Tamiya Era 778 Posted December 18, 2013 Do you mean in the whole manual? Yup..:-) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Quandry 378 Posted December 18, 2013 Yup..:-) Ok I don't have my manual to hand at the moment, however the one on Tamiyausa.com is showing 47. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Quandry 378 Posted December 18, 2013 Wow! the next step is showing only a few parts but makes a big difference in that we start to see the build resemble an actual car! Joining the rear suspension to the frame... Two long screws are used to join the upper chassis to the rear subframe The next step is to install a sway bar bracket, bar, and also attach these to the supension upright links using grub screws. There is then two circlips to pin the pivot rod arms on to the lower suspension arms and a screw to locate the top part of the pivot in place. Overall I am not 100% sure of the effectiveness of the rear sway bar.... It is not held in place very well and so far looks to be highly ineffective. I will remind myself of the mantra "Always trust Tamiya" and continue with the build, maybe later in the build the sway bar will be held more effectively by another part I am not aware of yet. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shenlonco 1156 Posted December 18, 2013 Just a tip those long screws they use to join the chassis half's together are a pain to put in ... may want to try putting some of your silicone shock oil on the threads so they go in easier. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Quandry 378 Posted December 18, 2013 Just a tip those long screws they use to join the chassis half's together are a pain to put in ... may want to try putting some of your silicone shock oil on the threads so they go in easier. Good tip! I got them already though, I had to try three different screwdrivers to make sure I had the right size head but got there in the end. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Percymon 2184 Posted December 18, 2013 Overall I am not 100% sure of the effectiveness of the rear sway bar.... It is not held in place very well and so far looks to be highly ineffective. I will remind myself of the mantra "Always trust Tamiya" and continue with the build, maybe later in the build the sway bar will be held more effectively by another part I am not aware of yet. I know what you mean - i thought exactly the same with my resto - the wire just seems to slop around in the central red support piece 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Quandry 378 Posted December 18, 2013 The next step is to adjoin the front axle assembly to the frame - this is 4WD afterall!!! For this job we need prop shaft, 4 screws and two carbon plates that also double as front sway bar holders. The front gear box sits down nicely in to the top body chassis, a perfect fit. Some Molyb grease and Urethane spacers for the prop shaft and hey presto: Now we're starting to look like a Hotshot! And the next step is shock assemblies Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Quandry 378 Posted December 18, 2013 The chassis driver is the one you use & you put the head on that . Great build thread . I have a 10.5 brushless system with 2s li-po & that is great . I did put in a 5.5 brushless motor in & that was just NUT'S .. Cheers! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shenlonco 1156 Posted December 18, 2013 Hi not those screws see the bottom little box that hold s on to the top half of the chassis with long screws and there the ones that are a pain the heads get messed ed up .. I would try shock oil on them 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Quandry 378 Posted December 18, 2013 Hi not those screws see the bottom little box that hold s on to the top half of the chassis with long screws and there the ones that are a pain the heads get messed ed up .. I would try shock oil on them Thanks for the heads up... and I thought the two chassis ones were painful enough.... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Quandry 378 Posted December 18, 2013 The shock bodies that came in this kit are nice aluminium design. Quite similar to the Wild One ReRe shocks, maybe higher capacity? although I had not lined them up next to each other. I presume they have to carry some extra amount of weight though seeing as they are supporting two corners each and not just one. The first step in the assembly process is to clip on a top circlip: Then fit a piston and then snug that up with a bottom circlip to hold it in place There is then two red seals that sit on the arm and it is then inserted in to the top of the shock body, pushing the shaft fully to the bottom We then have some bottom seals, shaft guide, a brass bushing, end cap and some various fittings to deal with ... unfortunately now I had to pack up the kit so it might take a day or two to get more progress pics organised! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HunterZero 76 Posted December 20, 2013 The rear anti roll bar doesn't do anything until the roll cage is bolted on, and the anti roll bar clipped into it. The problem with the rear suspension is that with the combined damper, while it has enough damping travel when only one wheel compresses, it doesn't have anywhere near enough travel when both wheels compress causing the damper to bottom out. Loving the build pics! I've build a couple of Hot Shots and Super Shots, still my favourite chassis to build. So old-school with all the chunky plastic parts. - James 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Quandry 378 Posted December 20, 2013 The next steps in the process involved making the oil filled shocks. The Hotshot MS kit comes with a blue coloured oil. In the manual it shows the following options for damper oil:(Soft) Red # 200(Soft) Orange # 300(Soft) Yellow # 400(Medium) Green # 500(Medium) Blue # 600(Medium) Purple # 700(Hard) Pink # 800(Hard) Clear # 900(Hard) Light Blue # 1000The oil that I have looks like Light Blue, but I am not sure if it could be Blue and Light Blue is really light...??Anyway following the documented procedure I started filling with oil and moving the piston up and down to release any trapped air Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Quandry 378 Posted December 20, 2013 One unit completed, time to move on to the second...Overall the Hotshot shock units have a nice high quality feel to the alloy casing and give a very satisfying pressure when actuating by hand. