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Df-03 Troubles...

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Hi

I recently got a DF-03 Dark Impact buggy. I'm impressed with the layout and the modern gearbox. It has the alloy dampers and slipper cltuch too which makes it even better. The ball diffs also make it a good drive.

I do have a couple of issues, though.

Firstly and worst of all is the rear drive shafts particularly keep dropping out of the cups. The left one is particularly bad. I understand they are supposed to have springy sponge inserts in the diff cups to us the shafts out and keep them engaged in the wheel stub shaft cup. It seems these are either missing or have been beaten flat on mine. Anyone got a source for replacement ones (preferably in the UK) or know of an alternative to using them at all? They seem like a bit ofa daft idea to me...

Also, the rear gearbox casing has a damned great crack in the top which means the wing and damper tower flaps about. I have ordered a new set, but would like to know is this issue common in DF-03 buggies?

Any advice appreciated.

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Hi

I recently got a DF-03 Dark Impact buggy. I'm impressed with the layout and the modern gearbox. It has the alloy dampers and slipper cltuch too which makes it even better. The ball diffs also make it a good drive.

I do have a couple of issues, though.

Firstly and worst of all is the rear drive shafts particularly keep dropping out of the cups. The left one is particularly bad. I understand they are supposed to have springy sponge inserts in the diff cups to us the shafts out and keep them engaged in the wheel stub shaft cup. It seems these are either missing or have been beaten flat on mine. Anyone got a source for replacement ones (preferably in the UK) or know of an alternative to using them at all? They seem like a bit ofa daft idea to me...

Running the pads in the diff outdrives is a must. They keep the dirt out of the ball diff adjustmet screw/nut/thrust bearing, and they help to keep the dogbones in place. The dogbones will spit out if the suspension is set to run with too much ground clearance. The assembly universal shafts will also spit out in the same way. The lower arm and dogbone are not parallel and if the suspesnion can drop too far they can be removed without undoing anything.

The pads can be purchased separately. Not sure where in UK would carry them. 9805922 Tamiya Urethane Bushing-White.

Also, the rear gearbox casing has a damned great crack in the top which means the wing and damper tower flaps about. I have ordered a new set, but would like to know is this issue common in DF-03 buggies?

Any advice appreciated.

This will happen on any buggy when you bounce it from end to end and it lands the wrong way on the rear wing (upside down backwards). It either tears the tower in half or rips it from the gearbox mount. I've done this on my DF01 a few times from attempting silly big jumps.

One thing to keep a close eye on in the DF03 is the mainshaft gear wear (the one on the slipper shaft). This is the only aluminium gear in the buggy and it does wear quite quickly. You know it's been wearing when you lift the rear gear cover and find a greyish paste where your grease used to be. I recommend you lift the rear gearcover every few runs, clean the teeth and regrease to get maximum life from the gear. I've worn out 9 of these shafts in my time of racing the DF03. There is a hardened steel replacement made by Five Stars, part number FS-7039. The hardened steel mainshafts last for eons.

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I put in an order for some 3Racing parts,

Front Graphite Shock Tower

Rear Graphite Shock Tower

4x CVD axles

Upper Rear Gearbox Stiffener

Titanium Turnbuckles

Rear Gearbox lower arm brace (basically for quicker rear gearbox strip-down)

Running the pads in the diff outdrives is a must. They keep the dirt out of the ball diff adjustmet screw/nut/thrust bearing, and they help to keep the dogbones in place. The dogbones will spit out if the suspension is set to run with too much ground clearance. The assembly universal shafts will also spit out in the same way. The lower arm and dogbone are not parallel and if the suspesnion can drop too far they can be removed without undoing anything.

There are pads in there, but they're old and beaten flat, or they aren't deep enough to hold the shafts.

The pads can be purchased separately. Not sure where in UK would carry them. 9805922 Tamiya Urethane Bushing-White.

This will happen on any buggy when you bounce it from end to end and it lands the wrong way on the rear wing (upside down backwards). It either tears the tower in half or rips it from the gearbox mount. I've done this on my DF01 a few times from attempting silly big jumps.

I've ordered a bag from each of 2 suppliers in the u to see if one of them turns up the goods. I never have much luck with more obscure Tamiya parts and actually getting them in less than 3 weeks ;)

As for the rear gear case, the upside down crash thing makes sense, the wing is complete toast, it looks like the previous owner wasn't very good at landing it wheels-down ;)

One thing to keep a close eye on in the DF03 is the mainshaft gear wear (the one on the slipper shaft). This is the only aluminium gear in the buggy and it does wear quite quickly. You know it's been wearing when you lift the rear gear cover and find a greyish paste where your grease used to be. I recommend you lift the rear gearcover every few runs, clean the teeth and regrease to get maximum life from the gear. I've worn out 9 of these shafts in my time of racing the DF03. There is a hardened steel replacement made by Five Stars, part number FS-7039. The hardened steel mainshafts last for eons.

I'll keep an eye on the mainshaft gear for sure, thanks for the tip.

I can't find anywhere selling the FS-7039 shaft, any ideas?

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I can't find anywhere selling the FS-7039 shaft, any ideas?

These are hard to get outside of Japan. JR-RC sometimes has them in his ebay shop. That's where I got mine from. If you can read Japanese, I see them listed on Japanese hobby websites.

Tamiya should have released a hardened steel mainshaft by now for the DF03. I'd call it a must have part for any DF03/DF03RA. It's bad they supplied the kits with an aluminium gear in the first place, worse that they don't have a better part to replace it with.

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These are hard to get outside of Japan. JR-RC sometimes has them in his ebay shop. That's where I got mine from. If you can read Japanese, I see them listed on Japanese hobby websites.

