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wolfdogstinkus

Brushless quick drive Thunder Dragon

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The ESC and the motor is toast..

I'm blaming the motor as I bought 2, just plugged the new one in and it got very hot very quickly.

Going to leave it to cool and try again on 2s..

Car was running great as well...

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Great thread this.

After throwing in an Ezrun 2030 in my Pumpkin, I really want to try one of these in a QD Thunder Dragon. Not really a fan of the buggy style, but the TD looks soooo cool and 80s.

 

 

 

 

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It's still going but I can't get anywhere near the speeds I was getting from the EZRUN motor.

This is running a surpass hobby 8200kv 2435 can which in theory should be much faster than the smaller 2030 EZRUN motor but it's rubbish..

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A new EZRUN motor has arrived,, 

Consistently running over 30mph.  

No where near flat out.  

Will update specs soon ..

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Late night speed run accident . Lol .

I often run this late at night *after midnight, then regret my decision when I'm searching around for parts in the dark.. lol. This, was one of those occasions..

Gearbox exploded, ripped every screw out 

32f064U.jpg

I might have clipped a metal fence at 30mph,, but it still exploded .

 

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Found the gear selector switch and the gear, but lost the shaft for the gear.. 

jCJaAvX.jpg

Time to bust out the spares ..

 

But, before i do that, i must blame this for the terrible accident, and not my bad driving..

cJnbG7T.jpg

Mf45Fhs.jpg

Complete car, was able to be a runner, until i "borrowed" the gearbox.

Surpass hobby 2430 at 8200kv, it should have smashed the smaller EZRUN motor,. Not recommended for 3s so i did add the heat sink and some fans .

In theory??

yB12F4N.jpg

 

 

Easily gets to 30mph, but i think I've only managed 32 or 34? With this motor, whereas the EZRUN  was getting 38mph and still not finished.

 

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Are you still running this? I have realised I still have a spare EZrun 18T 2030 combo, a servo, lots of AA batteries and two spare sets of M wheels, and a cheap 2.4 ghz radio, basically everything needed to get one up and running... so I am somewhat tempted. Seen a few thunder shots for sale but just not the same as the Dragon 80s amazingness.

They are also 1/14 scale and would fit in with my collection well. 

The fact they seem bullet proof is good. I was planning to use AA batteries in the holders and solder a switch to go between 5 and 8 cells, so I have got a turbo switch.

 

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On 11/25/2021 at 9:07 PM, wolfdogstinkus said:

Just found this from one year ago. 

Was hitting 40+ easily back then.

https://youtu.be/8d2WdaGw81w

And I wasn't happy with the results then. Lol.

Should have been hitting 44 at least but I don't know how accurate my speed app is.

 

 

Awesomely fast either way.

In terms of gearing, have you tried TT racing truck tires? They do fit and might give a greater top speed.

I picked up a busted QD for a fiver. It needs a new body and battery however so scouring ebay. I am planning 8 x AA batteries and EZrun 2030 to get something that can go fast but not extreme. 

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12 hours ago, Nikko85 said:

Awesomely fast either way.

In terms of gearing, have you tried TT racing truck tires? They do fit and might give a greater top speed.

I picked up a buster QD for a fiver. It needs a new body and battery however so scouring ebay. I am planning 8 x AA batteries and EZrun 2030 to get something that can go fast but not extreme. 

The sidewall on the truck tyres is too soft, makes it very skiddy/ unpredictable.

Best grip/ tyres I've tried have been rally blocks..

Closest to original spec tyres are the Kyosho 14x tyres, I did a tyre comparison a few pages back..

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On 2/21/2022 at 9:12 PM, Nikko85 said:

Awesomely fast either way.

In terms of gearing, have you tried TT racing truck tires? They do fit and might give a greater top speed.

I picked up a buster QD for a fiver. It needs a new body and battery however so scouring ebay. I am planning 8 x AA batteries and EZrun 2030 to get something that can go fast but not extreme. 

Keep it on 2s, or slow gear?.

I recorded a speed run on low gear by accident and I think it topped out at 29 in low gear on 3s.. 

2s will be fast enough to be exciting without cartwheeling down the road at 40mph.

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17 hours ago, wolfdogstinkus said:

The sidewall on the truck tyres is too soft, makes it very skiddy/ unpredictable.

Best grip/ tyres I've tried have been rally blocks..

Closest to original spec tyres are the Kyosho 14x tyres, I did a tyre comparison a few pages back..

Great. I have 8 x rally blocks from the two MF01x I made so that is perfect.

 

 

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I've just ordered a skyrc GPS speed meter!!!!

Should get a more accurate reading.

Time to dig out and dust off the speed run car..

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16 hours ago, wolfdogstinkus said:

I've just ordered a skyrc GPS speed meter!!!!

Should get a more accurate reading.

Time to dig out and dust off the speed run car..

