FF03 intermediate wheelbase option? Offset touring car arms? Need some help!

[ThunderDragonCy 7873]

Completely unplanned a hopped up FF03 Pro turned up for sale this week and i snapped it up. It arrived yesterday and is really quite lovely. I have started throwing electronics at it this morning. 

However, what i have also done is attempted to fit my recently completed Peugeot 306 Maxi shell on it. This shell is narrow and on the short side and i had discounted the FF03 as the shell didn't fit on my TA06. I aquired a TL01 to put it on but that's not finished. Anyway the FF03 is much narrowrr than the TA06 as it uses the narrowest XD suspension blocks. Promising. I had already drilled the shell for conventional posts when i noticed a possible e tra post position on the FF03 motor plate, so i moved them there and what do you know? They arebang on the right place. The rear posts have lots of position options and can bend a little, so that worked, and I needed to completely remove the front bumper assembly, but it goes! 

Well, not quite! It seems as well as being narrow, this shell is also short. Currently this is the 257mm wheelbase setting with the rear arms spacers all at the back giving around 254mm wheelbase, and it catches badly on the shell

I tried the 245mm wheelbase setting with the spacers all front to give about 247mm wheelbase but that looks worse, with a lot of the rear tyre inside the wheelarch, although it clears. What i really need it would seem, is around 251mm wheelbase. Ironic given i had been looking a TT01E the other week! Does anyone know if any of the other touring car arms have any offset? These reversible arms are symmetrical so flipping them doesn’t help. Any other ideas? 

Thanks! 

[Truck Norris 2237]

Has it got XD blocks on both the fore and aft mounts on the rear? If so, that'll be your problem. There aft/rearmost block is normally wider than the front to give toe-in. The wheelbase measurements are given with the toe-in. If you remove it by fitting the same blocks to both then the wheelbase will increase as the arms are moved parallel to the chassis.

I built an FF-03 with a standard 257mm wheelbase and no rear toe-in but it took a bit of fiddling and probably won't work if you're using body posts, but I'll explain just in case. From here: https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=133142&id=43050

Quote

It has rear toe in, which I always correct as it looks wrong (it's massively exaggerated compared to the real car). Normally this is done by changing the rearmost rear suspension block to the same width one as the frontmost rear block, then moving the spacers on the rear arms to behind the rear axle line. This works fine on the TT-02S but on this chassis it was still 3mm too long. The FF-03 has three wheelbases it can be built to, so I dismantled the rear and built it on the mid setting, but with the spacers swapped round to lengthen it. This was now a 3mm too short...

After a bit of head scratching I worked out that I could swap the spacers on the front arms to move the arms back by the 3mm. On a drilled body this would mean the front wheels would be out of alignment with the body mounting posts, but as this won't be mounted that way it's not a problem.

 

[svenb 3760]

The only rear that could be of use is the ta04ss arms, I'm having  a look at doing this later today, I'll have a measure up and report back👍

[ThunderDragonCy 7873]

1 hour ago, Truck Norris said:

Has it got XD blocks on both the fore and aft mounts on the rear? If so, that'll be your problem. There aft/rearmost block is normally wider than the front to give toe-in. The wheelbase measurements are given with the toe-in. If you remove it by fitting the same blocks to both then the wheelbase will increase as the arms are moved parallel to the chassis.

I built an FF-03 with a standard 257mm wheelbase and no rear toe-in but it took a bit of fiddling and probably won't work if you're using body posts, but I'll explain just in case. From here: https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=133142&id=43050

 

No, it's running the 1A blocks at the rear rear position with 2.5deg toe in. All other blocks are 1XD which is why it works at the front. Unfortunately as the body is drilled i can't move the whole thing rearwards, and also the front splitter of the shell moulding is hard up on the front of the chassis. 

 

9 minutes ago, svenb said:

The only rear that could be of use is the ta04ss arms, I'm having  a look at doing this later today, I'll have a measure up and report back👍

Interesting! Thanks for checking. I compared the 419 arms i now have on my TA06 and they don't have any offset either. 

[Nicadraus 6195]

The only solution is to adjust the body post holes on the shell. Acording to your picture, there is still little space to move, about 2mm. Then put a piece of lexan/polycarbonate under the shell to serve as a stopper for the body posts. this will keep the body from moving back and forth. I'll post some pics soon.

[svenb 3760]

Tried a set of ta04ss arms on my ta06 runner. 

[svenb 3760]

Got lefthand rear hub on the righthand side 🙄 but they are ta04. 

Need to drill out your hubs from 2.6 to 3mm if your using your ff or ta06 uprights, using them will give you more adjustability with spacers, 250-254mm

[ThunderDragonCy 7873]

@svenb Thanks so much! I spotted in the TA04 manual they were 3mm holes. For the moment i think i have it sorted. I noticed that i hadn't shuffled the upright spacer when trying the medium wheelbase setting, so i did that and - with a bit of adjustment on the body posts - it works.

Its not perfect from a stance point of view, but the shell cuts in so tub ghtly at the rear of the wheelarch that this looks like the best solution for a runner

And it is a runner! I gave it a quick spin in the street to check clearances and its working well. I'll keep the TA04 arms as an option though. Also the new TRF420 suspension has reverted to 3mm pins so i could get a TRF420 upright and it should fit those arms.