Hi guys. I am soon to be joining "Club Serpent". Got a great deal on a used 811 BE 2.0 and it should be arriving any day. I am just curious about pinions. I looked at number of setups sheets on the Serpent site and it seems that most of them used the 16T pinion. No doubt those guy are all experts so I am thinking it might be somewhat fast for a beginner like me.

So my questions are:
1. Are other pinions available like maybe at 15T?
2. Are they generic or do I need a Serpent specific part?
3. If they are generic, can you suggest a particular manufacturer and source?
4. If the original kit had an included pinion, how many teeth?

They are a industry standard, they are a mod 1 size. just make sure they are the right size for your shank, which is typically 5mm.
The car come stock with a 16t I believe.

I got my used Cobra in. I see that the battery boxes are held closed with a pair of small clips (like the body clips but much smaller). I could not find the battery box clips anywhere on the parts lists or diagrams. I just want to get some extras. Is there a specific part number or should I just get small generic clips? hard to tell which ones would be the right size because no one lists dimensions.

The battery box is geld down with the same size body clips as the body. They are smaller than the normal ones. They are titled as meduim body clips, part #1667

Cool. I just had a bag of 1667 come in today having pulled that off the parts diagram. Sure enough they fit in both places. I guess the previous owner wasn't using that exact part. He had bigger ones on the body and smaller ones on the battery box. Now I have them all back to the 1667's.

Thanks for clearing it up. I don't have to guess now.

I like to cut a square piece of Lexan and put as a buffer between the body clips and the body. Since they are smaller, after a few good crashes they'll pull through.

Thanks for the tip. I need as many as I can get
I was thinking about using some kind of washer but didn't seem like there is much room (clearance under the clip hole). I can try some scrap Lexan. I also have some very thin G10 that might work.

Has anyone got a good starting setup for medium traction Astroturf for the 2.1 configuration buggy? I've been running on mostly hard pack high traction but have a race soon on astro with the car.

So I replaced the steering servo on the 811BE that I bought used. Turned out the old servo was ok but the little plastic spline insert (that I didn't know about) had stripped. Having bought a new servo, I went ahead and installed it anyway.

Now I have some questions about setting up the front wheels. After installed the new servo, the front wheels are not quite straight so I need to adjust them. I see how to adjust them but not sure where to set them. I looked at the "stock" setup sheet but didn't see anything about toe. Are the front wheels supposed to be square or have some toe in (or out)?

Other than one of those $100-ish setup fixtures (by Hudy and others) is there a quick and dirty method to square up the front wheels? If I buy a real setup fixture, is one brand better than another?

First step is to zero the trim on the radio before you put the Servo horn on, and find a spline that is closest to 90 degrees. Then use trim step to get it to where the Servo is at dead 90deg. Then use the turnbuckles to get the wheels to zero toe. An easy way to do this is turn on your radio and car and push the car against a smooth flat wall and use your camber gauge to check your toe.
Actual first step should be get an aluminum Servo horn.

Thanks Chad. The part I didn't get was not how to do the TX/servo setup or how to adjust the turnbuckle, but what to use as a reference to get it square. Your wall trick got it pretty close, closer than I could get by eye.

It turns out that putting the horn right along the servo is not the right position for this model. I tried that first and everything was off. I went back and looked at the manual. The manual actually shows the servo horn at about 1 O'clock. So I took it out again, went one tooth clockwise and then used subtrim to true up the steering arms. Then I could use the turnbuckles to get the wheels straight. Came out close to the 20mm shown in the manual.

When I ordered parts, I ordered both the arm with inserts and the option part with the built-in 25T spline. I used the option part which seems to work great.

I like having all the good tools and stuff so I will probably end up getting the Hudy Setup System.

I like having all the right tools too, but the hudy set up station is way overkill and way over priced, no need. On this buggy the linkage going from the Servo to the steering rack is fixed, I like to use calipers to get the Ackerman plate exactly centered through sub trim, and second use turn buckles for toe, and step three is to set your end points.

I agree the Hudy stuff is overpriced. Yes, it's excellent quality but have a look at the Arrowmax stuff it's also very good quality and better priced. To be honest in buggy I think traditional camber gauges are sufficient to achieve accurate results.

I believe that is incorrect. From what I recall from the manual, the servo is not actually at 90 degrees but a little towards the rear.

You're right, but you get the point. I think he got it resolved, it's been a month without any questions.