Sgt.Speirs‘ Nissan King Cab - TRF201 / BBX Transmission Conversion

[Collin]

Did I missed the spot? Why did you replaced your 201 gearbox mod?

[kontemax]

7 hours ago, Sgt.Speirs said:

Good only for a shelf queen.
Don't use it or it will break in minutes.

Max

[Sgt.Speirs]

On 10/9/2022 at 3:25 PM, Sgt.Speirs said:

The last step of this project will be now the restoration portion. The original gearbox will be installed and and the electronics shall be restored as out of the box (mechanical speed controller, resistor, second servo,...).

@Collin: Yes, you missed my decision to build the Monster Racer finally as a shelf-queen  

The condition of the chassis is too good to ride it off-road. But for off road touring I have a Dyna Blaster 
But it's good to know I could do that if I wanted to (incl. swap the transmission).

 

@kontemax: I don’t know what motor you use for killing the gearbox immediately, but I don‘t think that you can achieve this with a silver can, Dynatech or TechniGold motor 

With modern brushless systems I agree with you. But therefore there is the TRF201 gearbox or an Super Astute gearbox with slipper clutch.

[Collin]

That makes sense : ) Luckylie Dyna transmission is very good out of the box.

[kontemax]

12 hours ago, Sgt.Speirs said:

@Collin: Yes, you missed my decision to build the Monster Racer finally as a shelf-queen  

The condition of the chassis is too good to ride it off-road. But for off road touring I have a Dyna Blaster 
But it's good to know I could do that if I wanted to (incl. swap the transmission).

 

@kontemax: I don’t know what motor you use for killing the gearbox immediately, but I don‘t think that you can achieve this with a silver can, Dynatech or TechniGold motor 

With modern brushless systems I agree with you. But therefore there is the TRF201 gearbox or an Super Astute gearbox with slipper clutch.

Believe me, I'm expert with this model, check my showroom.
I destroyed the transmission with a simple Dyna Run silver, 23 turns.
The first part you will break is the plastic brace of the iddle gear, once broken you will grind the iddle gear and the spur gear in seconds.
You could replace the plastic brace with an aluminum alloy one, good, you will wear out very fast the teeth of the iddle gear and the spur gear.
Your gearbox is not dust proof, every sort of powder, sand and debris will enter inside and will make a deadly mix with the grease.
You will seal someway the gearbox and replace the gears, your diff will start to grind and slip.
You will add shims to the diff, it will grind and slip again after a bit of use until your metal pot diff housings will be too much deformed.
You will replace the gearbox housings with some full solid aluminum alloy machined with the lathe.
Your diff will not work and you will have a solid rear axle and your model will not steer, in a little bunch of time you will break the teeth of you iddle gear, or your spur gear, or your diff gear.
You will find the teeth everywhere in your gearbox, you will replace the gear set, you also could built a new gearset with billet steel alloy, you wil wear out the diff cups, the wheel axles, the half shafts.
No way, believe me.
If your King Cab is a runner absolutely consider to replace the entire gearbox and transmission included wheel axles and half shafts.
Don't think to swap the axles with the King Cab Universal Joints, they will wear out and snap very soon.
My 2 cents.

Max

[Sgt.Speirs]

@kontemax: I don't know what kind of dangerous, rc car gear killing dust/sand/gravel you have in Italy/Turin, but this we have here in South Germany definitly not

I have here a King Cab from a friend and he assured me that this are the original gears from the 90s. And I know from back in the day that he also drove a tuning motor from LRP. He drove his King Cab not competitive or on a track, but nearly daily in front of his parents house or on gravel parking lot.

 

The spur gear has some wear and the motor pinion has a lot of wear, but the counter gear(s) look good.

In this case I'm not as pessimistic about the original transmission as you are. But everybody should be aware that these parts are more than 30 years old.

[Sgt.Speirs]

And here we have the final pics of the installed electronics.

 

The receiver is for display purposes only

The chassis from the rear...

...with the already mentioned Hop-Up Option 53001.

 

That's it for now with the restoration of my Hilux Monster Racer.

