Project Black & Blue

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Everything was going good. It was screaming across the ball field at incredible speed, up in a wheelie and then this. Blew the back tire and drive shaft. These were brand new shafts. Lasted 5 minutes on 6s and full throttle and 30 on the punch control. Doesnt look like they were glued very good. The other rear shaft was also just ready to break. LOL

[mike-susieq1]

those tires for sure were not glued right. you can see it was only glued on the outer part and you can see only small areas where it was glued on the inside. that shaft looks like how my merv and pede shafts ended up. hope my emaxx doesnt do that. are the summit shafts really stronger than the emaxx? they look to be the same thing though.

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From what I read on here the summit ones are stronger. From pics of them on e-bay They look like They made the ends where the pin goes through stronger by making it full circle instead of two tabs that break off. also from what I see and read There are long ones and short ones. and I think for the maxx You would want the long ones. But they are still plastic and the holes where the pins go through will elongate under lots of power.
The tires were new stock tires from a 3.3 revo. I guess they dont glue them very good from factory. Ive had to reglue the ones on my maxx a few times where spots come loose. Thats why I got some beadlocks. I dont like the idea of having to glue them on.

[mike-susieq1]

I dont like glueing either gets on my fingers sometimes but thats my fault. so would summit shafts be good to get over the emaxx one's or just the same?

[EMAXXBRUSHLESS]

The summit ones look like they are stronger on the ends. Look at pics of them on ebay and you will see the difference.

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I,ve been Busy last couple of nights. Tires taped, mounted.



Then balanced with my home made balancer. works good. I used small strips of gorrila tape on inside of wheels for weights.
To make balancer I used a couple 8 x 16mm bearings. removed dust seals and washed out all the grease so they have no resistance. 3/8" steel rod ground down to 8mm on ends and 1/4-20 thread on 1 end to hold hub. fit into a pc of plastic pipe. and a couple chunks of 2x4
All This was a project by itself LOL Its got to be a labor of love.

[M n M]

I like it! Nice job!

My tire balancer is an old set of stock A-arms and knuckle screwed to the side of my work bench.

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Found a couple cans of spray paint. Just to keep up with the name. LOL

[nitroroosta]

I'm not an electric guy but even an old nitro guy can appreciate what you got there WAY COOL!!!

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Last nights project
make a better nylon servo slipper spacer. Although the first one I made worked pretty good I wasn,t real happy with the fit. This time I made one with a center hole just a tiny bit bigger than servo shaft so it doesnt slide back and forth, then ovaled it out so it would stretch down over the saver. Then put it in a little vise and heated it up with a torch. and cranked it in there real tight with a couple little pcs of wood and a spacer. then left it overnight. see pic below. Now a much better fit and locks into center much much better.
My mistake ,The nylon washer I used is mylar not nylon. Thats the only thin ones I could find at hardware store. .015 thick
A thinner one would probably be a little easier to form to saver.

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The tires are axial terra-izer. Not shure how they will hold up. They were cheap, had the beadlock and i liked the looks of them so figured i would give them a try on my new project.

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To Beef up the uhb,s I made a couple of 1/16" thick steel tie bars to go across the front & rear suspension pins.

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I see some people dont like all the flex in the rpm arms. so I have come up with an idea to stiffen them up and still have a little flex.
The lower front arms will be easy. Rear tru trac will be a little more involved. Stay tuned.

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The front arm was easy. Drill 1/8 hole and insert hss rod. I drilled it deep enough to fit a 3 7/8" long pc behind pillow ball.
I also used a drill with the flute cut back to about 1/4" so it wouldnt remove any material from the pillow ball thread while drilling. and a pecking motion to pull plastic up from hole was needed.



The rear was a little more work. I used a pc of 1/2" alum. round. Had my machinist friend mill out a slot to fit arm. Then drilled and counterbored a 3/32" x 1/8" hole to hold it in place. The pic is shown with a pc of coat hanger as a mock up pc. I will use the same 1/8" x 3 7/8" long hss rod with the end ground down to 3/32" to fit into 1/2" alum round and into the arm. Had to order some 1/8" hss rod, should be here today. Then a collar to hold it out in place. I will grind a tiny little flat for collar set screw to hold in place. I had to make a jig with some clamps to hold arm on 1 end and bend other side down to drill holes so it will line up. This can be tricky to do. I drilled hole 1/4" deeper so it can be inserted then slid back out in place and still be into the back hole a 1/2" deep where a lot of the force will be. I dont think the 1/8" HSS rod will bend, but if it does I will replace with 3/16"
I guess thats enough explaining, pics are worth lots of words.
I dont know how well this will work or if it will destroy a good pair of tru trac lower arms but I think It will be good stiffener and still have some flex. You could do the same to the upper arms but i dont see any need to since the shocks connect to the bottom.
Let me know what you guys think of this crazy idea of mine. Do you think it will work? or do you think Iv,e had way to much free time on my hands last couple of days? LOL

