Bruiser Restoration Step 3: the transmission

Picture 1: This is the gearbox. I cleaned it completely in Diesel. The only catch here was the smalest of the 3 springs. One of the previous owners did put 2 ball bearings instead of the bronze bearings but did obviously loose one spring. He replaced it with one that was shorter and bigger in diametre. (you can see the wrong one on the top right corner of the picture). The result of this modification was that I could not get back from High speed to standard speed as the spring was not long enough to push back the gears. Hopefully I did found one inside an old VCR that was almost perfect.

Picture 2: when reassembling the Gearbox no real problem providing you are sober and have the split view of the device. I have replaced the 1150 type bearings with ball ones. You can replace the 850 type ones but you will need loads of washers...too risky for me and as they did not look worn at all I doubt that it's really needed. The main load is on the 1150 ones (4 in total). Especially the front drive shaft when you are in 4wd mode. This was an improvement here for sure. No more wobbly shaft. I also decided to re assemble with some Polyurethane sealent inbetween the gearbox sections instead of the messy silicone after...by the way I removed easily the old silicon with a Dremel and wirebrush tool on it.

Picture 3: Here it is re assembled, clean and WORKING!

Picture 4: WOW! Back in the chassis and it looks almost new!

Picture 5: Everything's back in place. Even the original ROBBE Starion 4 channel remote control all cleaned as well. Only tweak here is a harder servo saver on the steering of course.

Picture 6: By the way a good thing for us all bruiser, Mounty, Hilux and Blazer fans. The Tamiya TEU-101-BK Speed controller works a treat! So no need to pay for an expensive one this one is perfect and it's a Tamiya! (even with those bigger Mabuchi 750 type motors).

Next and last part will be the body. I need to get rid of the 'rollbars' (iark!), to remove the paint and stickers and repair the ABS before a complete respray to the box art scheme. Stay tuned and thanks for reading :o)