Hi All,
Let me try to answer some of your questions T Fears
What breaks the most?
The part that I broke so far is the pair of front outdrives. One of ball cups popped off in the front so the suspension arm traveled beyond its limits and the dog bone end of the drive shaft tweaked it and snapped in half. This was the 3Racing steel outdrives. I'm now using the kit's steel outdrives.
The arms too if you race long enough, but not sure, I haven't broken one yet...
What are the ms shocks like compared to the trf501x's shocks?
Not really sure, I have never used the TRF shocks... All I know from comparing it to AE's shocks (which I've been using all my life on AE's vehicles) is that the MS shocks are very nice and smooth. It was a pleasure to build. The only thing is, the piston holes seems too big, so I had to use thicker oil. Where I used 45wt for my front AE shocks on the B44, I used 55wt for my DF-03MS for the same track. My DF-03MS still uses the stock "white" springs.
How easy is it to swap spurs with a b4 spurgear?
VERY easy. I was very surprised how close the shaft size were. Like what leerjet1 stated above, I used a tapered reamer. All you need to do is ream out jus a tiny bit. If you choose to use Tamiya slipper pads, it's exactly what leerjet1 said, just need to trim it a bit. You can buy AE slipper pads too if you want to skip the trimming...
Do kyosho zx5 rims fit on this car?
Not really sure, can someone answer this? There's another poster on here, Orange I believe, that used Durga/501x axles to use Losi rims... You can try those if Tamiya parts are hard to come by.
Does shotgun style batteries fit? What about soldered bar type batteries?
The chassis was originally designed for "shotgun" style batteries. With the stock chassis, you can cram side-by-side I believe, but with graphite chassis like the one from 3Racing, you must be VERY careful not to short out side-by-sides if your battery bars are exposed like on mine for the B44. Mine are exposed because i use the equalizer tray on it.
Since the packs for my B44 are exposed and saddle, I just ended up buying 3 more shotgun style packs and just left it like that. Just discharge the pack down to 6.0V (assuming you are using NiMH technology) and you should be fine... NiMH aren't really memory prone but they do develop a "personality" over time...
Planning on running a novak havok 8.5 brushless. How well do you think the drivetrain will hold up?
I think it will hold up well. Take note that Tamiya included ALOT of shims in the kit for a reason. The number of shims it takes to properly mesh gears is merely a suggestion. Each DF-03MS units are probably unique.
My experience, just shim it until it's fairly tight. Run a single pack through it on your bench. Take the drive train apart and see if the gears have seated correctly. If you don't see too much play in the meshing, you're good to go. I recommend running it on your bench so that your motor won't be seeing an extra load if your car is on the ground/dirt/floor and have to propel itself...