[EMAXXBRUSHLESS]

The more I think about this the more I think the 1/8" HSS rod might be too stiff. and not flex enough. Needs to be stiff enough to add strength,but not so stiff that it doesnt bend at all and possibly stretchs out the holes. Not shure if it would or not. I will test a pc when it gets here in a couple of hours.
Anybody have any ideas on any other type of 1/8" or 3/16" dia. rod material that would work for this application? Has to be somthing that will bend a little but not stay bent. I think how stiff the springs are will have a just a tiny little bit to do with it.
one other little note on this mod. I drilled and counterbored the alum pcs at a slight angle to fit the built in toe angle of the trutrac arm.

[M n M]

Nice clean work you've done. I like the concept. I'm really interested in how this will play out.

I have to agree with you that going real stiff with your brace rods could cause unwanted damage. When I ran my Maxx into a 4x4 post and broke a plastic bulkhead the only damage to my RPM A-arm was the front hinge pin hole was pulled out of round and egged or oval shaped.

Just keep in mind that when a part is made stronger, that the energy is transferred to another part/area. But since you already have aluminum bulkheads with better hinge pins along with aluminum towers this probably won't be an issue

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The stuff i ordered from my regular next day suplier came in. The wrong stuff, its not the hardened rod I wanted. My mistake. have to wait a couple more days for the hardened rod from another suplier I ordered last week for my shop stock.
I did a little stress test on a pc of 5/32" X 3" long HSS rod (clamped in vise on 1 end and bend other end with plyers) Didnt take a lot of force to bend it a little, and springs right back so im thinking the 1/8 should work ok. If not will have to find something 1/8" dia. other than HSS with a weaker springy quality. Or get another trutrac and drill for 3/32' or 7/64" rod or make some little bushings to use smaller than 1/8 rod in the trutrac I already drilled. LOL
I should have waited till i got the 3/32 and 1/8 hardened stock and stress tested it to see witch seemed best before I drilled them out. Sometimes I get ahead of myself. LOL either way it will work.
I will update this mod soon. I will call this mod. (Steel Reinforced RPM Suspension) or SRRS LOL

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After all my ramblings about this mod The results on my rpm suspension mod are in. I got the 1/8" HSS rod today and of course I couldnt wait to cut it ,grind it and install it. First, I would have to say The 1/8" HSS dia. rod was the perfect choice.
Seems to have just the right springy strength and this stuff doesnt stay bent. if you bend it too far it will snap and shatter.
I cant see that the suspension would ever bend it as far as I did in the vise to break a pc testing. They also fit nice and tight.
Pressure testing them in a little jig that replicated them being held by the suspension pins and shocks. I found that it took about 16 to 18 pounds of force to bend the end of the trutrac arm a 1/2". With the brace installed it took about 26 pounds of force. Just the right amout of added force I was looking for. The arms still flex and the rod flexs with it without any damage to the arms. I didnt do any pressure test on the front arms but i would think it would be about the same. They seem to be stiffer to begin with.





While waiting for steel rod to arrive I made these. A couple of 1/16" thick plastic plates (painted black of course) To black out the cut outs in the chassis braces.



Next up is to put the suspension back together. Grease and locktight all the drive cups. Get some heavier oil for shocks.

[M n M]

Looking very nice

[EMAXXBRUSHLESS]

A little more progress. I greased and lock tighted all the drive cups. I swapped out the small 2pc bulk braces for these from dubro. much stronger.



Mounted the hytek servo like this,had to file a bit of the mounting tab to fit flush and it lines right up with the steering linkage I will drill out blue alum horn that came with it to fit tie rod. I dont know what the 4 countersunk alum washers that came with the flm chassis were intended for, so I used them with some flathead screws to mount the servo.




