Kingfisher

Springs are overrated. Everybody says you need them, but you don't. They just add to the cost of the build.

I agree. I still run the silver can in my M06 Alfa. I think it suits it well for a parking lot basher. I did put a 9T brushless in my M06 Alfa once. Just for fun to see what would happen. With the open diff, it just wanted to spin out at the slightest touch of throttle. At full speed it was nearly impossible to stop safely. I ended up sliding into a curb and breaking the rear suspension. That's when I put the silver can back in.

So, I took the advice of flipping a one-way diff to give my RWD TT02 some front brakes while maintaining RWD. First, I installed the diff and tried it out. I had 4WD going forward and only RWD going backwards. Ok, this is the part where everybody told me to flip it. This is also the part where my brain stopped working. So, I took it out, flipped the whole thing around, and put it back in. Thinking to myself, wow, that really was simple. Time to test it. Now, my rear wheels were going forward and my front wheels were going backwards. The car looked like it was trying to implode itself. That's when I realized that I don't flip the whole diff. I flip the one-way bearings! Here's the one way diff that I got. It's also my first encounter with a one-way. Up until now, I had all of the front drivetrain out of the car and was using the M-chassis freewheel axles up front. They fit the TT02 knuckles and bearings perfectly. The one-way bearings were pressed in. No amount of bare-hands force was going to get them out. Using the big-socket / little socket trick, I was able to push them out. Next, I mocked things up. Turn the back wheels forward, driveshaft turns this way, diff spins this way, power is applied in this direction, so bearings have to be this way in order for this to work. Got it! I was certain that I had the bearings facing the correct way, and pressed them back into the housing. I put the diff in and rotated a rear wheel by hand. Something wasn't right. I was back where I started. After I mocked them up, I set them on the table one way, and picked them up the other way. I figure that's where I went wrong. So, I put them right back in the same way I took them out. Repeat the process and I got it right the next time around. Pretty neat the way it works. I have a rear wheel drive car when going forward. The front wheels just free-spin. When I go backwards, I have 4WD reverse, and I have 4 wheel brakes when going forward. Also, the bearing grease that they used on this diff is one of the worst smelling greases I have ever seen. I've washed my hands 3 times now and still smell it. If you get this diff and choose to take it apart, wear gloves.

Thanks for the offer, but I don't think I have enough room for it. The servo horn just barely clears the front gearbox. I plan to cut a piece of thin sheet metal to fill in that spot. I have seen and like your build. Nice job.

What happened to @PoormanRC? All of his posts have disappeared.

Haha!

You're going to be surprised by the handling. That broken pin shouldn't matter once the screws are in.

Swapped out the overly-soft springs/shocks on my WT01 for some 90mm Desert Lizards.

120mm shocks installed. Front ride height: Full stretch: Bottoming out: Full compression: With a spare tire stuck under the rear showing full stretch and ground clearance.

What the previous post says, or sand passed the discoloration along with the rest of the finish and restain them.

Yesterday, I was setting up some more Desert Lizards for my CC01 and took some pictures to show an unboxing and brief setup for those interested in them. @Only4Fun @PoormanRC Like I said, I have a bunch of this left over from previous damper builds, so this is what I use. No reason other than that. Here's how they come when you get them. These are 120mm. The instructions. They come with hardware, springs, a wrench, and an extra set of O-rings. This is how the springs come. A bit annoying trying to figure out how to get them all apart, but it's doable. Once you got them apart, here's what you get. Soft, Medium, and Hard springs for both a sprung and droop setup. The shocks come preassembled with the soft droop springs already installed. Here's an example of what I was talking about. Sometimes, the pistons aren't drilled all of the way through. This is actually one of the better ones that I have gotten out of 12 total so far. My first 4, you couldn't even get a sewing needle through the holes. I take a tiny drill bit and redrill the hole, not trying to go any bigger than what's already there. The bottom eye of the shock has a hole which accepts a snap ball. The ball only goes into the hole one way, and one side of the eye is smaller than the other. Snap the round end in through the bigger side. Once I get to that point, I put a drop of oil on the shock shaft and work it up and down to get it moving through the O-rings real easily. Next, i'll put some drops of oil on the piston and and reassemble the shock and move it up and down to get it sliding freely. Then, I put them on the car to figure out what spring setup I like. I don't fill them completely with oil yet, as I will be taking them apart a few more times to try different springs. I do this with a Nimh battery in the car to account for that extra weight when running. Once I know which springs I want to use, I fill them up to the bottom of the threads like this: I don't have any more pictures after this as it was impossible to do and take pictures at the same time. Wait and let the air rise out, then screw the shock back together to the point that the O-ring on the cap almost makes a seal. Wrap a paper towel around the shock and slowly push the piston all of the way in. There is a little channel cut in the threads to allow air to escape while you're doing this. Some oil will seep out as well. Once you have the shock squeezed all of the way in, use the wrench to tighten it up. Wipe off the excess oil and install on the car. I've found it easier to have a 2nd person tighten the shock cap while you compress the shock, but it's manageable to do by yourself. I put a screwdriver through the lower shock hole and use that as a handle to hold it steady. My experience has been that the dampening will be very firm. If you like this, then you're done. For crawlers, I like to have a slightly softer shock. I'll take the shocks back off of the car, remove the top cap, and find a drill bit just slightly larger than the piston holes. I'll redrill one hole larger than the others, top off the fluid, reassemble, and test fit. Then, I repeat until I have it where I like it. On my Spawn, I redrilled one hole in the front slightly larger, and 2 holes in the rear slightly larger. You don't have to go overboard with the hole size. Just want to allow a little more fluid to pass through. This allowed the rear of the vehicle with less weight to feel a bit more soft than the heavier front, and works well for me. If you make a mistake and drill the holes too big, no big deal. They give you extra pistons, all of which are more firm than what you started with. Also, remember that they will soften up a little once you wear them in and put some use into them. Also, another note. If you get, for example, the 90mm or 100mm and the 120mm versions, they come with different length springs. The springs in the 90mm are shorter than the springs in the 120mm. But, all have the same Soft, Medium, and Hard spring rates. So, if you wanted your car to sit lower, but have a lot more suspension travel, you could mix the shorter springs with the longer shocks. Combine that with the sprung or droop suspension, and redrilling the pistons to accommodate your car, and you have a ton of options.