The next episode will be the restoration of the King Cab body and the cleaning of the remaining King Cab rims. But this will be a project for 2023

[kontemax]

13 hours ago, Sgt.Speirs said:

@kontemax: I don't know what kind of dangerous, rc car gear killing dust/sand/gravel you have in Italy/Turin, but this we have here in South Germany definitly not

I have here a King Cab from a friend and he assured me that this are the original gears from the 90s. And I know from back in the day that he also drove a tuning motor from LRP. He drove his King Cab not competitive or on a track, but nearly daily in front of his parents house or on gravel parking lot.

Have a look at the half shaft ends and at he diff cups and wheel axles.
I can see the wearing in the picture.
A simple Dyna Run Stock motor (23 Turns) and a 14T pinion gear and the transmission fails.
The dust is inside the gearbox, have a check.

Max

[kontemax]

This is the motor I always used on my King Cab.

https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=52319&id=24

Max

 

[Collin]

7 hours ago, kontemax said:

Have a look at the half shaft ends and at he diff cups and wheel axles.
I can see the wearing in the picture.
A simple Dyna Run Stock motor (23 Turns) and a 14T pinion gear and the transmission fails.
The dust is inside the gearbox, have a check.

Max

I can see this wear on almost every other driven Tamiya as well. @Sgt.Speirs restored a shelfie, so I guess its okay to use "as original" parts.

[kontemax]

3 hours ago, Collin said:

I can see this wear on almost every other driven Tamiya as well. @Sgt.Speirs restored a shelfie, so I guess its okay to use "as original" parts.

If Sgt.Speirs uses it it's not a shelfie but a runner.
Anyway, I gave you my experience, that's all.

Max

[Kol__]

On 11/17/2022 at 9:14 PM, Sgt.Speirs said:

And then I got a present from...yes, I think I can say "friend" from Hampshire, UK
Thanks @Kol__

Absolutely buddy😃 And thank you for your kind help also👍

Got to say that chassis looks amazing mate!😍 You must be very pleased with it?

With all the period correct electronics, it just finishes it off so nicely. For mine, I will have the new resistor and a used MSC as well. Any tips on how best to clean up the MSC bud?

[Sgt.Speirs]

@Kol__

2 hours ago, Kol__ said:

...Any tips on how best to clean up the MSC bud?

I would use first isopropyl alcohol...with a towel for the wires and tooth brush for the MSC itself. That's what I used for mine.

[Sgt.Speirs]

The thread goes on with this nice piece…

The Hilux Monster Racer is done…now (or in 2023) it’s time for building its sister model.

[2Dover3D]

This is awsome! As a king cab lover I would most definitely like to purchase or invest in these if possible! Keep up the great work bro! 

[Sgt.Speirs]

@2Dover3D: The final gear case is available on Shapeways and the needed parts are here listed:

TRF201 Transmission Conversion for Nissan King Cab, Hilux Monster Racer, (Super) Astute & Madcap

To be honest it’s not the cheapest way to revise/upgrade a King Cab transmission, but it‘s a brilliant part 😜

[Sgt.Speirs]

The last post here was more than a year ago, so it's time for an update.

Although I think, this TRF201 transmission is a great thing, there come up a few things I wanted to improve when I was developing the TRF201 Transmission Conversion for Dyna Blaster & Dyna Storm.
Due to the poor availability of TRF201 parts (e.g. gear cover), I wanted to reuse more original parts and thus reduce the price of this conversion.

For the Dyna TRF201 conversion I reused the motor plate and the gear cover as well. Not as easy when the original King Cab gear cover has no slipper clutch as the Dyna Blaster/Storm.

 

Here is my Hi-Lux Monster Racer. From the right side...nothing special...especially the gear cover looks pretty standard (ok, the center screw is missing).

 

But there are some differences on the left side...there is an additional screw like on the BBX.

 

And that's it. This BBX transmission conversion uses the BBX slipper (instead of the TRF201 one) which let us re-use the original motor plate and the gear cover.

