Most regular drivers know that cleaning & servicing the slipper clutch or center diff assembly is one of the most important pieces of maintenance on the Slash 4x4 for durability & longevity.

What's not talked about nearly as frequently, though, is the single most important piece of maintenance for this truck for the sake of handling & performance. This video shows the simple process of shaving your half-shafts when (not if, but when) they start to bind up.

• RC How-To: Maintain your Slash 4x4 half-shafts

If you do not do this and you drive in any sort of dry dirt, your handling will quickly become dramatically hampered, whether you realize it or not. To put it in numbers, I had 45wt oil in the rear of my truck, and after a few days of running, my rear half-shafts were seized up, putting the brakes on my rear suspension action. I started changing my shock oil to see how far I needed to go to get it back to the same feel as before the seizing occurred. I had to go from 45wt to 20wt oil before I was getting a decent amount of rebound again, and it was still sketchy.

Great info. I had this same problem. I kept lowering the shock oil with no difference.

jang, i just noticed on your video that your half shafts are reversed from stock (on your truck the female half attaches to the output yolk and the male half to the stub axle). is there any advantage to reversing them like you did?

Running the female side inside is a common and old trick folks do with slider shafts to help reduce the buildup of dirt & dust inside. It's a gravity thing.

so it will actually help the truck? not make it worse? pretty good Idea.

Supposedly it makes it better, but I don't know for certain. I've never done a scientific test of one vs. the other, just kinda went with the logic.

I was thinking that putting the opening closer to the tires (with the shafts reversed) would be putting that opening closer to the tires and dirt.

I haven't had many issues since I shaved mine for the second time.

Thanks! I was wondering why my suspension was dragging so much and wouldn't ever "bounce back" so to speak. Followed your tips(with the exception of flipping around drive shafts), and the suspension now works 100% better. I tried simply cleaning them before, and no dice. still bound up. This is a MUST DO!

And here's another thanks!
I recently got a used slash 4x4 and was going through it and noticed the binding on mine as well.

to mccoyy... IMHO, i think its worth doing.. i mean your going to break your shafts either way.. Either from it binding or scraping off too much of the plastic material..

however, ive done this mod and have never and an issue with strength of the shaft