Put my steel reinforced rpm suspension back on (SRRS) lol



I installed the clutch with 65t spur and 20t pinion. Not shure how this gearing will work with the uhbs? Anybody else running this gear combo???

waiting for batt trays to set up steering system. Not shure if I will have to adjust end points ect. The servo has a built in overload protector. But you have to buy the the programmer to turn it on. lol go figure.
Going to have my machinist mill a little groove in the antenna mount so I dont have to run the antenna wire under the chassis.
Thats all for now. I think I have everything I need to finish this thing except a pair of lipos. and time to work on it. Thinking of some gens ace 5800 45c 2cells.

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Not much to add today. My esc didnt come with the bracket to hold it and the switch. Had to order one. found a dynamite servo horn that looks a bit stronger and has tapped holes so got that too. Also ordered the programmer for the servo so I can turn on the overload protector and program as needed. Waiting for batt boxes from rc monster so I can mount batts and get the steering system set up and aligned. More progress coming soon. Im in no big rush to finish. Having too much fun building it. But still cant wait to try it.

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A little more progress.. I got the HPP-21 pc programmer for the servo. Really cool. Alows you to set center and end points with a slide bar and mouse, turn on overload protection and more. It seems to work fine on the bench with the internal bec.I set the internal bec on the mamba monster esc to 6.0 volts. Have to wait to see how it works in the real world with a load on things. Heres a few pics on the instalation.

IMG]http://pic100.picturetrail.com/VOL727/13504898/24155808/403595821.jpg[/IMG]



I also hooked up the castle quick connect plug and a volt and temp sensor for future use.



Waiting for some other battery boxes to suit my liking. More coming soon. stay tuned

[EMAXXBRUSHLESS]

A little more progress.. I got the HPP-21 pc programmer for the servo. Really cool. Alows you to set center and end points with a slide bar and mouse, turn on overload protection and more. It seems to work fine on the bench with the internal bec.I set the internal bec on the mamba monster esc to 6.0 volts. Have to wait to see how it works in the real world with a load on things. Heres a few pics on the instalation.

IMG]http://pic100.picturetrail.com/VOL727/13504898/24155808/403595821.jpg[/IMG]




I also hooked up the castle quick connect plug and a volt and temp sensor for future use.



Waiting for some other battery boxes to suit my liking. More coming soon. stay tuned
somhow got 2x post

[Dr.J]

Its looking great! I think those big bore shocks are gonna have a hard time dealing with all the weight though. I had to use 70 wt in mine to keep it from slapping the ground at about a 10" drop, and its not nearly as heavy. Ive thought about getting some ten-t shocks. 8 of those on yours would look sweet, and they are blue aluminum to fit with your theme

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Thanks for the input. I know I probably should have looked into better shocks for this thing. Its not going to be light. Especially with a 1.5 pound roll bar. I have some vg racing 12 pound springs lol I could try replacing one on each corner with one of those. They are so stiff! I will definatly put some heavier oil. have 40w now.
What are the ten-t shocks and where can I look at them??

[Dr.J]

Ebay usually has them for around $60 for all 4, so $120 for 8. They are they best bang for your buck as far as shocks go.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/TEN-T-REAR-S...item4d0391679e

[SLW-SVT]

I ordered those vg springs as well for the big bores. I'm interested to see how they work out for you. I totally agree with having just as much fun putting the thing together! i may have to get that vg roll bar too.

[EMAXXBRUSHLESS]

Those springs are very stiff! maybe too stiff. Im not shure if I will try them or not. If your using rpm arms I would lock nut the bottom. and use some kind of aluminum skock towers so they dont tear out the screws. I think I will try the 6.9 copper springs with 60-70 weight oil first.

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Finally got a little more progress. LOL Battery trays. I like the ones from kershaw designs the best (velcro battery tray 7.99)
They are the exact same tray as the ones from tcmodels from Hong kong for 4.19 But with the extra s+h from hong kong they cost the same about 25.00 for the pair They fit perfect IMO. I cut the three raised mounts off and made some 1/16" thick plastic plates to fit in front and behind of the raised ridges for the straps then Drilled 4 holes for a good strong hold. They are 6" long x 2-3/16" wide on the outside and 3/32" thick. and fit my 2-cell hardcase batterys perfect. and after all tightened down you can still slide straps back and forth.






Next up, lock tight the pinion, put gear cover back on and Mount the vg racing roll bar. I like the tripple mounting point design. Then finnaly when it stops raining around here. Take it out for a test run.

