Weakest part of the SRB?

[Twmaster]

Other than the obvious nature of the body shells being easy to break what is considered the weakness of the SRB chassis and suspension? Front suspension, gearbox? Rear suspension? Your opinions/experiences please.

Thanks!

[supergreg]

The front bumper IMO. That's why they are hard to get nowadays.

[mud4fun]

I always found the white plastic ball cups were useless, the balls kept popping out - sorted by tying a small tie-wrap around the suspension arms as per the later super champ.

The steering ball joints on the steering uprights uses a 2mm thread which always snapped off so I drilled and tapped my arms to suit M3 thread balls instead.

The steering rods would bend easily so I replaced those with 3mm threaded rod and new ball ends.

The servo saver would pop out all the time so I replaced that with a super champ item which is excellent although you then have to devise a new front body mounting.

The brass UJ's would wear out quite fast so I replaced them with steel ones.

Other than that it was/is quite a strong chassis. []

[Scorchio]

Again M4F covered it there [] but just a note of warning, If you upgrade the steering rods to S Champ ones only they are captive so they wont pop out but will break servo saver completly. Don't ask how I know this []

Oh and just remembered, front swing arm pins prone to bending. Go Superchamp on the entire front end if you can as these pins are stronger.

[DJTheo]

quote:The steering ball joints on the steering uprights uses a 2mm thread which always snapped off so I drilled and tapped my arms to suit M3 thread balls instead.

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I had the opposite problem of the steering uprights breaking where the ball joints mount (too few and weak cast material around) so I wouldn't recommend making them even weaker with a bigger hole, ball joints can still be found easily, while uprights not.

With the rest of the modifications though I totally agree [8D]

Cheers

[mud4fun]

LOL, Theo, it is funny you should say that, as it happens I spotted that on some of my SRB steering uprights some had more 'flesh' around the tapped hole for the steering ball joint than others. I used a pair of these 'later'??? arms on my monster scorcher. They have 8mm diameter of flesh where the tapped hole is. An M3 tapped hole causes no problems as it leaves 2.5mm all the way around the outside of the hole which is only a little less than normal engineering safe practise of 1d (1 x diameter of hole)

I recently sold hundreds of parts to another TC member as I downsized my SRB collection from 8 to 2 but I noticed that there were many variations (mostly subtle) in designs of those alloy parts. Some had extra strengthening ribs etc. It appears Tamiya evolved the design of the SRB over the years. Mind you I think those steering uprights were used on another none SRB model which was much later than the SRB's although I can't remember the model.

[kevinthegerbil]

quote:Originally posted by mud4fun

Mind you I think those steering uprights were used on another none SRB model which was much later than the SRB's although I can't remember the model.

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Try Brat / Frog / Lancia [8D]. I believe they also have the Balljoints for the Trackrods 'riveted' on!

[PTV70R]

WIth ref to the front uprights, I have recently strippred around 15 SRB's and 1 of them had the riveted balls fitted - I wondered if someone had done a mod but perhaps they were latter ones from the brat etc that had been retro fitted.

[J3cubfan]

Wonder why no one mentioned the radio box. With all the closing and opening with those metal cams, and bumping around, I could see these getting abuse especially the plastic corners that hold the cams. Just my opinion.[?]

John