Juhunio's Bits-A-Builds

[svenb 3378]

I understand the blue drug,once you start it's very difficult to go cold turkey

[Toad16v 269]

22 hours ago, Juhunio said:

While now waiting on two new front axles, I did push on this morning and build the dampers. Nothing much to report there, pretty standard stuff

Having done that, I decided to go back and take another look at the upper arm mounts. In my efforts to reduce self tapping screws, I'd found a way to ditch the screw pins and replace them with suspension shafts. Note to self, and search engines everywhere:

Screw pins can be replaced by suspension shafts:

• 46mm screw pin = 48.5mm suspension shaft (eg available in sets 53301 and 53479)
• 32mm screw pin = 37mm suspension shaft (eg available in set 53301)
• 22mm screw pin = 25.3mm suspension shaft (eg 19805863 or available in set 53479)

But I hadn't done anything about the step screws that attach the upper arms to the damper stays and uprights. So I dug out the spares box and went looking for flanged tubes 

Rear upper arms attach to the damper mount using a 3x8mm step screw. This can be replaced by a 3x5mm flanged tube and a 3x10mm screw

It was a fluke / good idea to leave one of the original step screws in place and work on the other side first, so I could guage how much play there was in the original fitting and how freely it moved, and tighten up the new fixing accordingly. 

The upper arms attach to the rear upright using a 3x18mm step screw, which can be replaced by a 3x6mm flanged tube and a 16mm machine screw

Even though the original step screw was a self-tapper, the replacement machine screw went in nicely and feels good and secure, so that's the rear end with all step screws and screw pins replaced, which is pretty satisfying

Same with the front arms. Damper mount is attached with a 3x10mm step screw which can be replaced by a 3x5mm flanged tube and a 10mm screw

They attach to the front upright holder using a 3x18mm step screw. I initially replaced it with a 3x6mm flanged tube and an 18mm screw....but then realised that the original step screw fixing comes right through the upright holder and out the other side. So I reduced it to a 15mm screw, which was a much better fit, and again the replacement machine screw went into the original self-tappers thread without issue

Front end done 

I'm interested in the flanged tubes as I might want to replace a couple on my TA03 build depending on which way I go with it. What part no. are they?

[Juhunio 6765]

30 minutes ago, svenb said:

I understand the blue drug,once you start it's very difficult to go cold turkey

True that 

[Juhunio 6765]

4 hours ago, Toad16v said:

I'm interested in the flanged tubes as I might want to replace a couple on my TA03 build depending on which way I go with it. What part no. are they?

I don't know I'm afraid, they were just in the spares pot so could have come from anywhere...old builds, servo fixing kits, 3rd party hop ups...I tend to keep everything just in case it comes in useful some day 

BTW the TA-03 frenzy on here caught me in its vortex, so I've got one on the way! Thanks for that...

[svenb 3378]

1 hour ago, Toad16v said:

I'm interested in the flanged tubes as I might want to replace a couple on my TA03 build depending on which way I go with it. What part no. are they?

I may have some if you want ,if @Juhunio can confirm sizes !?

[svenb 3378]

1 hour ago, Juhunio said:

 

BTW the TA-03 frenzy on here caught me in its vortex, so I've got one on the way! Thanks for that...

Won't regret it 👍

Regarding the blue! I've been tempted before to take all the blue anodised parts of one of my chassis's and have them done in green or orange 🤔

[Toad16v 269]

11 minutes ago, svenb said:

I may have some if you want ,if @Juhunio can confirm sizes !?

Thank you! I'm still in two minds about making up adjustable upper links or not, but want to use machine screws for the kit arms so I can swap to balls, or vice versa.

[Juhunio 6765]

7 hours ago, svenb said:

I may have some if you want ,if @Juhunio can confirm sizes !?

 

7 hours ago, Toad16v said:

Thank you! I'm still in two minds about making up adjustable upper links or not, but want to use machine screws for the kit arms so I can swap to balls, or vice versa.

Bear in mind that one of these sizes was used to thread through FRP damper mounts, so might be too short for plastic damper mounts, if that's what you're thinking?

I'm also not sure where Tamiya measure their parts to get the dimensions but the two sizes I used were 3x5mm and 3x6mm, where:

• 3mm is the ID of the tube, OD looks like 3.6mm 
• 5/6mm is the full length including flange (calm down at the back!)

Hope that helps!

[Toad16v 269]

3 hours ago, Juhunio said:

 

Bear in mind that one of these sizes was used to thread through FRP damper mounts, so might not be right for plastic damper mounts, if that's what you're thinking?

I'm also not sure where Tamiya measure their parts to get the dimensions but the two sizes I used were 3x5mm and 3x6mm, where:

• 3mm is the ID of the tube, OD looks like 3.6mm 
• 5/6mm is the full length including flange (calm down at the back!)

Hope that helps!

Thanks. I'll measure the screws I have and compare them to your measurements/what's available.