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Not much to report today. I checked out the speed caculator. It appears the 20t - 65t with 1/8 scale diffs on my project is just about exactly the same overall as 17-68 with stock diffs. on 4s. Waiting for some hd bumpers i ordered. and some gens ace 5800 45-90c batterys out of stock again. should have got them a week or so ago when they were available. Also tried to get a ice amps blower fan but couldnt get through check out or phone call. they must be swamped with traffic like the traxxas sight.

[M n M]

Very impressive clean build you have.

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Finnaly got through to RB Innovations and ordered blower. Will wait to install first before roll cage. Also found these cool body posts on e-bay I like the idea of plastic ones that have a little give but i think the roll bar will protect them. and they have a cool spring mount to help protect body mount holes

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Traxxas-Emax...item43b2b0893a

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I Got the HD integy bumpers. These things look pretty tough, 5/16 thick.



Made a short alum skid to fit bottom and rpm skid. My goal was to get the angle of the rpm skid to fit flush with the flm chassis braces.




Made a pc of alum. and bolted front of rpm skid to the integy titanium skid. I will make a better alum pc with a L shape so it wraps around the top of the rpm skid and butts up to the titanium plate. Since theres one bolt holding it on this will keep it from twisting too. and make it stronger. This will also add a little strength to the skid. A pc of 1/4" gas line cut on one side fit perfect between the top of skid and the roll bar mount.
But the biggest reason for this is to keep the clumps of grass out from under the front of the rpm skid that im shure many of us have had happen.



A couple pics of almost completed maxx project. Should be getting blower fan today. I Had to have it. LOL

[Dr.J]

Its too pretty to get dirty Alotta money there. How much is it weighing in at?

[EMAXXBRUSHLESS]

Thanks, A lot of money and a lot of time making and modifying parts. Having a lot of fun building it. I have another 3908 maxx with a lot of upgrades so I dont think I will beat on this one too much. Hopfully have a lot of fun with it and play with it more than I fix it. When its done it will be about as bullet proof as a max can get.

With 2 traxxas 5800 batterys it weighs in at 13 3/4 pounds. An ankle breaker for shure.
The roll bar weighs 1 1/2 pounds but I like the tripple mounting point design.

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A little more progress last night. Got the ice amps blower installed. Had to do a little grinding on the mounting plate to lower it down a bit and give a little clearance to roll bar. also used the rpm body post cross braces with the HR spring loaded body posts. I removed the stock inner spring and put one on the outside to hold the cross brace up to the pedestals. A perfect fit.

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A little plastic collet holder case with snap on lid to house the castle quick connect.




I also noticed that flm has the propper hindge pins for the upper rpm arms. Waiting for those to swap out.

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Heres a cool way to hide the castle quick connect module and the battery tap plug on the flm chassis. I didnt like the idea of having it stuffed under the front of the rx box so I came up with this. A little plastic fuse container.

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Haven't had much time to work on this project lately. I did replace the upper hindge pins with the flm rpm ones. now has the eclips to hold better. Didnt like the castle sticker on the electrical box so replaced with a little scully bones.


Made a screen to go over esc to keep out dirt and pebbles.


Swapped out the bottom shock spring retainers for some blue rpm ones I had laying around. Added a couple decals proline and vg racing.


still waiting for the rpm sensor and some batterys. Picked up a set of road rage tires to mount on some proline beadlock rims. also made a new servo steering link using a couple of shortened rpm tie rod ends (blue) with the larger 4mm threaded rod to hold them together. I made one with some aluminum rod ends I got from rc4wd but the alum rod ends had too much slop in the little ball.

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more progress, I put together a set of road tires. stripped the chrome off some proline cheyenne 23mm beadlocks and painted black with blue rings and black letters. Ordered a set of 23mm wheel hubs to fit the 8mm axles. Since I drilled the axles to fit the 17mm traxxas hubs w/2.5mm screw pins and the 8mm hubs use 3mm (.1181) pins. Im going to redrill the axles and both sets of hubs to 1/8" (.125)and make my own hardened steel pins. I probably would have just went with 3mm holes and pins but I have 1/8 drills and 1/8 stock in stock in my shop. So it wont cost me anything and I will have strong 1/8" dia. pins. I will also have to make some spacers to fit over the axles and into the 23mm hubs to bolt on tight and still fit the traxxas hubs that I cut axles to fit.