Blackfoot Upgrades

[tschmidt]

I just purchased a blackfoot on ebay. The body is a little rough but the chassis and everything else look great. I would like to upgrade a lot of things on it. Motor, bearings stuff like that to make it a little faster and stronger. Not sure what to purchase. I have been into rc for a while but they were like tyco and nikko. I do have a grasshopper ll suger g that i have had since i was a kid but never put it together. I bought the blackfoot for me and my son to work on.

There are a few other things like why does the truck go in reverse when i want to go forward on the remote is there a switch or a wire switched?

Why does the backend sag a little?

Why does it chatter a little when i turn at high speed? There seems to be a lot of play in the front wheels and i think the rear axles may be bent.

Could you guys please help. Pictures and numbers would be great. I want this thing to last for a while.

[Old Skool]

Hi,

There are a lot of things you can do. First off I would go though it and make sure it has bearing all the way around. The thing that I replace first is the old style hex drive shafts with either a throp set up you can get these off E-Bay but can be pricey. You can buy the the drive parts for the Re Released Frog or Brat which work great. Here are a couple of links to my trucks that have both. The blackfoot is a very fun and pretty easy truck to work on.

Dale

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.a...9&sid=19281

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.a...70&id=19281

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.a...54&id=19281

[tschmidt]

Wow that first one looks pretty cool. I like it. Are these the shafts you are talking about?

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti00...=LXNKY5&P=Z

Will replacing bearings and stuff help the front end steering chatter and the play?

Ill try to post some better pics.

Does everything thats out there for new frog fit on the blackfoot?

[Old Skool]

Those are not the ones I have but I was going to try them and they should work better. Putting bearings in never hurt anything you could also upgrade to heavy duty steering rods which you cah make your self. I will get you the info on the parts you need and post them. Thanks for the comment most parts are the same.

Dale

[tschmidt]

Thank you very much for your help. Do you know much about the grasshopper 2 suger g? I sitll have one in the box i never put together yet.

[Old Skool]

Thank you very much for your help. Do you know much about the grasshopper 2 suger g? I sitll have one in the box i never put together yet.

If they are the same as the original yes as I started out with a Hornet back in the day.

[tschmidt]

How many turns is a stock 540?

[Old Skool]

I could be wrong but I think 27. Here's a site with some good info http://home19.inet.tele.dk/martinjordt/res...tors/motors.htm

[tschmidt]

So if i were to upgrade to a 15T it would be a pretty good upgrade but i would need to upgrade the tranny and drivetrain.

[Old Skool]

For sure sure the gear box would only handle if for so long. The side plates have a problem of bending outward. You can add shims to push the diff in tighter and that helps me. If you could find a ball diff I would I have one in my mud blaster and love it. If you search the forum you can find all kinds of tricks and tips. There are alot of great people on here that are very know alot about these trucks and we all have are ways.

Dale

[tschmidt]

Thanks

[Old Skool]

Anytime and have a Happy New Year

Dale

[tschmidt]

Thanks same to you.

[TAZ-NZ]

I just purchased a blackfoot on ebay. The body is a little rough but the chassis and everything else look great. I would like to upgrade a lot of things on it. Motor, bearings stuff like that to make it a little faster and stronger. Not sure what to purchase. I have been into rc for a while but they were like tyco and nikko. I do have a grasshopper ll suger g that i have had since i was a kid but never put it together. I bought the blackfoot for me and my son to work on.

There are a few other things like why does the truck go in reverse when i want to go forward on the remote is there a switch or a wire switched?

Why does the backend sag a little?

Why does it chatter a little when i turn at high speed? There seems to be a lot of play in the front wheels and i think the rear axles may be bent.

Could you guys please help. Pictures and numbers would be great. I want this thing to last for a while.

Hi tschmidt,

My suggested for things to if your going to run a 15t motor are:

bin the orginal rear axel, hex drives, drive cup, and pickup up a set of these.

RC Frog 2005 Assem Univ. Shaft , they are drop in upgrade but do the Oldfrogshot Screw mod on them.

Pick up a new set of Frog/brat re-release bevel gears for the diff (the one you have are probably shot, not far short of it)

Look at picking up a complete set or Frog/brat re-re transmissons gear (make sure you get the C-clip) this will give you more gear options. (a CRP adjustable motor mount goes great with these as you can run odd ball combos of gears)

Grab a King/Super Blackfoot B-tree remove the old servo cover and the aluminum MSC mount, and replace them with the H1 and H10 parts for the new B-tree, you'll need a couple of extra 3x8mm screws to hold down the back of the new servo cover to the MSC mount. Doing this acts as a brace for the front shock tower, which tend to break without the extra support. (I'm guess your running a ESC so cut the MSC post of the new B1 part and mount your reciver under the servo cover in place of the MSC)

With a ESC you only need one servo, so you can move the steering servo over and mount it on an angle so in centered like the image below, this helps handling alot, do this as part of a steering rod upgrade, just buy some ball ends and thread rod from you local hobby store to replace the stock steering arms. (Get something heavier duty that the stock items, and possible get a new servo saver too).

