Brushless quick drive Thunder Dragon

[Beastbike]

And before again

[Beastbike]

[wolfdogstinkus]

I destroyed my first gearbox recently. 

One of my motor bolts rattled loose and chipped a few teeth off the high gear and destroyed the selector. 

Luckily I also had an almost complete car as a spare so I'm up and running again. 

Also won a Avante 2001 quick drive car so have another gearbox on the way as a spare.

I will be looking to hit a 45mph+ run next time I go out. 

That's if I can film it without crashing. Lol. 

It will still be plenty fast enough on 2s, 3s is insane. Lol. Hitting 48mph but not got a filmed run without a crash yet, but have changed some settings and it is running better.

[Beastbike]

That’s awesome! I think the Asante you won was also in my watchlist. You can still but new gearboxes for about £6, I have kept my eyes open expecting to destroy one. As for my mounting, I bought a pack of m2.5 screws, and properly countersunk them, with the multi fit I debated putting 4 in to spread the load over the the plastic

[Beastbike]

Theoretically with a small wiring alteration, I can run 2s 4s 6s or 8s!!! Although I am new to brushless, however still not seen a combo that would fit in here bigger than 3s. Not used to playing with limits just yet!

still yet to give her a maiden voyage, batts turned up today, have about an hours work left on it to 100% complete it. And well, welsh weather!!!

[Jimbothejetsetter]

Wow, the Thunder Dragon looks amazing. You have really thought everything through and done such a quality job. I’m really liking the wheels where can I get some from they make it look ace? Do they fit straight on? Are they larger than the standard wheels?

I’m loving the photos as mine is a thrown together mess at the moment, however I enjoy working on it when I find the time and intend to use some of your suggestions to improve my old QD TD. 

Please let me know if your car jumps out of gear and if you have an ideas on how to solve this issue?

Great photos! 

[Beastbike]

Hi Jimbo, thank you for the comments
 

as for the wheels, I am afraid they will probably be super rare. I bought them with Xmas money either Boxing Day “89” or January sales 1990 !!!

they are the proper optional extras. I had real difficulty finding the originals which I posted pics of in the packet. I honestly believe I bought one of the last front sets in the world.

i also had the other set in the pics, same as your mag wheels but in white. Think I smashed one as a kid.

there seems to be a lot of QD love on this thread, I would loan my wheels out to be 3D printed if enough of us wanted to do it???

here are the part numbers anyway if you can find some.

the jumping out of gear thing, I have theories. If the pinion is pressed on too far, then the noddy on the end will not locate in the other side case allowing it to flex. Once it flexes, naturally because of the angle it will jump out. If my theory is correct that should mean it will not jump out of Low, or if it flexes it may strip the intermediate gear.

as a quick fix you could flip the diff so high becomes low and low becomes high???

i also noticed with mine that the noddy on the end of the pinion is a very slack fit in the case anyway, maybe worth knocking up some tiny bush.

theory number 2, didn’t you buy a 20 series motor? There is a possibility as you have so much room to play with, maybe it’s misaligned. I went for a 24 series motor, and was super careful with measurements (this is not to say mine won’t jump out) after fitting mine, the original heat sink slipped in beautifully like a shim, so maybe I won’t get so much flex? I noticed wolf dog does not run the stock heat sink?

 

anyway, will let you know after a test run!

[Beastbike]

Just thought of a way you can stop it jumping out of gear, if you are not fussed on having the selection. Just put a load of washers on the intermediate gear shaft to prevent it sliding left to low gear, or a nitro throttle stop with grub screw etc. Loads of ways, but essentially if you are working with the left case on the bench, just add washers until the intermediate gear completely meshes with high gear. If you strip it, probably worth building the gearbox on the motor side and check your motor mesh as well (that’s one thing I didn’t actually do tbh) for the sake of 5 screws I might whip it apart again to double check.

[wolfdogstinkus]

It's great doing maintenance on these. The gearbox just pops off with 2 screws and like you say comes apart very easily. 

That's a good plan, I might try to repair it just for speed runs but it was starting to show signs of wear. 

I have a new one in the runner and a spare on the way. Might get a video done today?