Also, flange! Hehe.

[Juhunio 6765]

Popped into Cardiff’s only LHS today and picked up the paint for the GT2. No prizes for guessing the livery choice 🤔

[Juhunio 6765]

I kinda love the TA-02's steering assembly. The arms are a smooth rigid plastic and, once sat on those bearings and threaded over the metal steering posts, it's very smooth and feels pretty solid

With most of the J parts attached using the thread forming tap and hex-head screws, it makes for a satisfying underside view

Edit...one of them rear battery braces is in the wrong place!! It LOOKS obvious now but I didn't notice until I came to attach the side braces and noticed one was at a wonky angle 

[Juhunio 6765]

Last few steps of the chassis build are done, starting with attaching the Savox servo on the Hop Up mounts

Then on with the top deck and bumper. I'm really pleased with how the black, silver and white hardware all works with the servo, motor and chassis parts 

That's really as far as I can go until the new front axles show up from France...

...so I did the first rough scissor cut on the shell 

It is pretty thin along the sill lines which meant I had to be really careful with the scissors as they were like a hot knife through butter in places! And there's a kind of 3D contour cut a quarter way up the front edge of the front arch which is a bit tricksy, but despite a few hairy moments I managed to stay the right side of the lines  Lots of work still to do with the sanding blocks and Dremel, but it's a loverly shell and a great fit on the chassis 

 

 

 

[Juhunio 6765]

Axles arrived today  Didn't expect 'em to be that quick, or to include cross shafts and pins too, which was nice

So she's up on her wheels!

Had to have a little test fit of the shell, and while there's going to be a bit of work to do to get it sitting right, considering this is essentially out of the box (there is no box 😂) with no fine tuning, it looks pretty good

[Juhunio 6765]

It bugged me that after all that work to remove JIS and self tapping screws from the build, the last four screws to go in were the front upright king pins

I then found out about these replacement parts, which use a hex wrench fitting. Bonus!

That's it! 100% JIS / self-tapping replacement 

[Juhunio 6765]

As this is definitely going to be a shelfer, I'm having a first crack at some 'extra' design touches. I'm going to look into a cockpit at some point, but first up I thought I would try and fit some sort of 'exhaust' and picked up one of these Yokomo sets off eBay 

 

The mounting brace has 6 tiny holes drilled through it, and I think the idea is to use small self tapping screws through the body shell (eg where the registration plate would be) into the brace? But it didn't come with any self tapping screws, and it doesn't seem like a very elegant or strong solution. It turns out that the fixing holes are almost perfectly positioned to line up with the upper rear gearbox cover screws on the TA02. So I got out the 3mm drill bit and drilled the top and bottom holes out to take an M3 screw, and experimented with the height of the brace flipped between the upper and lower screw holes.

To give it a little bit of extra clearance away from the rear dampers I pushed a couple of 6x7mm spacers into the gearbox cover screw recesses, which fit perfectly width-wise and protrude by about 1.5mm which allow 25mm screws to attach the brace and gearbox cover to the gearbox, replacing the original kit 10mm screws 

In the end this was the ideal orientation to attach the brace to the gearbox and have the 'mufflers' suspended from the brace at the right height

The set comes with a curved-recess spacer to attach the 'muffler's to the brace, with the curved recess forming a snug fit around the muffler. But it's too long for my needs, and meant the mufflers were too low, so I just used a 7x2mm spacer and 10mm screws

 

Still a lot of fine tuning to do in terms of trimming and sanding the shell and getting the damper mounts properly squared off (I reckon the right side is marginally lower than the left), but pretty pleased with how this test fit has worked out 

[Juhunio 6765]

With the TA02SW chassis complete and the arrival of the rear gearbox set for the TA04 all the way from NZ, it's time to move back onto the TA04-RR bits-a-build

 

It's a cool set, coming with reinforced 'B' parts plus the bearings and spacers needed for that extra rear belt runner, and a nice shiny blue bulkhead beam 

Steps 2-7 cover assembling the rear gearbox and suspension, and it's 100% Hop Ups! First step is going to be running some glue around the edge of the SSG damper stay 

[Juhunio 6765]

The aluminium rear suspension mounts were worth the work tracking them down, they're beautiful. You get a choice of 0.5 or 1 deg of toe angle, suspension shafts and low friction suspension balls

I went with the 0.5 mount as the rear uprights provide 2deg of toe, so 2.5 should be plenty. I also replaced the shafts with the 48.5mm shafts from the low-friction set, seems odd that the mounts don't come with the LF (darker grey) shafts but they are clearly a different material / colour 

I've decided to go all blue on this one, ball connectors, the lot!

[Juhunio 6765]

Next step was the rear stabilisers, and I had a choice between the 'racing' set and this standard set, which I settled on as they are the ones spec'd in the TA04-TRF manual

And they're a cooler shape 

Blue aluminium rod stoppers for an extra bit of blueness

Yellow bars front and back, again because that's how the TRF is spec'd. 