 

But the hardest part of this conversion was not the gearbox itself. It was the outer bearing of the slipper shaft. The position where I need the bearing has a diameter of 5.6 mm...and there is no ball bearing with 5.6mm inner diameter
So I took a reamer and made a custom tube with 6 mm outer diameter and 5.6 mm inner diameter for the 1260 ball bearing.

Starting from the left side: 1260 ball bearing, spacer, custom tube, BBX slipper shaft, 1050 ball bearing.

The tube sits very tight, so there is no chance that this will rotate instead of the ball bearing.

 

And the complete slipper shaft.

 

 

The self-printed gearbox was very promising, so the next step will be to order the gearbox part from my favourite 3D printing company and do further tests. I think it's going to be pretty cool

[Grumpy pants]

Very neat, very cool 👏

[Kol__]

21 hours ago, Sgt.Speirs said:

The self-printed gearbox was very promising, so the next step will be to order the gearbox part from my favourite 3D printing company and do further tests. I think it's going to be pretty cool

Wow mate, very cool. So this is using the BBX slipper parts and a custom 5.6mm sleeve, and a 3D printed gearbox.  What stock parts are used?

[Sgt.Speirs]

1 hour ago, Kol__ said:

What stock parts are used?

Only the motor plate and the gear cover are overtaken from the King Cab. That’s the benefit of this variant.
Slipper clutch (BBX), idler gear (31T 48dp Team Associated) and gear diff (TA06) are needed additionally…it follows the same concept as my Dyna201 gearbox.

And if this gearbox makes it into the sale, I will also provide this custom tube/pipe😉

[Sgt.Speirs]

The final 3D printed arrived at the end of the week and the assembly is done.

Idler gear and gear diff are borrowed from the Dyna201 (sister) gearbox:

 

No issues during the assembly…everything was as intended.

 

Comparision with the original gearbox (right side):

 

And more detail shots:

 

Gearbox with the original gearbox cover:

 

The next steps will be (as I’ve done for the Dyna201 gearbox before) to make some test runs (in 2025). 
For that, the upcoming re-release of the Super Astute will be the perfect test vehicle😊

Have a wonderful pre-Christmas time!🎄

[Sgt.Speirs]

Today I got a e-mail notification from my favourite RC shop that the re-released Super Astute is shipped to me.

This was a trigger to think about the TRF201 transmission conversion (with 27T idler gear). The TRF201 parts are getting harder and harder to get (especially the gearbox cover, which is almost sold out), and it will probably be similar for the other parts (e.g. motor plates) soon. And a additional 3D printed gear cover drives up the price for this modification.
So could the BBX slipper version (with 31T idler gear and compatible with the original motor plate) be modified into a version for the TRF201/TD2/4 slipper clutch?

The idea behind:

• BBX slipper variant for Nissan King Cab / Hi-Lux Monster Racer / Madcap / Astute with original (non-slipper) gear cover.
• A new TRF201 variant for Super Astute or King Cab / Hi-Lux Monster Racer / Madcap / Astute with Super Astute polycarbonate gear cover.

And during the 3D investigation I asked myself why the 31T idler gear is needed. For the Dyna201 gearbox/motor plate definitly, but why for for the King Cab / Astute motor plate?

So what was the result...there are now two new gearboxes with 100% Tamiya parts inside (no Team Associated 31T idler gear). One variant for the BBX slipper clutch and one for the TRF201/TD4/TD2 slipper clutch.

Right side the modified BBX variant, left side the new TRF201v2 variant.

The internal gears are the same as in the original TRF201 gearbox, only the N15 spacer is a little bit shorter.

More gearboxes for testing in 2025 🙈

[ruebiracer]

so cool Thomas, many choices to have a "underdog" look. Great design work and beautifully done.

Have a nice Christmas,

Matthias

[Sgt.Speirs]

Thanks for your kind words, Matthias😊
I only still miss a Madcap to build in this gearbox for the TOC 2025😉

Merry Christmas to you and your familiy too!

[ruebiracer]

I´m sure, you´ll source a Madcap sometime!