TB-02R not TB? One kit, two builds

[Juhunio 6830]

Since I set it up, this thread has gone through some Evolution

It started out as a hopped up TB-02 which was built as a TB-02R

That left so many spare parts from the kit that, with a few additions, I was able to build a complete TB-02

And the TB-02R was so close to becoming an Evo, that I started keeping an eye open for Evo III parts and after a couple of job lots and lucky finds I ended up with everything I needed for a complete Evo III

So, this one is about how a cheap kit find can turn into an expensive but hugely enjoyable three car journey....

The project started out as a brand new unbuilt Carrera GT TB-02 that I picked up cheap about a year ago...

...which I'm going to convert into a TB-02R using parts I've been sourcing ever since, and then a few further upgrades from the back pages of the R Manual

 

[Juhunio 6830]

Here's the list of parts and hop-ups that I've pulled together above and beyond the 58322 Kit:

• 1054394 TB-02R Instruction Manual
• 53899 Reversible Lightweight Suspension Set
• 53501 42mm Swing Shafts (Front)
• 53502 42mm Lightweight Swing Shafts (Rear)
• 51092 46mm Evo IV Swing shafts (in case the 42mm parts don't fit with the suspension mounts....)
• 53713 Suspension Mount A (Blue, new / updated part number for 50980) x4
• 50981 Suspension Mount B 1.5deg x2 (because you can...)
• 50982 Suspension Mount C 2.0deg x2 (never have too...)
• 50983 Suspension Mount D 2.5deg x2 (many options right?)
• 50994 5mm Suspension Balls
• 53628 Evo III Aluminium Upper Arm Mount Set x2
• 53571 TRF Damper Set
• 50998 Evo III CF Front Damper Stay
• 50999 Evo III CF Rear Damper Stay
• 4304069 CF Front Brace
• 4304070 CF Rear Brace
• 49348 CF Battery Plate
• 53679 SSG Carbon Centre Plate
• 3455437 Antenna Post
• 3 Racing TA04-IF06/LB Blue Aluminium Battery Mount Screws
• 53686 Evo III Lightweight Aluminium Propeller (could not find the 3455837 part anywhere )
• 53680 Aluminium Motor Mount
• 19400169 Heat Sink (blue)
• 53627 Evo III Reinforced Diff Joints x2
• 9334096 Spur Gear Bag 52/55/58T
• 53677 Stabiliser Set (F&R)
• 49367 Aluminium Racing Steering Set
• 19805972 Steering Posts
• 19805974 10.5mm Aluminium Posts
• 13454312 Bearing Holder
• 53723 Aluminium Servo Mounts
• 51000 Hi-torque Servo Saver
• 54159 Aluminium Servo Horn
• 54863 Aluminium Servo Saver Cap
• 49400 620 Ball Thrust Bearings
• Ceramic Silicone Nitride 3mm Diff Balls
• 53859 Metal Plated 5 Spoke Rims (way nicer than the grey plastic that came with the kit)

The shell is gorgeous so going to keep it box art, with a Hobbywing 1060 Brushed ESC and Tamiya Super Stock Motor

I'm definitely going to need some help along the way 

[Juhunio 6830]

Got started on this last night, which meant getting straight into the 53899 Reversible Lightweight Suspension Set

Wow! What a set this is. There is SO much in there...

• Upper and lower arms
• Rear 1deg uprights
• Front uprights
• Front upright holders in 2 and 4
• 5mm and 4mm adjusters for the stabiliser bar ends
• Blue hex hubs (screw type)
• Wheel axles and all the bits and pieces to build 2 sets of universals (exc swing shafts)
• Bearings
• Turnbuckles
• King pins, ball connectors, ball nuts, tubes, 3mm screws in 12mm and 10mm
• Two packs of shims, all the various spacers needed

For the money, there is a heck of a lot of stuff in there. And I might be wrong but all the plastic parts seem like they're reinforced? They have that slightly worn/off-black look about them.

[Juhunio 6830]

Building the lower arms means making an early decision about suspension mounts and angles.

I used this really useful resource that @Truck Norris kindly shared with me as a guide, and decided to use:

• 2x A Blocks up front (FF/FR) for a neutral position
• 1x A Block RF and 1x C Block RR to create 1deg of toe, which when added to the 1deg created by the rear uprights should give me 2deg overall. I think that's how it works??

