RustyHunter

And with the body on:

Well after a very long hiatus, inspiration finally struck and led to something happening on this project! I got fresh re-release wheels and tires on the car, but the biggest change was coming up with a good way to mount a full size battery. Basically, I 3d printed a plate for the servo to mount to in order to move it forward. The plate uses only stock holes in the chassis. I then added two more 3d printed parts that the top deck can slot into and help secure the battery. These are just press fit in, but it seems to work fairly well. I don't expect my dad to drive this too much, but it's nice to know that he could throw a standard battery in and run it.

Thanks for the detailed explanation. Somehow I had gotten an extra '1' in front of all my part numbers and also didn't know about "TAM", so no wonder nothing was showing up. Thanks for the help everyone, I was able to track down the parts I wanted and have everything on order, at least until I decide I need more.

I'll have to take a dig into that, thanks for the suggestion.

I'm in the Twin Cities metro right now, and they both seem to be doing well. Hub Hobby Center has two locations that both cover the wider hobby market. They've also got a good selection of Tamiya and Kyosho kits which I had never seen in a LHS before moving here. RC Car Kings seems to be doing well too, and I always love going there because there's good odds of finding some cool rare parts. Last time I scored a carbon fiber shock tower for my Rustler and a ton of RC10T4 parts for my dad. The hardest part is picking which store to support! Any other cool places in the Twin Cities metro I should check out? Did you ever go to Molzer Mowry Racing?

Thanks so much for the advice everyone! This is exactly like I was looking for. Time to get shopping!

Hi all, curious what store the American vendors use to get Tamiya spare parts? I've been looking for some re-release parts to refresh my dad's original Super Champ, mainly new wheels and tires, but I haven't had much luck finding things from the typical suppliers I've used (LHS, Amain Hobbies, Tower Hobbies). I found tires on Amain but no other spares. Maybe I'm just searching the wrong thing? Any recommendations on stores I should give a try?

Hi all, I'm looking for any tips or suggestions on building the front shocks for the re-release Optima. We've built them following the manual with the addition of green slime on the shaft and seals. The rears have not been very leaky, but the fronts have leaked a ton, despite rebuilding them twice. Do any of you have tips we can try for the next rebuild? I'm thinking we might need new seals for the fronts. Otherwise, are there alternative shocks that are a more modern design and fit well on the Optima front? What has everyone else been doing? Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

My wife’s Optima has a 4600kv, and the car handles it just fine. She isn’t able to use full speed often since it is so fast and gets a bit unsettled at those speeds, but the advantages in runtime and minimal maintenance over brushed are really nice.

What is the difference in the steering setup for the nitro models? I imagine the mid engine setup helps the handling of the nitro cars quite a bit compared to the electrics. The body looks really sharp, I look forward to seeing what you do for paint!

Thanks for the excellent build overview, I really liked seeing how the battery fits and comparing to my dad’s vintage Super Champ.

I tried both rebuilding part of the transmission and filing down the ends of the TRX 4 driveshafts, and the heat was barely noticeable on the 2 batteries I ran! Fingers crossed the heat stays down, but it seems like filing down the driveshafts made the biggest improvement.

From the sounds of it, I probably set it too tight. I had set it using receipt paper like is recommended for 48p. I never realized 32p could be run looser. Do you even use paper or just eyeball it? note taken on the stock driveshafts, I figure I’ll run the TRX-4 shafts until I’m confident my heating issue is resolved and switch over if/when I start wearing these out.

Thanks for the feedback! I dug into things a bit more, and the front and rear axles are both smooth, but the transmission was notchy. The spur gear was pretty worn down and was adding a lot of friction to the whole assembly. I'm not too surprised, it was a knock-off transmission I got off of eBay. I also plan to replace all the bearings once new parts arrive. Fingers crossed this is the answer!

Quick update on what I'm seeing. For some reason, the rear driveshaft gets very hot, almost too hot to touch on the axle end. I think it then degrades the Loctite and allows the screw to fall off, causing the driveshaft to fall apart. My issue is, I'm not sure why it runs so hot. I've recently replaced the bearings, and the axle turns smoothly with little drag. My best guess is that the pinion angle is too steep. I've attached a couple photos. What do you guys think? I have never damaged a front driveshaft, it's always the rear breaking on me. Neither diff is locked, just grease inside.