paul_f

I refitted the lunchbox tyres several times before 3d printing a cone to help me stretch them into place and so they were evenly stretched all the way round. They worked pretty well. Had a lot of fun, I thought I had won, however my transponder had fallen off so I didn't even register a single lap! It's a lexan Kamtec body, 3d printed gearbox brace with a used silver can 21t motor and a 2s LiPo

The stock monster beetle tyres are really hard and I don't get much grip at our local carpet track. I had read in several places about stretching the lunchbox tyres onto the rims. I have done this, but I now have a huge amount of tyre wobble on all of the wheel. The beads look to be seated correctly all the way round. Is this normal? Thanks Paul VID-20241204-WA0012.mp4

Looks great! What springs are you using?

That's great, thanks. With no springs/dampers, the max length the suspension can travel down gives a max eye to eye damper length of ~78mm With my dampers internally spaced to get that I get 16mm of travel with these. I'll probably add some o-rings to get the right travel once i have reassembled it

I bought as built Monster beetle, however the seller had changed out the original shocks and fitted some alloy ones with inappropriate springs. I have the right springs. Can anyone tell me how much travel the shocks have so I can set these up to have similar travel to the stock ones What I am looking for is the approx length of the front and rear shock piston exposed when the wheels are off the ground

My son got a Lunchbox for Christmas as he wanted a monster truck that wheelies - lots of fun. This morning our usual area was covered in dogs mess so we went to the tarmac alley with a little jump behind our house. I have managed to damage my car a lot so need to rebuild again😬😬. The diff cover screws came out and I have broken the gearbox casing, chassis tub and front shock mount. I wanted a new body so I will probably just buy a re-release and rebuild what I need to - then avoid bashing around on tarmac

That Neo fighter looks really good for the money. So much cheaper than they used to be Ordered new A parts, so hopefully try again next weekend

Fortunately both the parts are on the A tree though I do have some used ones but they are also over 25 years old Should I just buy a new A parts set?

Hmm, maybe I shouldn't have let my 6 yr old son have a go indoors. Still at least it now means I have a good reason to get him his own car

Thanks for the tips. Should I grease the balls before fitting?

A bit more progress last night. Need to make the strengthening bracket for the LHS of the rear gearbox top cover. Also ordered some shims as the suspension links are very wobbly

I have noticed that the steering rod ends and balls have a lot of play (I used this car a lot when I was younger). Can anyone suggest what I need to search for and buy? I have seen posts about closed cups and coated balls but not sure what I need to get. I'll glue and redrill the linkage rod holes

Quite a few packets arrived today, including the D tree from @Percymon. Thank you ever so much!

I couldn't find the blue ones in the UK, so have ordered some red ones. Should I also replace the piston guides that go between the O rings?

I only ordered new seals for the top of the dampers. Need to order new seals for the bottom The rear damper oil was very black, fronts like new

Ordered quite a few things today -Damper oil and new seals -Steel dogbones 9805551 -Some M3 capheads and nyloc nuts to strengthen the gearbox top cover - New alloy wheel hex as a couple of mine were cracked

My body is awful, will replace that at some point (seen repros on eBay). I got a set of yellow painted wheels and original tyres back in 2010 so will repaint the wheels and fit them for now. My originals were damaged due to my glueing attempts and tyre removals when I was aged 12 I put U/J axles in the front of the car, I cant remember where I got these from though. At the back I have the original plastic end dog-bones. Should I just put the plastic ones in, or should I get something to replace them with? If so any suggestions please

I do like the yellow ones, so it would be great if I could have one. I have found I am also missing the rear body mount as well (E6) , you wouldn't have one of those I could buy off you by any chance? It is quite expensive to buy the whole E parts tree for the one little part that I need

Unfortunately I have lost one of the coil lower mounts from the damper. Rather than rebuilding and cleaning them I was wondering what the ebay aluminium damper sets were like. Has anyone used these or can recommend something else to use?

Well 7 years on and I am finally rebuilding my Manta Ray. I have reassembled most of it, shimming the lower arm to reduce the play. Installed -Ball races -Alloy Propshaft -New Plastic TA02 Gearset -Dirt tuned motor with 21t steel pinion -Tamiya ESC

I have packed my rear diff, and it definately isn't as open! Should I pack the the front one as well? I have bought the following Ball races Tamiya TEU104 ESC (ebay) Tamiya dirt tuned motor (ebay) 21t steel RW pinion New chassis tub (£3 on ebay) Alloy propshaft (still waiting) Alloy motor mount (still waiting) So hopefully I can start the rebuild over the Xmas break

I have a set of the plastic TA02 gears on their way to me. Just been putting together the suspension pieces, seems there is a lot of play in plastic pieces that fit over the step screws, is that normal? Even with the new plastic suspension towers? Cheers Paul

Thanks for the all replies. I want to keep the car with the original chassis, but add a few updates that I wanted when I used it. When I got it all out I was quite pleased as it wasn't quite as bad as I remembered. There were 3 sets of gearboxes, but it turned out that I had purchased the A (front shock tower and gear casings) and B trees (rear shock and gear casings) as well as a new gear set and uprights, started the rebuild but never finished putting it back together. I have stripped it all down and have cleaned it all (except the chassis as it wouldn't fit) in my ultrasonic cleaner. Although I have the new plastic motor mount I will still purchase a yeah racing alloy motor mount. Is the stainless propshaft better than the alloy yeah racing one? I'd like to get a torque splitter but they seem to be pretty rare/expensive. Once the new rear gears (all plastic) and ball races arrive I will build up the rear gearboxes. Then I can look at the suspension, there seem to be a lot of play in the steering and top links when I stripped it down. Anyway here are a few pictures. The chassis has two lugs broken off for the battery cover. I will drill the threads out of these broken lugs and then glue them back on. I will then use longer screws to bite into the hole that passes through to the bottom of the chassis. The shell is pretty battered, I had used layers of sellotape to stop it falling off

My parents have had a sort out of their loft and have given me my Manta Ray which has sat unused for 16 or more years. I want to get it up and running again, but unfortunately it had quite a hard life when I was young! It is in bits as when I last used it I stripped the gearbox for the third time and broken the motor mount and couldn't afford to repair it on my paper round wages! The gearbox was stripping as I had a modified motor but the rest of the car was stock... I have had a read of some other threads of Manta Ray rebuilds and have ordered the 50529 all plastic gear set. The list of parts I have written down to get still are New NIMH batteries (I have a charger for my mountain bike lights which will work for up to 4000mAh NIMh packs) Uprated prop shaft Ball bearing kit New tyres (mine are totally bald) I also need the following, can anyone make any recommendations as to what I should get. I just want to play about in the alley behind my garage and also with a mate on his farm as he is digging out his old cars as well. I don't want to spend too much New motor and pinion Speed controller Servo Alloy motor mount I'll put some photos up soon Cheers Paul