the gear and the arm intact. If it's common practice to pop these off with a screwdriver and simply tap back on, I'll go with it. If I should use a puller, a model# would make my day. I'd like to start on this by next weekend, so I need to order the puller tomorrow.


----------



## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

alpink said:


> Alan Galinko sells a very specific gear puller that I have a couple of.
> http://agg.fsmra.com/images/GEAR PULLER2.jpg
> it is designed to pul on most of the gear, not just two sides.
> pricey? maybe, all of Galinko's stuff is. but it does a nice job.


The point is; that while similar in appearance, the RTHO C-style gear puller for T-jet and the Galinko C-style puller for Slim line are not the same.

The Galinko will work for four gear armature gears.


----------



## Kurl3y (Mar 16, 2012)

Thanks for the info guys, I could not see the notched out area from the picture but I do understand how that would be more efficient by grabbing more of the actual gear as opposed to just the edges of two sides. I have several tjet top plates that I need to tear thru and I am also interested in purchasing a few tools to get me going in a direction but I did not want to purchase something that will be broken after using it two times. Thanks again for the detailed information it certainly makes buying a little higher end product a lot easier.

Kur


----------