Ah, yes, excellent, I'm a regular customer of jr-rc :lol:

Tamiya should have released a hardened steel mainshaft by now for the DF03. I'd call it a must have part for any DF03/DF03RA. It's bad they supplied the kits with an aluminium gear in the first place, worse that they don't have a better part to replace it with.

I know from dismantling TA-01/TA-02 gearboxes they laughably thought alloy gears were a good idea in those too mixed with a nylon spur gear and diff casing. They wear like crazy.

I agree. There's a lot of DF-03 and RA chassis about and they are a current sale item still so why not a hardened gear. Running alloy against their nylon gears has always been a bad idea, that's why everyone with any sense runs steel pinions.

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I put in an order for some 3Racing parts,

Front Graphite Shock Tower

Rear Graphite Shock Tower

4x CVD axles

Upper Rear Gearbox Stiffener

Titanium Turnbuckles

Rear Gearbox lower arm brace (basically for quicker rear gearbox strip-down)

I bought almost all hopups available for the DF03 a few years ago when I raced it in mod 4WD buggy class, only had a problem with two aftermarket parts..

My 3racing front shock tower broke/snapped after one bad hit, the stock tower has more give and works fine.

Also, my 3racing and YEAH racing CVD's went bad (broke and warp) when I raced it,

a pick below

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/pictureframe.asp...007212217_5.jpg

Check in my showroom to see more pics of my hopped up Dark Impact if you like.

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The Graphite plate broke? I thought the whole idea of carbon fibre is it's supposed to be flexible, strong and light. Maybe too much resin and not enough matting to keep the costs down? I know a lot of the DF-03 parts are on revision v.2 at 3Racing now so they may have improved the strength.

As for the CVDs, the one on the left looks like the pin dropped out of the cup. That's quite common on CVD axles (sadly, I wish it wasn't) I had to put heat-shrink sleeve over the cups on my TA-02 CVDs for that very reason. First time I ran it one spat a pin. *Luckily* I caught the pin and there was no damage. I planned on sleeving the 3Racing DF-03 ones before I even used them

The bent one looks like the pin slipped on the *inboard* end of the shaft, and the shaft moved off-centre while it was driving, and buckled. That's not so easy to solve, but a dab of liquid threadlock or solder might stop em moving about so much. I might just do that.

Thanks for the pointers anyway, it's good to know what might go wrong with it so I can prevent it :)

At the moment all I am doing is waiting on parts... I got a HPI Brama 10B rear wing yesterday for it (moulded nylon) to replace the mangled mess of lexan that was on it. Any idea where I can get some decals?

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The carbon upright snapped where the shock was mounted, it was a "high-Impact" collision (some flips) during a 4WD modified race...

The buggy was great with all the hopup options when I raced in stock class, I even ran a front oneway. When I raced Mod with silly power (10T brushed motor, GTX esc, HP NIHM's), the wear began on the CVD's. One CVD snapped during a race and the pin ends sheared off. And as seen in the pic, two warped and one was worst as I could feel it when driven.

Those were my only problems besides the motor (brushed) always unsoldered due to no heatsink/cooling four minutes into a race.

What happened to me was not common from what I hear from others. I am hard on my toys :) ..

What kind of decals you looking for? Dark Impact? Those should be available in the UK or ebay.

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I'm planning on running it with a 19T Reedy Challenger brushed motor for now. It seems fast enough on 2S to be a scream and not end up tearing itself apart.

I guess the CVD axles aren't really designed for racing with insane power :)

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I'm planning on running it with a 19T Reedy Challenger brushed motor for now. It seems fast enough on 2S to be a scream and not end up tearing itself apart.

I guess the CVD axles aren't really designed for racing with insane power :)

Sounds like a good setup. Have fun :rolleyes:

I hear that Top Force UJ's (CVD like) are very strong and will fit DF03. Never tried it myself so I am not sure if its true.

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Well for once my motor pinion setup was spot on - I went for the Hop-Up 23T pinion (nice and small to keep the gearing down) and it's fast and handleable, it gets warm but only warm, nothing's seriously hot after a 20 minute run out.

I am generally pretty happy with it as a package, the 3Racing parts all went on really easily and fit nicely. I'm impressed by the fit and finish of the parts generally. The Titanium turn buckles are a good idea as it made adjusting the steering and camber on the build a lot easier. My only complaint is the clip-on ball joints are a little 'limp' on the turn buckles. i flipped it on it's first test run and popped one of the rear ones off the wheel hub. I don't know if there is sufficient clearance inside the wheels to fit thru-fit ball joints but i'd certainly like to try at the back. I can't do it at the front without significant faffing because the balljoints are part of the steering kingpins.

I sleeved up the CVDs on the drive axles as I said to stop the pins moving - the sleeving extends back to the driveshaft to act as a partial boot to stop larger objects fouling the CVD. I've got miles of the heat-shrink sleeving so I'll strip, clean and re-sleeve the CVDs every 10 or so runs to prevent too much dust getting lodged in them.

My only other issue now is I have a big of oversteer under acceleration. It might be running a tight clutch on loose ground, although it slips a plenty when pulling away, but I think it also might need a bit of tuning. Any suggestions?

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Re steel mainshaft FS7039 I've just received mine from a Japanese store, hopefully in time before the rest of the gearbox got damaged.

Anyone interested in buying one email champ_international@yahoo.co.jp with your request and they'll come back with their paypal details and shipping options. Very excellent service from Masa Tani in their overseas sales dept. Mine was 1860yen shipped and I had it within a week to the UK

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Thanks for the tip about Masa and that mainshaft/gear, mate, got straight onto him about one. Would be sound if I could get one!

Does anyone know where I could find some appropriate 12mm Hex x 5mm wideners for the DF-03? I have some beefier wheels for it that I'd like to try, but they foul the steering hubs at the front pretty badly.

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