Then it's on with the LF rear belt, and one last look at that aluminium ball diff before I put the lid on it 

[Tizer 576]

So the reinforced rear bulkheads aren't made out of the typical fibre reinforced plastic? Have you put them side by side to see what the difference is? I've pulled a couple of TA04's apart recently and am curious now to see if maybe I happen to have a set somewhere.

Nice build so far!

[Juhunio 6765]

1 hour ago, Tizer said:

So the reinforced rear bulkheads aren't made out of the typical fibre reinforced plastic? Have you put them side by side to see what the difference is? I've pulled a couple of TA04's apart recently and am curious now to see if maybe I happen to have a set somewhere.

Nice build so far!

Do you know what, that's a really good point. I just read 'gearbox reinforcing set' and assumed it would be reinforced plastic. But it does look the same as standard plastic, so I wonder if it's the bulkhead beam that's the 'reinforcing' bit? 

The parts were all loose, not attached to a tree, so I can't check to see what the plastic code is compared to a standard set either. Looking at them side by side, I'd say it's the same plastic 

[Toad16v 269]

2 hours ago, Juhunio said:

Next step was the rear stabilisers, and I had a choice between the 'racing' set and this standard set, which I settled on as they are the ones spec'd in the TA04-TRF manual

And they're a cooler shape 

Blue aluminium rod stoppers for an extra bit of blueness

Yellow bars front and back, again because that's how the TRF is spec'd. 

Then it's on with the LF rear belt, and one last look at that aluminium ball diff before I put the lid on it 

That looks really nice. Really enjoying looking at these pictures 

I'm starting to consider ordering a TA08 so I can build something as nicely engineered and shiny, but without the worry of getting hop-ups for a while.

[Juhunio 6765]

With the damper mount attached and gearbox cover on, time to break out the motor mount / heat sink. It's a proper big bit of metal, and looks amazing with everything blue anodised apart from the tips of the heat sink fins which are left in a contrasting silver. Nice!

I can still just about see the aluminium diff pulley too, with the LF belt threaded around the hop up blue bulkhead beam 

[ThunderDragonCy 7069]

Beautiful piece. My eagle racing motor mount for my tb03 is same. Such a great finish. 

[Juhunio 6765]

A bit of a pause while trying to work out which aluminium rear uprights would fit, and I've been down a rabbit hole of cross-compatibility....

Seems like the recommended aluminium rear upright for the TA04 is 53687, which are the uprights for the Evo 3. Hard to find, and the price is a bit ouchy! 

Which made me think...does that mean the Evo 3 and TA04 arms are the same? The kit number on the arms in the TA04 racing stabiliser set is 49255, which is a TRF414M. Going through the parts list for that chassis on Tamiyabase, the arms are part number 19004131.  A quick search on that part, and it's only supplied in two cars; the TRF414M, and the Evo 3. So the arms supplied in the TA04 Racing Stabiliser Set (53611) are actually Evo 3 / TRF414M arms (19004131). 

So I had a dig in my unbuilt Evo 3 box-o-bits, and seems like while I did manage to find a cheap set of 53687 aluminium uprights, I didn't manage to track down a set of 19004131 arms, and instead had assembled a set of standard TA04 arms (well you live and learn!) and two sets of 51104 arms, which are actually for the Evo 4 and TRF415 when using the reversible suspension set (49346). Not sure how I thought they would fit the Evo 3. But, hmmm...lightweight suspension set....

.....I used a Lightweight Reversible Suspension Set (53899) on my TB-02R, and seems that it's also compatible with the TA04. So, I checked the 51104 arms against the arms on my TB-02R, and they're identical, so would seem to be the arms supplied with, or at least compatible with, the 53899 Reversible Suspension Set. Then I dug out the instructions for the 53899 LRS set, and found the instructions for the 49346 LRS set online, and compared the Japanese characters for the D parts code, and they're identical too. The 51104 arms are supplied / compatible with both the 53899 (TB02, TA04) and 49346 (Evo 3, TRF415) reversible suspension sets. Which means they'll fit the TA04, and cheapish aluminium uprights for the TRF415 will fit them, so...

1. I can use the 51104 arms on my TA-04RR, essentially creating a Lightweight Reversible Suspension set up on it. I have all the other hardware in the spares box to make it work, apart from...
2. ...the 42mm swing shafts I'll need for the universals instead of the 39mm shafts I'd bought 
3. I can order a 'cheapish' set of TRF415 aluminium uprights for the TA04, which will fit the 51104 arms
4. I can move the 19004131 arms from the TA04RR over to the Evo 3 box-o'-bits, so it will get built with the 'proper' arms and aluminium uprights

Tired now 

[Tizer 576]

1 hour ago, Juhunio said:

Which made me think...does that mean the Evo 3 and TA04 arms are the same?

They are! TB02 and early TA05's and TRF415's as well actually.