My racing buddy (whom I really kiss up to>because he owns the pit trailer we pit in ,,lol) just bought his 8 year old a duratrax evader rtr brand new.His son is really talented.He is doing a great job driving.The only problem is it keeps strippng servo's.The first one that stripped was the stock servo that came with the unit.The next two were 3003's . The next one was a Futaba digital with 140 oz. of holding power.That should explain it all .I must say Duratrax doesn't supply much info in the instructions supplied with the truck..We are scratching our heads in frustration...Help Hank!!

There are different things that can cause a servo to fail.
1st and formost is impact with imobile objects. It only takes one good hit on a curb, a tree, or some other solid object to strip a plastic geared servo.
Racing and hitting a pipe, board or another vehicle can do it too. Radical jumping and bad landings also take their toll on the servo.
Also steering binding can contribute.
You did not say what Evader it was.. the buggy or the truck? What motor is in it just out of curosity? Did he swap out the stock RTR Motor for a more powerful one??? Excessive Speed breaks parts..
What servo exactly is it? What number is on the servo? Even though it has a lot of torque, is it plastic or metal geared? You should get a metal geared servo.

Here is what you can check on the Evader

Disconnect the servo from the steering linkage...

Does the steering mechanism move freely? If it does, how is the steering servo saver adjusted? Can you move it with your hand to cause the lever action to move? If not, one of the contributing factors is that the servo saver is too tight and not helping to protect the servo. You would need to loosen the knurled nut on the top of the servo saver to loosen it up some. Be sure it is not so loose it is rubbing on the top cross brace above the steering bellcranks.

If the steering sytem is binding somewhere when it is not connected to the servo, disassemble it, check for bent or broken parts and clean before reassembly.

That is about all there is to a steering system....
Simple mechanical lever action with a built in spring loaded servo saver on most cars.

If the boy is hitting things HARD.... If the servo you bought is plastic geared and the servo saver is not adjusted properly... those are the factors that contribute to stripped servo gears.

You can buy replacement gears for all the servos you mentioned. Your best bet is to buy a mid level metal geared servo. Like the JR 590Z or the next one up.. I think it is a 650 or 690Z. They are not too expensive. Then buy the replacement gears for the strippedones to leep as spares. Hitec also makes decent entry level metal gear servos.

Hope this helps
Dan

i had a eletric evader st... it did the same thing ... so i replaced the spring in the servo saver and greased everthing up.... and never had any more problems... hope this helps you...

Spy, did you replace the spring with a different one or some type of heavier spring?
It is the evader pro truck.

Just so you know the stock servo is a 3003 also but anyway. The Evader unfortunatly has a very "unforgiving" servo saver just like the RC10 series of vehicles. I've always had problems with the AE saver but never a Losi. Definitly take the servo saver apart and make sure the surfaces of it are smooth with no rough spots. I tore the gears out of my Nitro Evader the first time I ran it on our track and I LITERALLY bumped the end of a pipe to tear the stock gears out. You want to set the saver so it's not flopping around but "just" tight enough that the truck will steer and trust me there is little margin for error. You might just want to invest in a metal gear servo to be safe. Right now I have a Futaba 9304 (plastic gear) servo in mine and haven't had any problems.............yet. (knocking on wood)

Spyhunter I took apart the servo saver .I debured the two beveled pieces.I sanded the rough spots on the aluminum cylinder part.. Lightly lubed the parts with diff lube..He ran the truck tonight with no problems at all.He even hit the pipes harder than usual...Thanks for the tip

its still just a matter of time.
If you dont ever want to replace it again, we all stress getting a metal gear servo. Off road driving is too tough for standard servos. Standard servos should be used on airplanes and throttle arms and never on steering.
When companies make these cars ready to run, they do the cheapest way out to maximize proffits. If you read any of the RC car magazines, one of the biggest reasons they take scores away are for crappy servos. I bought a HiTec metal gear servo 6 years ago. Its been in my TXT-1 rock crawler, Ofna 1/8th scale buggy, T-maxx, and my rc10-gt. never with any problems. Hitec also offers the least exspensive metal gear servo on the market.

I'd agree Norm but a good servo saver can go a LONG way to helping with servo strip problems. I have a couple Futaba 9304 servos that have been in about 3-4 different vehicles each and are still going strong. All have had Kimbrough servo savers or well set stock savers.