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Quandry 378 Posted December 20, 2013 Because we are only dealing with fitting two shocks and not four, there's not a whole lot of parts involved: The top of the shock is held in a two piece carrier Tamiya has designed these units with adjustable spring preload, based on this collar By turning the collar you can adjust the amount of free space of which the spring can take up Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Quandry 378 Posted December 20, 2013 Tamiya instruct us to fit the spring and then screw on the plastic base. I found it a bit tricky due to the tension of the spring, particularly in light that the shaft has to cut the thread in the plastic at the same time. So I used one of the long screws from the kit bags and precut the thread which made the process far easier As with many things the first unit was tricky, and the second was a doddle, I then took the chance to apply the decals to the shock units. Unfortunately the surface for the decal is not perfectly flat so they come out a bit screwy looking (even though they are applied correctly). I used water to get the decal to mold around the compound curve correctly. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Quandry 378 Posted December 20, 2013 Fitting the shocks to the chassis is a quite straight forward process using circlips. On the front it's also time to fit the sway bar at the same time: On the rear a single pin and a screw pin Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Quandry 378 Posted December 20, 2013 Moving on to the next page of the build we start looking at the electronics and steering First step was to make up the steering arms, hook up and RX and center my servo. I am using a Hitec digital servo with Karbonite gears. After running through the servo saver horns, I found that the Futaba horn manages to fit this particular servo, it was a little offcenter but with the help of the subtrim funciton in my radio I was able to get it pretty much spot on. There's a specific Hotshot horn that is used in the servo saver from the regular parts tree. It's quite striking in bright red so you can't miss it and is designed to work with the dual bual link system. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Quandry 378 Posted December 20, 2013 Ball links screwed in with the help of the Tamiya kit wrench Fitting arms is a sinch with the help of my ball link pliers Then we prepare the radio tray with some split pin fixing posts Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Quandry 378 Posted December 20, 2013 I had to play around a bit with the mounting blocks, but finally got the servo sitting in to the tray in the exact right position that I was happy with The kit comes with a 104BK ESC which unfortunately does not have BEC. So I dug around in my spare parts box and came up with this Turnigy UBEC. Tight ish but it should fit. I was then packing up everything as it was getting late and my eye wandered to those shiny gold wheels...... While probably I should have called it quits, I could not help myself and opened the packet to take a look Of course they look great, but my first impression is that the wheels feel quite weak!? The plastic is very thin and as I started to fit them to the tires I was actually scared to push too hard in case they broke in my hands! On top of that they tires were an absolute *&(^*(&^*%^ to fit, they have a bead which needs to seat in the rim just like a real tire. This involves a lot of stretching, pulling, swearing to get them on, however when they do go on they sit with a satisfying POP noise, just like a real tire So with one wheel ready that gave me the confidence to move on to the others. And then of course the obligatory test fit (no wheel nuts so forgive poor fitment) 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BangkokBulldog 151 Posted December 20, 2013 Really am enjoying this build. Regarding the stickers on the shocks Quandry, try heating them gently with a lighter and flatting them with your fingers over the curves. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shenlonco 1156 Posted December 20, 2013 Nice ... pretty soon the dreaded long screws into the electronics box that attaches to the upper chassis. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IBIFTKH 1369 Posted December 20, 2013 Really enjoying this thread, really well documented and great photography. But... you've got to stop now because you're making me want one!!!! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wood5tock 864 Posted December 20, 2013 Fantastic build thread mate, great for anyone doing the same model The gold and red is going to look awesome. Tell us more about these 'ball joint' pliers as I had a wee bit of trouble doing the ones on my Nova Fox. Where do you get them and how do they work? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Quandry 378 Posted December 20, 2013 Fantastic build thread mate, great for anyone doing the same model The gold and red is going to look awesome. Tell us more about these 'ball joint' pliers as I had a wee bit of trouble doing the ones on my Nova Fox. Where do you get them and how do they work? Thanks for all of the great suggestions and comments all. Regarding ball link pliers, any hobby shop that does RC Helis should sell them. Anything Align, Hirobo, Thunder Tiger etc, all use a similar ball link system with a ton of links all over the place. So to keep the links in good condition (and save your figners from undue stress) you can use ball link pliers which work one way for removing the ball, and one way for inserting the ball. Really invaluable tool for RC use... Just google Heli ball link pliers and you should find them. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites