gigaplex

iTrader: (2)

I took mine out for a shakedown today (outdoor asphalt track, unprepped), boy is the rear end loose with the kit setup. Rear end snapped loose every time entering the sweeper at the end of the straight (still on full power). It also spun out and did donuts when accelerating while turning left, but pushed turning right. This indicated tweak, but I checked it with my corner scales and it looked okay. Torque steer perhaps? I had to add massive preload to the rear right to get it to turn consistently both ways, which put the ride height at that corner about 1mm higher than the others (but at least it was driveable at that point).

I tried adding the swaybars (blue front, yellow rear) and it helped with the infield a bit, but I still had to slow down a bit before entering the sweeper. I laid the rear shocks down all the way, and stood the front ones up, which helped a little bit but not enough. I then tried changing tyres, I was using Team Powers 36 all round, and switched to Sweep 33 all round. Bad move, the TP36 tyres worked much better. Maybe I need to ditch the Mini Cooper body and try something with a rear wing.

When I got home I checked for binding, and both rear wheel hubs were binding a fair amount. Still haven't found a crush tube that'll fit in the hub, so I've swapped out the rear universals for some Tamiya 53597 universals and some Tamiya wheel hexes that I pulled from my M03. Now there's a tiny bit of play between the hex and the bearing, no more binding. Maybe that'll help with the handling next time. The Tamiya universals are a few mm shorter than the stock ones, but they still fit in the outdrive nicely.

MatsNorway

Wings is really helping! slap on a big wing and most things end up much much more stable.

gigaplex

iTrader: (2)

I tried adjusting my diffs last night. When I tried tightening the front diff, it felt like I was going to snap the bolt or pull it through the outdrive, and it didn't feel like the diff action was getting much tighter. Then I tried loosening the rear diff. I loosened it to the point where it was slipping pretty easily, but the diff action was still almost as tight as the front. Odd, I've never had that issue with the ball diffs on my TC3 and TC5. I think the plastic outdrives are too soft and deform a bit so adjustments don't make as much difference as they should.

RotorTruck

iTrader: (2)

they are soft. but tightening does work. the metal rings keep things in check.

you should pull them and take apart to check. i've had the bolt punch thru the outdrive, even ripped a ring gear along the ball hole diameter, but that was a 13.5 with a very slippery silicone grease on the balls. both behaved as 'super loose, tightening does nothing'.

You may have stripped the nut.

gigaplex

iTrader: (2)

The nut is fine, I stopped tightening as I was worried I'd punch the bolt right through. I think it was your comment from a while back that put that doubt in my mind. The front diff is close enough to tight enough, my bigger concern is why I can't get the rear diff free enough without slipping. It still feels too tight. I might need to clean the stock lube and use AE diff grease.

WagwanBumba

iTrader: (1)

Definitely clean the stock grease. I remember that stuff being super thick and sticky.

gigaplex

iTrader: (2)

I just cleaned the grease out. Helped a little, but not enough.

What did work was swapping the diffs front to back. For some reason the front diff did a better job of not slipping while loose, and the rear one tightened up a bit stiffer than the front. I've only put a couple of packs through the car so far, so maybe they haven't quite broken in properly yet.

I also installed some bearings for the steering rack. They didn't help much, the outer race binds when tightening it so I had to leave it a bit loose to avoid binding. Once I did that, it didn't function much better than the stock bushings did when left just as loose (although I didn't really have any issues with the stock bushings in the first place).

gigaplex

iTrader: (2)

Finally got around to painting the body for my M.Rage. Turned out okay, but I messed up the trimming of the rear wing a bit.

sakadachi

iTrader: (1)

Looks good gigaplex!

gigaplex

iTrader: (2)

I took my M.Rage out for a race yesterday, sadly none of the other 4WD minis showed up so I got lumped in with the 21.5 TC guys. It didn't handle very well, I had no rear grip. Even easing up on the throttle at speed was enough to cause the rear to spin out. That was with the stock tyres, Team Powers 36, and Sweep 33. At mid to low speeds though, the car handled okay and was very nimble. The car just didn't seem capable of handling the spec 13T Hobbywing 3000kV combo, geared to 4.5. My best lap time was about half a second slower than my M05 using the same Hobbywing combo with the stock gearing.

I headed to my local track (different one) today for a tuning session, and experimented with tyre combinations to try to get the rear end locked down. Ended up settling on Team Powers 36 on the rear, with Pit Shimizu 33 on the front. That locked the rear end down and gave the car moderate understeer. Not the fastest way around the track, but fairly easy to drive and still good enough to be about a second quicker than my M05.

gigaplex

iTrader: (2)

We've got a big race meet this week with 4 full heats of mini and 1 heat of 4WD mini. A couple of us are running the M.Rage. Here's the first casualty of the weekend during practice today:

I hit a curb and it cartwheeled quite violently. Unfortunately I didn't have a spare and everyone who got the alloy arm mounts skipped on just this one. Luckily someone had a spare unbuilt roller that I could borrow a part from.

Other than that mishap, the car felt pretty quick once I settled on a tyre combo that seems to work. Best lap was about 2 seconds faster than my M05 and wasn't far off the hot lap of the day. TP36 all round, old heavily worn ones on the front, relatively fresh ones on the rear. I gooped and warmed the rears only. I'm using the Blitz RS4 mini body, it seems to handle much better than the stock Swift body.

WagwanBumba

iTrader: (1)

The RS4 body is nice! I have it on a blinky 13.5 mini converted BD7.

Billy Kelly

iTrader: (9)

I like that body. Stock body always had a English taxi look to me.

gigaplex

iTrader: (2)

Had a successful run over the weekend. Despite not being the fastest on the track, I managed to take TQ as the faster guys kept failing to get clean runs in. First final, most of the field wiped out on the first corner, giving me a 10 second lead early on. The 2nd qualifier was really fast though and caught up to me mid way through the race... only to spin out 1 corner after passing me, letting me by. A lap later, he retook the lead. The 3rd place guy caught up though and overtook both of us in one go on the sweeper, but the 2nd qualifier ran wide and wiped both of them out, giving me another massive lead. I managed to hold them off and took the win for first final.

Second final was rather uneventful, 2nd qualifier overtook me and held the lead. I finished second. That meant I had one win and second place, he had one win and 3rd place. His win was a faster time than my win. I had to win the next final to secure the overall win, or hope he finished 3rd or worse.

Third race... he hit me on the first corner and my car broke. Camber link stud stripped out of the rear hub. I think he felt worse than I did, the look on his face said enough. After a few laps he pulled over and handed me his controller and said I can finish off the race, he didn't want to win that way. So with his controller in hand, knowing if I didn't finish first or second, I'd get the overall win. What did I do? I finished second with his car :P

Overall results, 2nd qualifier took the overall win (Xray conversion), I TQ'd and finished second (BSR M.Rage), and 3rd place was an ABC Gambado (FWD). There was one other BSR M.Rage (finished 6th, but he had to leave early, he had the pace to contend for podium) and most of the rest of the field were Xray conversions as far as I'm aware.



One bit of information you lot might be interested in. The other M.Rage user discovered that the Kyosho ZX5/6 ball diff is a drop in replacement. Only issue is the diff nut is a bit long, so you need shorter axles. I suggested he tried Tamiya M03/M05 30mm ones, and they fit just fine. Both the ring and crown gears are also drop in replacements.

sakadachi

iTrader: (1)

Good job gigaplex for not purposefully crashing ur opponent's car into the wall!

Great info on the diff and axles, thanks!!