not an extreme chassis I have 2.

Does anyone have a gear differential for the TC3?

I've been doing some testing with the TC3 lately and I must admit it was a handful to drive. 180 turns at high and low speed caused the car to grip roll or tip on two wheels. After analyzing the TC3 on RC3, I found out the suspension design has a lot of camber gain built into it. This high amount of camber gain (high roll centers) generated by the link positions on the shock tower is causing the handling issue. I decided to remedy this issue, by modifying the link positions to raise the links up to help lower the roll center. I'll let you know how the car handles after these changes have been made.


Spacer is 10 mm height and using TRF ball end.

Spacer is the same as the front.

Roll center has been lowered and should improve handling on high traction carpet surfaces.

TC3 camber link positions show really high camber gain and high roll centers.

TC3/TC4 gear diff
As far as I know there has never been an aftermarket gear diff that is a direct drop in for the stock TC3/TC4/NTC3 plastic diff housing. However, there have there have been various solutions with modified diff cases and gear diffs designed for other vehicles. I would suggest searching for gear diff on the TC4 thread on RCTECH. I did a quick google search with the words "rctech tc4 gear diff" and it provided several results/photos that linked back to RCTECH.

Here is a link to the TC4 forum on RCTECH.net - Team Associated TC4

Here is a solution on Shapeways that uses a B44.3 gear diff... https://www.shapeways.com/product/JY...iff-conversion

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In case you don't know you can swap the corner braces between the TC3 & TC4. This will allow you more camber link adjustments. I just a quick search on eBay for associated 31001, and found several new in package parts.

In fact you can direct swap the shock towers from the TC4 to the TC3 which will give you more mounting locations. Please note that the TC4 shock towers no longer have a location to mount the camber links which is why I would advise people to change the towers & corner braces at the same time.

Many people have raced their TC3s with the above modification with great success, Personally I call my car with this modification a TC3.5.

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One thing that the TC4 design has over the TC3 is that it is designed so you can easily adjust the height of the inner a-arm hinge pin mount. Unfortunately the hinge pin mounts are not interchangeable between the cars. While you can mix and match the TC3 hinge pin mounts between the front and rear, you may not get the desired height/angle that you may desire. One thing I would do when running my TC3 on oval and VTA would be to use the F-0 hinge mount in the rear to achieve zero rear toe-in. In high bite conditions this can help the car rotate better.

However the one easy thing you can do is use very thin shims under the hinge pin mounts to adjust the roll center of the car. Be mindful that this change can alter the height of the front or rear bumper. I usually removed my rear bumper so this wasn't an issue. On the front of the car I would use small shims that would fit inside the hole for the front bumper. With a little creativity you can have much more dive/squat/kickup adjustment than the stock parts allow. I would always advise using longer than stock screws when securing the a-arm mounts on the TC3/TC4.

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One last bit of advice would be to replace the stock TC3 transmission cases with the newer Associated 2368 cases. I always found the original TC3 transmission cases to have very tight tolerances when installing the diffs. This caused the bearings to bind using the 2 stock thin diff shims. The newer cases (that have 2 more mounting holes on top), offer a little more "play" that has less binding making the drive line a bit more free.

Look what I'm working on friends....

Actually the car started as a fully decked out shef queen - my gut tells me it will work better bone-stock just with some kind of alloy outdrives.

I had 3 TC3's over the years. The first one was one of the very first Team released, I bought it the beginning of the release week, built it, brought it to the saturday club race, broke a front a-arm the first qualifier, sat the race the rest of the day and on saturday evening it was sold

Anyhoo... I'm rediscovering things that I forgot about that car, probably for the better. As a start, those OEM a-arm axles: none of them is straight, meaning you have to ream out the suspension holes if you don't want it to bind. I ended up actually using the aftermarket parts kindly provided by the seller when he handed me this:



Again, the point is to rebuild as stock as possible, but it will run (mildly... like 2 packs every decade or so ), so it has to be mechanically sound, not just pretty.

Any direct-fit body posts one can also recommend? I'm ok to move to 6mm...

Thanks,
Paul

I'm tempted to start a similar project. I absolutely loved my TC3 for stock and superstock on carpet and control rubber tyres. At the time, I was up against belt driven Schumacher Axis and Losi XXX S cars, possibly some Tamiya, Yokomo and early Xray cars as well. Great fun. Especially against team drivers with a long list of sponsors.


I have very little in the way of photos of my plastic fantastic but it's here in this shot sporting a BRCA 2. Thie 5 touring cars all used to get shoehorned into the car during the winter season for family racing. 7 off road cars/trucks in the summer. Happy days!

There were all sorts of essential mods - milling the chassis, modifying the out-drives for blades:


Corally blades used on my Yokomo SD SSG and TC3 - essential trick for stock classes.

I started off with a stock kit - but gradually converted over to graphite tub, lightened screws, better bearings plus all the fettling to the steering.

Yes - the 'Ass'ymetrical steering. That needed tweaking as well for very twisty indoor tracks unless you enjoy having more throw one way than the other!

Happy days indeed and definitely a competitive platform - one that not only paved the way for Team Durango but also proved the concept for 1/10th buggies in an unusual twist. In an era where only belts were considered competitive. Remarkable car.

the TC3 was truly a game changer... good comparison with the Durango.

Just realized you're still using the front shock tower at the front, when everyone moved to rear shock towers at both end later in the car's career... I know it won't help the camber gain issue Any good reason for not switching to the more modern setup?

Cheers,
Paul

Hey, "modern" as is using the rear tower on the front?
I knew about it, but didn't think it would help out much. I might give it a try.
Actually I just went on RC3 and placed the rear tower on the front and it doesn't change all that much.
My method looks to yield better roll center values, but I will need to test this out on the track.

Found these TC3 optional parts.

impressive eye candy - not any convinced the car will drive any better with these tbh... I'm removing all the blue bling from mine to put it back stock (except sleeved bones and alloy outdrives...)

If you want to achieve more standard camber gain, you could try to get the TC4 carbon chassis braces:

Here are some photos of my modified TC3 IRS chassis. Enjoy!

ARC flat screws to allow for some clearance.

Small orings to reduce chatter and retain the screws.

Reduce vibration chatter

Installed on TC3 spindle blocks.


Aluminum caster blocks which are 3 degrees


Shock tower material removed to allow for newer bodies to be mounted.

Battery mounting system reae

Battery mounting system front

Rear suspension using ARC dampers and offset from the tower to clear the roll bar.

Top view of the rear end which uses rear toe control set at -2 degrees and under compression goes to -3 degrees.

Top view

Nice...Will a top deck fit that car ??? Can the chassis get thinner ???
Another issue is chassis rub in the corners. Hopefully progressive springs can solve the issue, unless some sort of upstop can be retrofitted.

If you want an upstop, just put orings on the shock shaft outside of the shock body.