[wolfdogstinkus]

I'm not sure I understood flipping the diff? The large main gear only fits in one way but it may be worth jamming it in high gear, I never use low anyway. Lol

[wolfdogstinkus]

I think my gear mesh was caused by a loose screw rattling around at 40mph. Lol. It happened twice and after the first time, I used loctite but it obviously didn't work. Lol

It destroyed the gear selector switch.

It tried to rescrew itself into a few other places as well. Lol

And because of that, my motor overheated and melted the wires together causing a short and some smoke. 

I managed to shrink wrap it up and it seems to be working. 

Just hope it holds out long enough to smash my old record.

I will add some pictures later.

[wolfdogstinkus]

Ive found it cheaper to pick up a whole car 2nd hand to get parts. I just got a car with transmitter, untested for £23 delivered. 

The first spare car I got was around £16, so parts are cheap.

I'll sell the radio gear, circuit board, servo etc and bodyshell and should get at least half of the money back?

And it comes with decent wheels and a whole spare chassis. 

A solution to your wheel choice could be to fit 12mm hexes from a Mad Bull, then run 2.2 wheels with skinny tyres which should provide a massive gear increase and more speed if the motor can handle it.

[wolfdogstinkus]

I like to think I have tried to promote these cars for years, ever since I did a brush less quick drive Monster beetle many years ago. 

Actually 10 years,!!!!!! How time flies?

That was as fast as a topless pumpkin but it handled so much better. Lol

[wolfdogstinkus]

Or try it with monster wheels?. Lol

I don't have the beetle anymore but that was my favourite for a while.

[wolfdogstinkus]

I must also add that the 12mm wheel hex isn't a straight forward fix, you may need to add spacers. I can't remember exactly why I didn't go down that route at the time.

[wolfdogstinkus]

managed to squeeze a 3s lipo in there and the phone..

I hit 48 with the phone on the roof so I'm really looking forward to seeing the next run. Might go out in a bit. 

Put the bald original tyres on front as it always grip rolls with the grippy tyres on the front.

[Beastbike]

Had my first run tonight, Wolf dog I am never going to beat your record!!! On 2s in the wet I found it mental! A few issues with steering, currently uploading vids so will link here asap

[Beastbike]

 

[Beastbike]

 

[Beastbike]

No jumping out of Gear?? So dunno what to comment on that!

[Beastbike]

Half debating selling the stock QD lads (with the aerial and flag) surprised how quick it was standard really, was running on brand new Duracell’s so a full 12v but even so, I am going to have a look tomorrow to see if it had the QD Black motor. It’s a very nice one as you can see, yes I paid a lot, but it shows. It owes me £55 and I will happily screenshot my eBay purchases if anybody wants it. Obviously want my money back if I sell it, not looking for a profit.

[Jimbothejetsetter]

6 hours ago, Beastbike said:

No jumping out of Gear?? So dunno what to comment on that!

That’s great...that’s given me the incentive to do some fine tuning on the gear box and check out the motor position to get the correct mesh. This is my first time working on RC stuff so it’s I’m learning all the time. 
Videos are great! 

 Thanks 

[wolfdogstinkus]

They usually sell in working original condition with the box for £60+ so it should pass on. 

I tried a run yesterday, but in a car park and traction was non existent, only managed 42mph.

And the one time, I didn't crash, I didn't film. Lol. Typical. 

@Beastbike it may be your accent, which is cool, but did you swear?

I have deleted so many videos because I can't stop myself swearing and YouTube don't like it. Lol

 

[wolfdogstinkus]

Oh and I thought about your idea and tried something out. Will load a pic later. 

It's not perfect, I might refit it in the broken gearbox to test it out first.

One brass shock collar, one brass 850 bearing, a rubber grommet to hold the bearing and 2 washers.

Now it's locked in high..

I think I damaged the high gear on the old box but I may see if I can get it to run again.

[wolfdogstinkus]

So,.... I guess when the bolt came out of the motor and rolled around inside the gearbox, the motor was busy trying to loosen the other screw and break free. 

So as it was wobbling around, it must have damaged the wires where they passed through the original plastic end cap. 

So when I inspected the damage on the old box and tried the motor again, it started to produce the magic smoke. 

Then I saw this.....

I have covered it all in shrink wrap and it's running again, but I think I'll start looking for a new motor.