I noticed on mine, the front belt rubs on the chassis when it's not pulled tight enough, which is actually quite tight, but if it's anyones is rubbing anywhere, my bet is it's there, and even if it's fairly tight it's possibly still going to rub on the chassis at speed maybe.

Don't get the need to remove top deck to do front belt, diff went in and I assume comes out those front slots in the bulkheads, and that is only kept covered by the front top bumper plate.
The method I assume to get it out, is pull off the front bumper top plate, flick out the bearings with a screwdriver, drop away the CV shafts and remove one steering rod, and surely it just then pulls out the front?.

I'll have to look again at mine, but that seems right to me based on what I noticed during the build.

The top deck can stay on you just need to remove the front 4 top deck screws, the servo saver brace, front bumper, Fr shocks at the top, Fr shock tower, top arm side mount screw and the left side bulkhead.

which sounds like another tricky way to do it. I think Bishop is right though, there must be a way to take it out by removing the front bumper only. I thought of this, and gave it a go, but i couldn't remove the bearings from the diff whilst it was seated in the baulkheads so i had to pull it all down.

Maybe after a few runs and everything gets a bit looser it would be easier to slide the bearings off?:(

Anyone noticed that when the throttle / brake is applied that the engine /chassis flex back and forth. Is this supposed to happen or I have set something up incorrectly. Routing the battery leads is a pain everything is so tight, but the servo tray is a great idea very easy to remove. Still haven't worked out how to get to the front belt easily

set correct the end points in your throttle servo!

like Gregory said, you have too much throttle end point and too much brake end point.

i spaced my throttle servo further out with some spacers so as to have a small amount of room between the tank and the throttle servo, i then routed the wires between this gap.

The manual says to place the wires on top of the throttle servo, but if i did this the tank would not sit properly.

regarding the chassis plate, i found mine has an upwards bow in the centre. it's about 1 or 1.5mm higher in the middle when laid on blocks.:o This was noted before building so it isn't a tweak from the build.

I have set the servo end points, but I still get movement even when the throttle is moved slowly from closed to open. The end stop has been set so the servo doesn't "pull" past this point but movement of the engine still happens, its like the chassis flexs upwards slightly, same thing with the brake to get effective brake force on the brake lever it appears to be pulling/flexing the chassis.
When you guy's set yours up is there absolutely no movement / flex, I am only talking about a very small movement but it can be seen when looking at the engine head I can see it move when throttle is applied.

Your servos are traveling farther than they need to. To set the EPA(end point adjustment) for full throttle remove the air filter and set the throttle high endpoint to where the carb opens completely and no more. The brake endpoint should be set to around 50% to start with depending on track, style etc. Once again there shouldn't be any tweak put into the chassis based on throttle or brake input.

Hope this helps.

ps remember to put the airfilter back on the carb.

are you sure the servo is not rubbing or hitting anything as it moves?

if the chassis is flexing as you give it throttle then there is definately something not set right. if your chassis flexes when the brake is applied i'd hazard to guess you have waaaaaaay too much brake applied. ease the brakes down.

if everything is set right, then i can only guess somethng is binding, or not allowing the servo to move freely.

Wow, servo and wiring on the 5 is crazy, getting the servos in is tricky, then the amount of time you spend sorting out just where routing the wiring works, I guess it's always the way with a new model, it's draining to work it out, but once you know it the whole thing becomes a lot easier.

I like that the servo/electrics side section comes out as a unit, though it's not all that easy to drop out in practice, maybe if you shaved a mm of the top lugs, and I came at it from all angles sorting wires and where to lay them, but like in the manual I'd say easiest way to do it all is build away from the car then slot it in once you have it all sorted out.

But really there is not huge amounts of room within it all, and you worry about some wire rub from some of the routing if it's not perfect, I think best tip away from the manual spec is running the battery lead behind the transponder holder rather than in the front, and the power wire back to the RX is best run in front of the transponder holder, this just seems to route the wires better with less chance they will end up rubbing on something.

Maybe not so oddly enough, that tip came from just looking at how Robert had his routed in the EC pics, after not liking it the manual way, I checked Roberts EC car pics and found that way worked better.

Actually I'm disappointed Mugen did not give us a power extension lead, and a proper mounting point for it (see a lowly spec Team Magic for what I'm talking about), but they could have put a plug mount on the hang down section of the transponder mount, and included a power wire extension to fit with it.

anyone else found that the diffs leak a bit?

also, there seems to be a specific diff cover for front and rear. i only realised this after looking at the instruction manual as i was ordering spare diffs. There is a "B" cover (front) and a "D" cover (Rear)

Yeah I almost put mine together without checking that, as they look very simular.

And my diffs were leak free, right up until today, when I noticed my back one is suddenly weeping a tiny bit, but it was cold when I build mine, now it's really warm up here for this time of year, so I blame that.

I have yet to see a gear diff not weep a little fluid, sometimes you nip up the screws a few days after and they stop, other times they never stop weeping just a little.

Novak Soft touch switch
 

I have a variable iron, it's just a precaution, maybe I had a lemon.

And where'd you get that sexy tailored suit for your battery Tom?

yeah maybe it was a lemon. i'm hesitant to open mine up as it's been working hassle free since i bought it a few years ago.

With the batery all i did was wrap some black cloth tape i had on the belt side;)

Another win for the car ...

Final result of 1/10th GP Touring car Japan National Open class.

1.Keisuke Fukuda 124L. 40.09
2.Keen V Vejrak 123. 40.11
3.Shinnosuke Yokoyama121. 40.03
4.Takehiro Terauchi
5.Takaaki Shimo
6.Yuya Sahashi
7.Toshiyuki Iwamoto
8.Takumi Matsuda
9.Takahata
10.Tadahiko Sahashi