Astute rear end conversion

[Leethal Driver 86]

Evening all

Nearly finished the tear down on my Astute resto and lo and behold the rear axle stub carriers (C2 part) are cracked on the top. Has anyone carried out the rear end conversion from the Jamie Booth World Edition Astute, and if so is it easy? From reading the article it sounds as though it's just MadCap rear arms and axle carriers, and then make up some new links.

Cheers

[TamiyaDan 8]

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[Leethal Driver 86]

Cool, cheers fella. Madcap rear end it is then.

[Thommo 1242]

re: the upper links, I tried a couple of different setups that didn't work (they either fouled on the rear damper spring or bent the inner pivot in a rollover).

I went back to the original upper links with the stainless steel plate removed. I used a standard ball connector and adjuster at the hub end but because the Astute's threaded rod is 4mm you need to enlarge the adjuster a little or just force it onto the 1mm larger thread. Cutting a couple of mm off the tube part of the hub that your ball connector will screw into will also help the link clear the rear damper. This now works great.

I think Stadium Blitzer rear hubs might work too but do some homework on that one first because I'm just going on appearance. Good luck.

[Thommo 1242]

Like This

[Leethal Driver 86]

Cheers mate, thanks for the pic - appreciated

[Percymon 2185]

I bought my Astute from ebay only to find the rear end glued together for it to survive a 50 second sales video !

I did the Astute swap, and for the upper links just used some spare Clod brass brass balls n connectors. The write up in the conversion a rticle mentions adding an extra spacer from recollection to assist clearance at the damper spring

[Jesse James 13]

hey guys, im nearly finished my astute build, one thing that has been mentioned to me which im not sure of, if the rear end is converted to the madcap gear, what toe in do i end up with in the rear? from looking at the chassis, the holes to mount the pivots dont seem to make toe in internally and the arms dont seem to have toe in them and the hubs are not left and right, so the must have no toe on them also, so i have to assume the rear to is zero degrees, how have people been finding driving the car with this setup, mine wont be going terribly quickly but it needs to handle

[Thommo 1242]

The rear toe is neutral. I use the Madcap parts for strength so I can live with no toe in on the rear.

Are you still planning to build it for vintage stock class enduro?

[Thommo 1242]

No problem Just a small update by the way:

I had finished the Super Astute block design, or so I thought, but when I saw my Super Astute in the flesh again (instead of pictures), I saw the open top was made by Tamiya to allow such low outdrives on the car! So I adjusted the part a bit, to fit on the Super Astute first time around!

To maximize stregth, I decided to use a non-symmetrical design, so the cutout doesn't have to be made across the whole length, or in two spots on the part. The nut on the rear also needs to be lower, so I decided to lower the mounting piece of the block. It is still about twice as thick as the original though!

PS: If more updates are to follow on the Super Astute project, either this will thread will have to change title, or a new thread will be made for the development of these parts in general.

Paul has a head start on this already. They just need some toe in

[Origineelreclamebord 45]

Paul has a head start on this already. They just need some toe in

*Hint, hint*?

[Thommo 1242]

I'm glad you saw the light side. The "need some toe in" comment was just for JJ (post #8). I don't think the Astute suffers any from having neutral toe at the rear. The Astute is a little tail heavy so this probably helps the rear straight line stability I suppose. Regardless, the Madcap rear end is always going to be more reliable than the Astute rear hubs with adjustable toe. I've heard of these breaking just from putting the screw pin in too tight.