encore75

iTrader: (26)

Ahh thanks...I was wondering why there was such a price discrepancy for what looked like basically the same thing.

AM03GT

iTrader: (13)

the pic on this page is correct
http://www.rc10.com/newprod/newprod_aeparts.htm

sleepy23

i am sure this has come up somewhere in the 300+ pages, but honestly, who is going to read more than 10-20 pages back.

so here is what I have done and am wondering if anyone else has tried it:

full carbon fiber hinge pins, tc3 composite driveshaft, 200mm conversion, custom fit a set of aluminum outdrives to use the d-ring, tc3 input shafts (about to try some carbon fiber ones), modified some aluminum servo mounts to fit..thats about the extent of the major mods..

AM03GT

iTrader: (13)

interesting conversion... but to what purpose? the 200mm conversion basically makes your car illegal for all on-road racing since the 4wd sedan class is always restricted to 190mm... as far as your car goes it sounds like you're doing a lot of weight loss in the transmission... is it for speen runs?

sleepy23

I have honestly never been a fan of organized rc racing. I would much rather build,tune, and street race.
yeah basically the car is lightened for speed and handling. its running a mamba 7700 and a 2s lipo.
i kinda figured most posts here were more race orientated, rather than insane high power and performance.

MleedM

Any of you using the aluminum "A" arms that are on e-bay by GRP?

They look nice.

Do they break less is the real question. My driving isn't too bad so hitting the boards is minimal. The odd tee-bone still causes damage though.

Thoughts?

Also, what size of tap is needed for the transmission housings?

Boomer

aluminum does break less than plastic/carbon.

However, it bends more and often without much indication of it bending so you can end up with parts that are "tweaked" and little indication of said tweakage.

Some parts are appropriate for alum, others may not be. One other thing - if you have a failure point, then the alum may not be as prone to bending. . .something else can give.

AssocRacer

iTrader: (10)

This is true. If you have aluminum parts on a car, you have to look at where the other give points are going to be. Keep this in mind, say you break control arms normally, so you decide to replace them with aluminum. The forces that are causing the arms to break are no different with the aluminum, that just means that instead of the arm failing under the applied loads, something else is going to have to absorb the forces, and generally, that part will break instead. That part that would normally break would be the control arm mount, or possibly a bent hinge pin. Take for instance the FT TC4. The control arms are plastic, and the control arm mounts are already aluminum. Well, if you replace the arms with aluminum arms (and replace say all four will dramatically increase the weight of the car), that means in a hard crash that would normally break the control arm, something else is going to have to give. (almost all the plastic parts are going to have the same strength as they are all molded out of the same material, trust me, i'm an engineering major and i work in the materials department at the university ). The mounts would be the next part in line to break but they are aluminum, so what's next in line to break? Either a hinge pin, which isn't that expensive to replace but would still knock you out of a race, or worse, the hit could be hard enough to pull the screws from the arm mounts thru the chassis, and therefore destroying a $100 chassis. See what i'm getting at here? You're better off keeping the plastic parts....that's why the engineers who designed the car use the plastic parts. If you think you may have problems breaking the arms and what not, instead of using the plastic/graphite parts (which are alot stiffer and more brittle), go to the more durable and ductile (for those of you who are not engineers, ductile = flexible ) straight plastic parts. They won't be as stiff and precise as the graphite parts are, but they will give more in a hard crash. Also, as stated before, if you start replacing parts with aluminum counter parts, you increase the weight of the car, and in turn, increase the forces of an impact in a hard crash and increase your chances of breaking more parts. That's why the RTR's come with molded plastic parts instead of the composite graphite parts... it's expected that an RTR would be for a beginner who will crash alot more, so they don't break as easily.

AssocRacer

iTrader: (10)

sorry, long post...but it's not too often right now that i get a chance to express what my expensive college education is teaching me

MleedM

OK, thanks for that. I see your point.

How about the tap for the transmission housings???

I went with all stainless screws on the car, that was $20 well spent. They don't strip out like the stock AL one's and the thread better.

AssocRacer

iTrader: (10)

really? i had the stainless steel screw kit on my TC3 and the heads stripped out of them ALL THE TIME.....wonder why that happened?

AssocRacer

iTrader: (10)

oh yeah, i believe that most of the screws on the TC4 are 4/40, but they could also be 5/40....but pretty sure they are 4/40. However, the diff covers are composite, you shouldn't have to tap them, just thread the screw in the hole and it'll tap itself.

Scottrik

iTrader: (261)

The REALLY zoot cases that Warpspeed(?) did were standard Associated pieces that had been drilled and then 4-40 inserts installed. I've got a couple sets of these and have always loved 'em.

The problem with tapping these holes that are intended to self-thread when the screws are rammed through them is they're slightly larger than the "correct" drill size. Things will tighten down with them, but your threads aren't as "tall" (don't reach all the way to the "base" on the screw). Basically--they'll strip much more easily than properly sized threaded holes would. That said, the screws go into tapped holes MUCH more easily so you can better feel when they actually start to tighten.

As far as "engineered" for plastic parts and some of the other observations made above...material plays a significant part of the "what breaks next" equation, but profiles, thicknesses, stress risers, etc play an equally big roll. Further, the use of molded plastic for our toy cars is, as often as not, chosen as a reflection of cost to manufacture and not because it was the "ideal" material.

Scottrik

AssocRacer

iTrader: (10)

i do agree with that to a certain extent, the material cost does play a factor. However, keep in mind that Associated usually has two sets of parts for thier cars, the standard plastic, and then the more expensive composite graphite parts. They do realize that the graphite material is more expensive, but the recognize that and charge us more for them

MleedM

Hi,

Anyone have a list of all the ball bearing sizes?