Nice. In slow motion, your driver figure looks realistic bouncing around with the motion.

We took both of them out yesterday evening, but the mosquitoes were so bad in the woods that we just goofed around on concrete until we ran out the Nimh batteries.

Yeah, they don't come with oil. I have so many cars with Tamiya CVA shocks, that I have a lot of the included Tamiya Soft oil left over and have used that. That's all my Wraith Spawn gets used for as well, except I try to avoid jumping it. With all of the weight up front, it just wants to go face first into the ground once it's in the air.

I wonder if you can configure 2 of 3 ways, with a motor in the front and one in the back.

I broke my "No shelf queens" rule with my Holiday Buggy body. I just wasn't ready to get it all scratched up, so I decided to go with a different body that I could beat on. Future plans are to swap out the silver can with a brushless setup and go have some fun with it. Thanks!

I used these bushings to take out the play between the metal and plastic parts. There's still some slop, but I don't think there's a way to correct it. I think the metal parts and plastic parts have different tolerances, and you need to have metal C-hubs with metal arms, or plastic C-hubs with plastic arms. Hopefully, I can find some Tamiya plastic lower arms. I like the look of them better than the metal arms, though I wouldn't mind the metal C-hubs if it clears up the tiny amount of slop that's there. I cut a piece of aluminum angle and started work on the servo/damper mount. Also drilled the chassis to mount the dampers behind the control arms. With that, I also trimmed the chassis a bit more to allow the servo to go further back, which now put the servo horn in contact with the front gearbox. The chassis damper holes aren't perfect circles, but will be once I run a file over them. I currently have 90mm dampers on there, but plan to experiment with different mounting holes and 100mm and 120mm dampers to see which work best. With the 90mm's, the stiff springs feels too stiff, but the medium springs are too soft. I think if I run a longer damper, then the medium springs on the longer dampers would meet in the middle. Only speculation. Will need trial and error to see before I start to trim and shape this piece of angle. Any reason to get a new tool is a good reason right? I got this tubing bender and like it a lot so far. It's some kind of cast metal. Too light to be steel, and I am not convinced that it's good quality aluminum, but it works great. I started experimenting with different servo horns to try to get the steering links away from the front gearbox. The horn that I am using is branded PowerHD and gives plenty of clearance on the front gearbox. This is where the tubing bender comes in. The ball ends are left over from my WT01 4x4x4 build. They bring the tie rods up and in line with the throw of the shorter servo horn. I still need to realign the front steering. It's got a bit of toe-in now that I've put a bend in the tie rods. Trying out the 25mm spacers on the rear axle, I don't like them. The rear track is still about 15mm shorter than the front track, and they just don't look right without an axle going all of the way to the rim. Next, i'll be following the same route as @OldSchoolRC1 and collecting parts for a Vaterra axle. Cancel that opening line I said about trying to use all Tamiya parts. Once I get the rear axle sorted out, I plan to make new links and figure out the driveshaft from there. OldSchoolRC1, it looks like you have 2 driveshafts connected. What are you using the connect them together?

I think I found a tire/wheel combo that I like. The fronts take the same bearing as the DT02 fronts, and the rears are 12mm hex. The tires are Duratrax Six Packs, and the wheels....... The wheels are.... Dare I say...........? Traxxas Pro-Stars. Part #4174 for the fronts and #4172 for the rears.

You very well could be right. Look at this pic that @Juggular posted. That also may limit all of the other chassis' that we'd like to put them on. Everyone may have to start running 2.2/3.0's for a more sidewall look.

That's every full size truck around here where I live. Every one of them is lifted with over-sized shiny wheels and super low profile street tires. They have all of the offroad bolt on's; bumpers, LED light bars, the works. My MX-5 Miata has seen more offroad time than any of these trucks. The only thing they're good at is riding my bumper to show off just how big their trucks are. At one point, I was starting to think my rear-view mirror was broken because every time I looked into it, all I saw was the grill to Ford, Chevrolet, or Dodge blinding me with its headlights. This could also be why I dislike the wheels on the dynahead.

Also WR-02. https://tamiyabase.com/chassis/81-wr-02?position=170&total=250#models-with-wr-02-chassis

I think the wheelbase is too short on the Jimny body for the CW-01. Look how stretched the wheelbase of the Lunchbox is compared to the Jimny:

Is the paint color called Loft Light? My girlfriend picked some of that out, and I painted a bedroom with it. It looked like a decent shade of white on the sample card in the store, and it looked white when I was putting it on. Once it was dry and the lighting through the window changed, it was obviously pink. After a couple days, we both decided that we couldn't handle it, and I repainted the room something else. Not wanting to waste the leftover paint, I painted the inside of the bathroom cabinets with it, and you don't even notice. I'd take that DN01 though.

Not the first. I believe all WR-02's are 2WD. https://tamiyabase.com/chassis/81-wr-02?position=170&total=250#models-with-wr-02-chassis Here's mine:

Good. Hope it all works out. Is that a recent picture? Your camera is stuck in the past.