Rogue Element Components SRB Gear/Motor Cover

I got a set of these alloy gear/motor covers recently.  

The packaged kit

Chris Cazan, owner of Rogue Element Components, offered these for sale only to subscribers of his email list back in the beginning of November 2011.  

Sand Scorcher (SRB) Gear/Motor cover kit contents

These parts were so unique and cool looking that I had to get a set.  I'm not one for chrome or bling usually, but these parts seemed to offer a classy upgrade to the bland stock clear gear and motor covers that come with the SRB kits.

I installed these parts on a shelfer Super Champ that is not quite finished.  It took a bit of cutting and sanding in order to fit the clear lexan window into the gear cover, but the fit is tight enough to not require epoxy, especially for a shelfer.  I decided to leave the finish as-is, which means all of the tool marks and rough spots are the same as I got them from Chris.  The only thing I think needs a bit of work is the motor cover.  There are two issues with it:

• It does not account for the electrical tabs that exit the rear of the motor, forcing you to bend the tabs outward, and even then both tabs touch the cover which would result in a dead short if power were applied to the motor.  It is possible to cover one or both tabs with heat shrink tubing, but the fit is very tight and I would be concerned about the cover cutting into the heat shrink insulation due to vibration over time.  If Chris made a small cutout in the motor cover or altered the design of the three spokes so the width was reduced, even just 1 or 2mm, it would have made all of the difference.

Both tabs are bent outward, but are still touching the cover

 The stock RS540 and Tamiya Sport Tuned (black) motors have plastic insulation surrounding the electrical tabs that exit the back of the motor.  This insulation isolates the tabs from the rear metal motor endbell to prevent shorts.  The insulation also sticks out of the back of the motor about 1mm to 2mm and the motor cover spokes hit the insulation, meaning that the cover cannot fully seat over the rear of the motor.  The insulation acts as two high points that allow the cover to rock back and forth.  Since the cover cannot get closer to the back of the motor, there is a gap between the cover and the gearbox on all 3 screws.

The insulation is black in color, surrounding the motor tab

Given the amount of detail Chris dedicated to these parts, I'm a little surprised that he did not encounter these issues during fitting.  Still, even with these issues, these are amazing parts and quite unique.  For a shelf queen, the problems are minor and with some cutting they could even be eliminated. 

About Rogue Element Components

Rogue Element Components is a custom machine shop owned by Chris Cazan that produces extremely limited machined alloy and plastic parts for radio control models, including hop-up and accessory parts for Tamiya vehicles and rock crawlers of any type.  The items are built to order and Chris keeps no stock on hand, so if you don't order an item when he offers it for sale, you will probably never get another chance to buy it again.  On rare occasions an item will be offered more than once if it was popular or Chris receives enough queries asking for another manufacturing run. Chris will do custom one-off work as well.

If you have an interest in very unique and detailed parts for your radio control vehicle, sign up for his email list by visiting the Rogue Element Components web site linked above.  Every few weeks you'll get a new product announcement from Chris via email with details on what is being offered and how to pay a deposit or full amount.  The item(s) will arrive in the mail about a month after he starts manufacturing.

Disclaimer:  I am not affiliated with Rogue Element Components in any way.