Awesome. I assume you are running the 12T Ezrun? Mine are 18T so will be a fair bit slower, but fast enough for me. 

I may pick up a 12T motor to try in the QD monster truck, when I bought them I had no odea what T meant.

Decided to try and make the body and battery cover, but will keep my eyes peeled on ebay for spares too, as they are still pretty cheap (unlike the monster trucks!)

 

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@Nikko85yes 12t ezrun motor, I have tried others but always end up back with the ezrun, they are quality motors..

The monster beetle was the first quick drive brushless conversion I did many moons ago.. I think I had the 18t in that and it was brilliant fun..

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On 2/27/2022 at 1:30 PM, wolfdogstinkus said:

@Nikko85yes 12t ezrun motor, I have tried others but always end up back with the ezrun, they are quality motors..

The monster beetle was the first quick drive brushless conversion I did many moons ago.. I think I had the 18t in that and it was brilliant fun..

I was hoping to turn it into a Thunder Dragon, but I've realised QD Thunder Dragon body might be really hard to pick up so I decided to chop mine up to fit a Tyco Nissan. If I want a Thunder Dragon it'll probably be easier to get another QD.

Anyhow some quick sawing action later...

ejo1DPI.jpg

 

q3hMZex.jpg

Looking to make a King Cab! 

Tires are a bit tricky - the rally blocks are good, but a little bit small for my purposes - but the racing trucks are too big, so going to try and purchase some original QD tires as these are a scaled closest to the King Cab or the Kyoshos. @wolfdogstinkus do you still have a good source for the Kyosho tires? I think that's what this needs. Also I saw on an early photo you had yellow shocks? I don't suppose you know where they came from?

I am not going for a speed demon - I've got a the EZrun 5200 KV in my QD monster truck and given this is half the weight, I think that will be more than enough for this too. The body is pretty rare, so I'd rather not smash to bits. Mainly to run on short grass or gravel/dirt. 

Should be a fun little runner all in! 

 

 

 

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4 hours ago, Nikko85 said:

So I finally picked up a Thunder Dragon QD

8QbuJ08.jpg

And so I'm finally going to make one of these.

@wolfdogstinkus - is yours still going?

 

 

 

Sort of, but not for a while, been busy with other things but I'm still around 

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Openend it up, super clean gearbox.

om3EgEb.jpeg

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Old and new motors.

sjpyFyQ.jpeg

New motor added. Here is where it all went wrong....

The gearbox has two nubs the fit the hopes in the motor.

W4miglo.jpeg

These also align with a set of holes in the new motor, so in theory if you cut these off and then drill a 2.5 mm hole exactly where they were you've got a perfectly aligned motor. However the access to these nubs isnt too easy, so when cutting off and drilling I must have made a mistake because I ended up with a bad motor mesh. In the end In had to drill out to 3 mm to give a little wiggle room. It's ok right but it took ages and I dislike large holes than need be.

I really should have measured with digital calipers then marked and drilling from the other side.

Mistake the second. These are the second generation of QDs, and have a longer pinion with an extended shaft that fits into the recess of the other half of the gearbox, I assume to align the shaft better. You can see it here

luPirbM.jpeg

The other QDs I have had have not had this, so must have been a later feature.

Anyway, I didn't hammer the pinion in far enough and ended up chewing up the recess in other half of the gearbox when testing. In the end I simply smoothed out the recess and cut the pinion down at the end, keeping enough to mate with the spur gear but not so much it touched the other side.

So I've now got a sketchy holes with no support on the far side for the pinion...great!

I tried it for the tenth time and finally got a quiet gearbox although it's still louder than my other QD. The benefit of this gearbox is this takes bearings. The high gear is quiet, it's just the low gear that is noiser. It doesn't sound awful just not super smooth.

Steering was easier, removed a small section of the chassis at the front to allow the servo to fit into the space for the old servo.

gbhKg1Q.jpeg

New servo horn

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3mm rod and all connected

iQCWI4z.jpeg

Steering is now super tight. I would argue this more than the brushless motor makes the biggest difference. With the chassis cover on the servo is kept locked in place so mo cable ties needed.

 

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I have destroyed a few gearboxes by either the motor getting hot and melting enough to move or the bolts loosening enough for movement to damage the holes. I was trying to find a solution and was considering chopping the mounting face off the old silver can and somehow making a "brace" or washer but never got around to it. 

 

But I think they'd be great fun on the standard motor with a small 3s lipo.

Great cars.

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I may have a good half gearbox somewhere but it won't be the motor side, I melted too many of the motor side.

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@Nikko85 it looks like your motor screw maybe rubbing the gears?. I know there isn't much room for screws and I think I used a counter sunk screw on the side where the gear is.

I think you can shim the gear to clear a screw at the expense of losing gear contact.  I just lock it in high to prevent it jumping out into neutral.

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