Then used the 50994 Suspension Balls with a little bit of AW grease, and the lower arms are done with the front stabiliser bar holders in place 

[TwistedxSlayer 1290]

Watching with great interest.

[TwistedxSlayer 1290]

Found and ordered the Evo 3 lightweight prop shaft. Many thanks!

[Juhunio 6830]

3 hours ago, TwistedxSlayer said:

Found and ordered the Evo 3 lightweight prop shaft. Many thanks!

Nice 

[TwistedxSlayer 1290]

Which suspension pins have you used?

[Juhunio 6830]

2 hours ago, TwistedxSlayer said:

Which suspension pins have you used?

Just the kit parts. It still has to be a little bit TB-02 after all 

[TwistedxSlayer 1290]

1 minute ago, Juhunio said:

Just the kit parts. It still has to be a little bit TB-02 after all 

Lol.  Couldn't remember if they came with the suspension arms or not. Didn't think they did as they are not on the picture

[Juhunio 6830]

Next step is a hop-up fest, starting to build the front and rear gear boxes using the upper arm mounts and CF front and rear damper mounts. 

They go together really nicely, but the fact the damper stays come without hardware meant a good raid of the spares box for 12mm screws, ball connector nuts and 3mm spacers

[Juhunio 6830]

And then I was all ready to start building the ball diffs with the Reinforced Evo Diff Joints and Ceramic Silicone Nitride 3mm Diff Balls....

When I hit a wall...in the form of the 2x25mm diff screws and lock nuts being missing.....everything else was in Bag A, but not them 

Seems like this TB-02 was packed by the same crew who packed my Super Astute with 16x 3mm e-clips instead of 2mm e-clips 

I can't even see a kit in the loft I can borrow any from, so now just having to wait for Tony to send a set from eBay I'm a total idiot who managed to lose a small part bag down the back of my desk, which I've now found

Time for a beer....... to get on with those ball diffs 

[Room335 738]

Watching with interest @Juhunio! I actually picked up a TB02 a few weeks ago (Kit 58317 Mercedes CLK). I was wondering about your choice of upgrades. Any that you consider “must-have” for the casual runner? Have you found TB02 parts difficult to source, or is there some compatibility with later TB versions? Thanks!

[Juhunio 6830]

15 hours ago, Room335 said:

Watching with interest @Juhunio! I actually picked up a TB02 a few weeks ago (Kit 58317 Mercedes CLK). I was wondering about your choice of upgrades. Any that you consider “must-have” for the casual runner? Have you found TB02 parts difficult to source, or is there some compatibility with later TB versions? Thanks!

I've never built or run one before so I don't know about 'must haves'....but I would guess:

• My prior understanding of ball diffs is that standard plastic outdrives can be a weak point, so the Evo III Reinforced Diff Joints seem like a good plan
• If the stock steering is as sloppy as a TT02, then the racing steering must be a good thing
• I would also say the reversible suspension set, just because there is so much in there and it also enables upgrade to universals all round and includes locking hex hubs
• I don't know how much of a known weak spot the plastic suspension mounts are in this (compared to, say, an XV01) but if so then the metal suspension blocks make sense
• The TB-02R includes the CF braces as standard so I guess add some stiffness to the standard TB-02

Beyond that I'm not sure what's essential, but it's all good fun. A big part of my enjoyment comes from researching and searching for parts, and this was a pretty tricky set to pull together. 

There certainly seems to be back-compatibility with a good few Evo III parts, but I couldn't say how far that goes 

[fwdjump 249]

Watching the thread with interest and can't wait to see the finished body!!! The lines of Carrera GT are amazing

[Room335 738]

Great info @Juhunio. Thanks a lot!

[Juhunio 6830]

So having found the <clears throat> 'lost' diff screws, I got to work on building the ball diffs

Everything you've heard about building ball diffs applies here. This summary by @studioRS captures pretty much all and everything you need to know, but I would say the main steps are:

• use the diff grease on the balls and plates, but don't over-do it
• grease the thrust bearing well, and make sure it is the 'right' way up; if you look closely, on one side the inner is 'flush' with the outer ring, and on the other that inner is slightly tapered / not flush. The diff-screw head should sit on that 'tapered' side
• tighten the diff screw bit by bit until, when holding the ring gear and one of the outdrives, you can just about turn the other outdrive after applying a decent amount of force. Don't completely lock it, you need that little bit of 'give'. You should still be able to spin both outdrives freely
• run it in. I just pop one of the outdrives into my battery drill chuck, hold the other outdrive and use the drill to spin the diff on a relatively low RPM for 30 seconds or so. Take it out, re-tighten the diff screw if necessary, then repeat that two or three times. It should bed it in and stop it slipping when built into the chassis

Key thing to note, which might seem obvious, is to remember that the 53627 reinforced diff joints are an Evo III part. So they need to be built following the Evo III manual, not the TB-02. 

