Well here we go. Last night I started in on the first QDS. First I removed motor, then rx/esc, then steering servo.
The motor pinion is a 8t. Getting the pinion off proved to be quite difficult. I used two straight screw drivers to pry it off. In the process i bent the end of the motor can out quite a bit, but it came off ok. I do not have my hobbywing EZ run setup yet. So I am kinda impatient so I removed my Tekin mini rage from my xray m18. This Tekin setup is a mini rage 6800kv. There specs say the motor is 20mm 180 size. This was smaller diameter than the original but not by much I would say maybe 4 to 6 mm smaller across. The motor has three different mounting positions luckily enough one set fit the plastic tabs that held the stock motor from spinning. The only thing is ti is a little longer than stock. I was able to put stock motor cover on just not able to screw down all the way. It does hold the motor in place quite well. I did not use the QDS aluminum motor cooling plates as they did not fit tight to the motor. I then used some green locktite on the motor shaft and pressed on pinion. Also while I had the gear case apart I re-lubed everything with some white lithium Greece.
I then moved on to the steering servo. I had a Futaba FP-S148 in the junk drawer. This servo had the same splines as the servo saver and was a perfect fit in the plastic tub. There was no modification needed at all.
I then installed my JR receiver, and mini rage esc in the stock electronics area. I glued the on off switch into stock location as it was not the same size as the stock one. Then ran ran wires into battery compartment. I also soldered the metal eye for the stock antenna I am using the metal wire aerial. I know it lengthened the antenna wire but it seems to work ok.
Ok testing I was only able to test in my apartment so no full speed runs yet. Hey every thing worked like a charm. Only thing was my stock 9.6v battery did not have enough punch left in it, and only made the esc and motor stutter because of the lack of power. I then tried my bran new 5 cell 1500mAh receiver pack. This worked like a charm. The car seems to be quite fast now, and I was able to spin up the rear tires in the linoleum in my kitchen. I will have to wait for some dry weather so I can do some full speed testing to check motor temps, and runtime. I would still like to get a new 9.6v pack. I found a good deal on a 2300mAh pack. Click Here
So good luck to all!