Bearings all round will help take a lot of slack out of the wheel and help handling and preformance. (note all the ebay kits are two bearings short as they don't include replace the two that come in the transmission stock)

If the the back end is sagging alot, it's probably your shocks, grab some shock claps to increase pressure on the springs, or replace the shocks. (you want it firm on the rear to stop roller overs in the corners) if you can find an old aftermarket rear sway bar they do wonders.

A frog, full length aluminum helps reduces front end flex.

That the should give you something to get started on, the screw mod and the servo cover swith are most in my book, without them you'll go though dozens of diffs in no time and you risk the front shock tower breaking and it very hard to find new now and often expensive to replace.

[mymonsterbeetleisbroken]

Hi and welcome!

I think i might be able to help with the rear suspension...

It sounds like the rear suspension arms have worn the aluminium gearbox side plates at the point where they pivot. This causes a lot of slop in the rear suspension, making the wheels lean inwards and the rear end sag down.

Try and wobble the rear suspension arms and see if there is any play. If so, you'll need new gearbox side plates. I recommend an after market rear suspension support set too, made by team CRP:

Click here for the CRP rear suspension supports fitted to my truck!

This is a really worth while upgrade, as it makes the rear suspension far more durable, and stronger too.

I also recommend a pair of these:

Again made by team CRP, there old stock is still available on ebay.com

They replace the weak rear shock mounts, which flex and eventually crack, especially when using oil filled shocks.

I also attach the shocks to the rear arms using a nut and bolt, rather than a self tapping screw. This makes for a much stronger joint, as a nut and bolt spreads the load better than a screw does.

Give the front suspension the same treatment by drilling the mounting holes out and adding a long bolt (i use the bolts from the inside of grasshopper shock absorbers)

Hope this helps

[tschmidt]

wow thanks guys thats a lot of stuff to help me out. I want to change the motor but not sure. I think other stuff should be replaced first before a new motor goes in. I was using a 15T as an example.

[tschmidt]

Here are some pics i took today.

[tschmidt]

How do i reduce the file size if my pics so i can put more one.

[Old Skool]

Not bad looks to be in pretty good shape

[tschmidt]

yeah its in good shape just needs updating. The body is rough and falling apart though.

[TAZ-NZ]

yeah its in good shape just needs updating. The body is rough and falling apart though.

Unless you pay big money it's hard to get a blackfoot that is in good condition all round, more often than not either body or the chassis need major work.

I once picked up durt cheap off ebay, a near mint monster beetle chassis without body, it only had one broken steering upright, everyone bidding seemed to think it was a wreck. (I got it for spares, but ended up building it into a blackfoot)

There are alot of good to average conidtion Blackfoot bodies out there, that are able to be restored, and can be picked up cheap with a bad paint jobs & lumped in with total wreck of a chassis on ebay.

The Blackfoot is a great car, you just need to put a bit of work into it before you start bolting modern hardware to it, and then rememer it's 15+ year old design so it has it limits.

[Live Steam Mad]

How do i reduce the file size if my pics so i can put more one.

You can do that by 2 ways. Reduce the resolution or make the compression higher in the JPEG. Very easy to do in e.g. Photoshop, a few seconds' work.

Cheers,

Ali G.

[tschmidt]

[TAZ-NZ]

The body doesn't look to bad, atleast from what you can make out in the image ( it always look worse in person), but people have started with alot worse and come up with some stunners. You've got the front windows and it hasn't been painted or badly scatched from that I can see,It looks like you have the rear window as well but again I can't tell for sure from the image, the right front fender is intact, can't see the left front fender (hopefully this isn't damaged, as they are a pain to repair) if that's intact your already ahead of half the used bodies out there. looks like your missing the sun roof (everyone is, but you can get them on ebay cheep) the chrome is a little warn but again seen alot worse and it all appears to be all there, looks like the hood is ok too, no split down the middle. The only thing you seam to be missing is the driver.

I'm sure the paint (if there is any) and the decal have seen better days, and you probably missing a half dozen or more screws, and the body sure to have a few scatch and scapes, but without see some larger images with more detail it looks like you've got something worth working with.

[tschmidt]

the only window i have is the windshield. The body isnt scratched to bad and decals are pretty good. Its cracked were the box meets the body. Im sure its a easy fix with some putty or some glue.