Main differences are you need to use the plastic insert to hold the lock nut in place before you can tighten the diff screw, which means breaking out the A5 parts from the TB-02 A tree. The Evo III also uses a different sequence order for the spring, thrust washer and lock nut.

But it doesn't use the 10x0.1mm diff bearing shim that the TB-02 asks for, so I used it as per the TB-02 manual. When I put the diffs into the gearboxes they were a good fit with no slop either way, so the shim is doing its job. 

So that's the F/R gearboxes done, all in all they're a bit of a TB-02/Evo III combo in terms of parts and build method

 

Edited February 14, 2021 by Juhunio
Added detail on the diff build process

[Superluminal 3750]

What are those rings on the end of diffs all about?? Do they slide up and down or something?

[Juhunio 6830]

12 minutes ago, Superluminal said:

What are those rings on the end of diffs all about?? Do they slide up and down or something?

It’s officially called a “Diff housing spacer”, but as far as I can tell it’s not relevant to its position in relation to a diff housing, so I guess it’s not a literal title?

It’s a very tight fit so no it doesn’t slide up and down, so I assume it’s primarily there to create some extra rigidity at the outer end of the diff joint? But I am just spitballing here 🙂

[Superluminal 3750]

I wasnt sure if it would interfere getting the dogbone in if it couldnt slide backwards.

[Juhunio 6830]

1 hour ago, Superluminal said:

I wasnt sure if it would interfere getting the dogbone in if it couldnt slide backwards.

Ooh, good shout! Test fitted one and they still seem to fit fine  I assume there won't be enough droop for the shaft to impact on the spacer, but time will tell...

[mtbkym01 4008]

This is looking like another stunning build, thumbs up

[Big Jon 684]

Yeah, those rings are to prevent the out drives from spreading.

Beautiful build, beautiful body set. TB02 was a great chassis, and should be rereleased in R form.

[Juhunio 6830]

2 hours ago, Big Jon said:

Yeah, those rings are to prevent the out drives from spreading.

Ta!

2 hours ago, Big Jon said:

Beautiful build, beautiful body set. TB02 was a great chassis, and should be rereleased in R form.

I don't know much about the chassis, but saw on Tamiyabase that the kit was first released in 2004. 17 years!!!!

As a 4WD shaft-driven tub-chassis touring car, I guess it's an early predecessor of our contemporary TT-02?

If so, it's a cut above, with:

• ball-raced steering
• adjustable upper arms
• metal prop shaft, axles and dogbones
• full bearings
• hi torque servo saver
• CVA dampers

as standard equipment at a level above the TT-02 which is much more plasticy as stock

Do you (or anyone reading) know more of the history? 

Was the TB-02 pitched at a different level than the TT-02 is now, or is it just a case that the definition of 'entry level' has changed over the years?

Did it have any obvious faults or weaknesses that were corrected as the bathtub/4WD/shaft-drive format evolved into today's TT-02?

[Juhunio 6830]

Today's fun started with building the Racing Steering Set. It's a bit of a weird set...it includes the two aluminium steering arms but unlilke, say, the TT-02 or TA-05 upgraded steering there's no link, which remains as the kit plastic

The kit stock kingpins are replaced with supposedly 4x5.6mm flanged tubes, but which actually have a wider OD of 4.5mm to fit into the link:

If anything, they're a little too long and create a bit of slop/movement between the link and the screws that connect it to the arms. 5mm length tubes would be a perfect flush fit, but the only ones I can find have an ID of 3mm and OD of 4mm, so are too narrow inside the link and just create even more movement!

Surely the point of an upgraded, machined steering set is to make everything as tight and efficient as possible?

So instead I used a Traxxas 1985 shim on each screw to cover the bit of tube that extends between the link and the screw head to close the gap and minimise the movement

Probably overkill, but it makes me happy