That was the ball diff. Here is the gear diff on the left, ball diff on the right, 1150 bearing on the left, 10x15x4 bearing on the right, typical Tamiya drive cup in the front for reference.

TOP's drive cup cannot be separated from the gear diff after assembly so I'd have to bore out the hole on the M03 chassis to make them fit.

Interesting. The bore the outdrive passes through is 7mm. Standard outdrives are 10mm at the big end. Bearing size is 11mm. Now I'm really wondering how this trick got pulled off.

Hi Monkeyracing,
the only way I can imagine this trick is, that the Top outdrives are 5mm thick and use a 5mm O-Ring in the diff. As the Top is little more narrow from the Diff body itself, compared to Spec-R and 3-Racing, you could cut off 5mm of the plastic body on every side, to get space to fit the 1150 bearing on the outdrive before assembling the diff. You need to drill the chassis hole though, to pass the outdrive through. But that´s not a problem.
This is the only way I can imagine this to work. Anyway, it´s worth testing, as less special machining is involved than with my "1280 trick".
Nevertheless, this worked for me, and I´ve lend the M03 "Spec - R" now for 2 race seasons back to my buddy Jochen, who was the initial owner of this car, and he drove the hell out of it and got some very good results in our new Mini-class. He even beat me against my M05 Pro V2 for one time and got first place!:lol:
The gear freed up nice, and the only maintenance we did was to add some stiffer oil (20k) after the O-rings were settled in. So far no leaks, and no cracked gears. Just the low maintenance and reliability I´ve wanted...:)

But it would be very cool, if the Top Racing trick would work the same way, a lot quicker and easier! I´ts just a shame, that Tamiya or another manufacturer doesn´t make a sealed gear diff for the M03, considering how many Tamiyas use this gear train...:(

Br,
Matthias

That's exactly what I was thinking. You end up with a fairly small surface for the bearing to rest in the chassis, but it should be enough. Wish the exchange rate between Canada and the US wasn't so bloody awful right now. I'd test this in a heartbeat otherwise.

Thanks eR1c, handled pretty much as you'd expect for a RWD. It can be a bit tail happy out of corners, but with rally blocks all round it handles great on carpet. Can't wait to take it outside.

I'm trying to set up a M05v2 pro that I recently acquired. It currently has a gear diff with what feels like putty or very heavy oil in it (1-2.5mil), blue dot front Springs and yellow dot rears. S-grips all around,-2° camber all around, 4mm ride height front and rear. I have some black springs with red dot on them, but they are longer than the white Springs that are on the car, which might result in very high ride height. I have some xray t2 shocks and ae tc5 shocks....would they be of benefit?
Any suggestions on setup? Curious about how much droop I should run. Currently 1.5mm ORH front, 2.5mm ORH rear.
Will be running on 48'x100' medium grip ozite carpet.
Thanks for any help/input you can provide!

DBM- I can only suggest you drive it as-is first. The car will tell you want needs to be done.

Given all the factors, especially the diff. You might want to try red springs front, blue rear. Ride height slightly higher at the rear, lower front.

Hey, that sounds strangely familiar....LoL

To top it off, you need a Subaru BZR body from rcmart.

Rcmart is sold out of ride brz bodies. Luckily this car came with one, painted in the previous owners colors. :)

Thanks for the help so far! I think my red springs are too long, so might have to run yellow front and blue rear. Hopefully that doesn't make it too loose.

Installed the motor/electronics, and wired it up last night. Replaced a bent rear axle stub, and made some cheesy battery retainers. Weighs 65g overweight for wcics racing, and the orca esc has a delay when starting from 0, but seems to work fine once moving.

DBM,

My suggestion would be to echo Sakadachi's ...drive it then tweak it to YOUR liking. I believe that w/ the M05 and M05VII (which are all that I can speak of for this class) there are many ways to get a race winning car.

For example I run slicks on front, s-grips in rear
Ride height taller in front and lower in back (1mm difference between front and rear)
and zero camber and toe in front and 2degrees camber in back w/ 1.5 degree toe-in. This is probably way different than others.

experiment and keep tweaking it to what seems to work best for you. :)

I love tweaking and tuning. :) at at the track twice a week messing around. However, this is a different case. I bought the car 5 days before a big race weekend, so am trying to get it close to decently set up before Friday, since I won't have any time to tune the setup before then.

Tuning your cars at the big races is for the serious guys. ;)

Let the track come to your setup. Praying may help. :lol:

Ivan

Throwing a Ramen Noodle flag on your car doesn't hurt either!!!:lol: