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Golden

Avante 2011 - prop shaft clearance and ball diff angle…

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Hi All - I’ve almost finished my Avante build, and was hoping to check a couple of points. 
 

There is possibly less than 1mm of clearance between the prop shaft and the top deck as it passes below it - is that right???

 

And… the bearing on the ball diff which seats into the rear part of the gearbox housing doesn’t seem to sit square. The diff has to sit at an angle so it meshes with the motor pinion - but the bearing doesn’t seem to seat into casing flush, but at an angle in the holder moulded into the casing? 
 

Have I messed it up…(!?)

 

pics below… and - I am NEVER using super glue to seal the edges of carbon fibre decks again….. made a complete mess and had to sand with super fine micro mesh and ultra fine car polish for hours to fix it!

As always, very gateful for advice. 

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02C093A7-6861-4831-91C5-7BB3779EA803.jpeg

4ADD381C-75F4-4569-BA23-BADBB252DCFB.jpeg

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5 hours ago, Golden said:

There is possibly less than 1mm of clearance between the prop shaft and the top deck as it passes below it - is that right???


It looks the same on my Avante and it runs fine…

0b42f6d3-7a27-4b8b-9odf86.jpeg

 

 

5 hours ago, Golden said:

And… the bearing on the ball diff which seats into the rear part of the gearbox housing doesn’t seem to sit square. The diff has to sit at an angle so it meshes with the motor pinion - but the bearing doesn’t seem to seat into casing flush, but at an angle in the holder moulded into the casing?

No worry, when you install the gear case cover (B3), this will push everything into the right place ;)

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Ah - thankyou for this. I did spin the motor up and it didn’t seem to catch, and sounded ok. Shall power through the build and can’t wait to get it up and running. Thanks again!

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In this chassis, both the motor and center diff are angled down toward the front of the car. This means the rear diff bearing is tipped forward to match. As mentioned previously, with the cover snapped into place it's all aligned perfectly. It does make setting up the pinion/spur mesh tricky though since it may appear good with the cover off, but then tighten up with the cover on. This is why modern cars almost all have exposed pinion & spur. Getting pinion mesh, slipper and ball diff setup perfect requires fingers have full access to locked down gears.

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Thank you for this - it just looked like the moulding in the gearbox for the bearing wasn’t angled to take the bearing correctly (the moulding looks square-on, whereas, as you rightly note, the bearing and diff and motor pinion are canted/angled slightly).  It might well be that the pinion is meshed too tightly. I’ll have a play…

I’m working through the build in order of the manual - and am just about to build the shocks. 

I’m using a savox low profile servo, which is black anodised aluminium, and looks great - but has super short wires. Think I need to find a black extension!

Does anyone use super glue to seal the carbon fibre deck edges? As mentioned, I have cleaned mine up and it looks fine - but what a mess and took AGES to gently sand and polish. 
 

This car will be a runner, as (please don’t hate me….) I have another one which is nib and will be a shelf queen😳- and there's no way I am  applying super glue to that one based on my recent experience!

Thanks again for everyone’s input. 

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I use super glue on on actual race cars with edges exposed to possible impact. My 415 has all the edges filed-round, sanded, sealed, and polished like you explained. I also did the same for some hop-up DB01 shock towers. Rounding the edges really helps prevent snags.

However, I personally wouldn't bother with chassis plates housed within lexan undertrays.

It was never in the instructions of older Tamiyas to seal the edges back in the days of stamped carbon and fiberglass parts. Back then they had WAY rougher edges from the factory too (but not as sharp). So all my vintage parts are unsealed. I've ran a Dyna Storm and Vanquish off road quite a bit and never split a stamped fiberglass shock tower. And the Dyna Storm always liked to land wheels up.

It's just added impact insurance. But definitely a lot of work to make look nice. Probably not necessary.

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Minor follow up. Have now built the shocks and attached the wheels (OMG it took AGES for the bubbles to disappear from the shocks….). It sounds pretty smooth with some power through it - but the diff feels really loose? If I lift the rear wheels, so the car is only on the front wheels, and turn both rear wheels together in the same direction, I can feel slight resistance from the centre diff, but it doesn’t pull the car forward/front wheels won’t drag it forwards. 
 

It feels the same/ish as my VQS - and that runs really well - but no where near as tight as my Top Force Evo (which I think has an adjustable diff). 
 

Anyone have any experience with this/let me know if it sounds right - maybe too much ball diff grease? I was very careful with building it/getting things in the right order, and have built similar types of diffs before as mentioned - but there’s always scope for messing it up….

Many thanks (again…!)!

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I use a Q-tip to apply super glue to CF parts.  Just drip the glue onto the Q-tip, then run it along the inside and outside edges and holes of the CF parts before the glue hardens up the tip.  The most I've had to deal with is a few strands of cotton fibers from the head of the Q-tip remaining on the CF, or the glue hardening REAL fast on the tip.

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Thanks - Just watched a video from Mick on his RC Hobby Shed you tube channel (in his avante build) and he used acetone to clean up the mess and then a light polish afterwards - and it looked pretty good. 

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Any views on how the diff should operate and  feel? As mentioned, if I tip the car onto its front wheels and turn the rears, the fronts don’t try to drag the car forwards, the diff just slips with a slight bite to it. 
 

many thanks!

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10 hours ago, Golden said:

As mentioned, if I tip the car onto its front wheels and turn the rears, the fronts don’t try to drag the car forwards, the diff just slips with a slight bite to it.

Are you sure that it is the diff (which slips) and not the motor (which turns)?

What happens when you tip the car on the (for example) left front AND rear wheels and you turn the right rear wheel clockwise? If the center diff works fine, the right front wheel have to turn counterclockwise.

By the way, did you tighten the diff screw well? The manual says "Don't over tighten" but in my Avante box there was an additional note on this step that the screw must be fully tightened.

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On the vintage Vanquish and Avantes the center diff is quite stiff. If I tried that same test I'm certain the front tires would slip and spin the same direction as the rear.

I can confirm the vintage diff is different from these re-re ones. The internal parts aren't all interchangeable. Chances are the setup is different.

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