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Fitting DT02 Turnbuckles on my Blitzer Beetle

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IMHO the Blitzer Beetle is a great all round fun machine, simple build, good looks, really sturdy, solid gearbox, can take faster cans, generally its just a good fun basher. However, the biggest flaw has to be the steering and the famous "Blitzer bump steer". A few simple mods you can make the steering a lot better, I thought I'd put a post up showing what I have done to improve my Bug.

The first fix is to swap the front uprights. Remove both and swap them over, fit the left one on the right and the right on the left, so that the steering ball connector is facing down rather than up. It is pretty well documented mod, so no need to show that one here, but honestly if you haven't done it you should, it's night and day different.   

The next mod I found reference to was to fit the DT-02 Turnbuckle set (53828). I found several mentions of this on other posts and it certainly wasn't my idea, but I couldn't find any posts showing this clearly, so thought i'd throw a few pictures together for anyone else wanting to try this.

Fitting them is really easy, honestly, it is like the set is made for the Blitzer. The set comes with 4 short, 1 med and 1 long turnbuckle rods, 12 closed-cup ball connector ends and an assortment of hardware. TBH the set has most of the hardware you need, I only had to add 2 nos 3x25mm machine screws to fit the set. I would say the only tricky part is you have to run a 3mm drill bit through both front fixing points and the rear knuckle (the inner rear doesn't need it as the holes are bigger on that connection). All the holes that do need a drill run through are only just undersize, maybe 2.7mm, so its really just a ream though to clean the self tapping thread out and allow the machine screw to pass freely. 

The four smaller rods make up the 4 camber links and the med and longer one make up the steering rods. In each case just remove the original link, match the length with the new parts, fit the ball connectors with the machine screws (use thread lock) and snap everything in place.

Fixing placement:

  • 4 nos 3x15mm screws (included in the set) use for the 2 front camber links (use a small washer screw head of the two going through the knuckles)
  • 2 nos 3x12mm screws (included in the set) use for the rear camber at the gearbox (use a small washer on the screw head side)
  • 2 nos 3x25mm screws (not included in the set) use for the rear camber link at the knuckle  

fixings.png

A couple of things to add. It makes life simpler when adjusting the turnbuckles, to keep all of the rods the same way round (Ichanged mine after I took the pics and realised this). That way you are always turning forwards to extend and backwards to reduce the rod length. The easiest way to do this is to keep the small "knurled" section to the left side of centre on each rod.

The only other thing, the rear turnbuckles do not offer much adjustment as they are pretty much screwed all the way into the rod ends, but they do allow standard camber. This could be fixed by trimming the rod but honestly I don't think it is needed as most of the adjustment is required at the front end and those rods allow plenty.

front-1.jpg

front-2.jpg

front-3.jpg

rear-1.jpg

rear-2.jpg

 

I hope this is helpful for any other Blizter fans out there :) 

 

 

 

    

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Very good post,will help many.

the only thing you did not mention was the steering. flipping the uprights does ride the bump steer BUT the travel is very limited! Many say you don't need the full travel,being rear wheel drive just swing the rear out with throttle BUT that binding really bugs me. I even sanded the outer part of arms down and the pins! got a little bit more travel,not much.

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1 hour ago, Gazzalene said:

The only thing you did not mention was the steering. flipping the uprights does ride the bump steer BUT the travel is very limited! Many say you don't need the full travel,being rear wheel drive just swing the rear out with throttle BUT that binding really bugs me. I even sanded the outer part of arms down and the pins! got a little bit more travel,not much.

Good point, I missed a note about the steering but TBH I didn't feel the effect of the steering loss too much. For me a bit of power to the rear wheels and some sharp handling can put the car where you want it easily enough. However, should have mentioned the steering all the same.

It's also worth setting the end points correctly so you don't put too much strain on the steering sevro, when it hits the arms.

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It just really gets to me that the "proper" amount of steering can not be had.

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I think the lack of weight in the front of the Blitzer chassis makes the steering travel more noticeable.  Using the standard chassis setup the difference between on-power steering, off-power steering and steering while braking is dramatically different. 

 

Additional weight on the front solved this for me.

 

I wonder if the chassis balance was predetermined with the thought that an extra servo and mechanical speed controller were always going to be there..

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