[Shonen]

Figured I might as well start a thread for my E-Revo, since it's started life as a normal Titan 550 powered truck, converted with a Novak HV Pro system, then to a Castle Mamba Monster 2200Kv 'true' E-Revo Brushless Edition, and now powered by a Castle/Neu 1717 huge muhfuggin motor. Upgrades in the future include a Losi XXL/LST2 diff conversion (durability) and a Castle Creations Mamba XL ESC (once it's released).

Today I did the first handmade part for this truck...an aluminum slipper clutch. Instead of using the Traxxas friction material, an aluminum slipper clutch will last much longer and withstand more heat. Idea originally from mistercrash of RC-Monster fame.

I must say though, what was a straightforward and easy to follow procedure took me two hours, I even broke a CNC bit due to my inexperience working with aluminum. Oh well, live and learn.


Raw materials: 1.5" wide aluminum. 1/8" thick I think.


traced the outline of the slipper plate onto the aluminum


nice outline to follow


an hour and a half later....


holes drilled to accept the spur gear mount. extra holes drilled on purpose


test mounted up


had to adjust several of the holes


test fitting in my Revo 3.3 transmission


wrench in the input shaft to test wear pattern (make it slip on purpose)


fairly uniform for being just done machining


installed in the ERBE. found out that I drilled the pressure plate holes slightly off center, but not like it really matters. It weighs only a couple of grams.

aluminum slipper pad project is a success! Now if I can get moneys to buy everything else I need

[Shonen]

Okay, this will be the last upgrade I will do to the E-Revo before I get the Castle Mamba XL when it comes out. I will be putting Losi LST diffs in for durability (1717 makes a shitload of torque).

It does have a different ring/pinion ratio which kicks up the FDR a bit (2.8462 -> 3.3077) but that won't matter when the 1717 will be running on 8s. I will have to gear it down anyway if I don't want it flying around at 100mph.

Parts needed
- Losi LST/LST2/Raminator/Aftershock diffs x2 ($50)
- RCM diff output shaft x4 ($20)
- RCM Revo driveshaft coupler x2 (8mm v2, $25)

[Shonen]

looking at doing a full LST conversion from the diffs to the wheel hexes. Currently modifying the Revo bulkheads to fit the LST diff case, and watching some LST CV shafts on ebay (ends tomorrow). I will need to buy new bearings because the LST outputs to an 8mm shaft, versus the Revo's stock 6mm.

http://www.bocabeari...6817&StoreID=32
8x14x4mm, to replace the 6x13x4 stock exteriors

http://www.bocabeari...8261&StoreID=32
15x21x4, to replace the stock 12x18x4 CV side bearings.

[Shonen]

more stuff on my RCM wishlist...

http://www.rc-monste...=RCM8mmdrivecup
http://www.rc-monste...d=5mmmod1pinion

[Shonen]

Finally got the motor mount from that damn ebay seller, so I could reinstall everything on the ERBE.


while putting it back together I noticed that I damaged the rear bulkhead. Not that important since I will be transferring the new bulkheads in when I do the powertrain swap.


put the E-Revo diffs back in and bolted the bulkheads back under the chassis


the center CV shafts are just too short...if I could somehow make an extender that spaces the drive cup from the transmission, it would be perfect.


the Traxxas motor mount. Since I have a significant background with computer hardware, I realized that the Traxxas motor mount is dismal in surface-surface contact with the motor due to its matte surface. I decided to lap the mount in the same way you would do with a computer heatsink. This photo was taken after a couple of light passes on 320 grit sandpaper.


after a couple passes of dry sanding on 320


this is how I kept weight even on the mount...used old sticky weights that fell off something (someone's TT-01 I believe).


looking pretty good, this is after several passes on 320


after several passes on 400 grit


meanwhile, I remembered a mod I've seen on RCM that helped the motor mount stability. Ground down the post til it's flush with the motor mount


very flush


it was at this point that I remembered that I had to drill out two of the motor mount screw holes since the 1717 takes M4 rather than M3 mounting screws. I used a 5/32" bit that isn't quite 4mm (3.9something I believe) but the M4 hardware goes through it, and a 5/16" bit to clean up the surrounding area for the M4x12 stainless countersunk screw I bought.


after several passes on 1000 grit wet sanding


and finally, after wetsanding on 2000 grit.


there is no way the 1717 will go in the normal way so I had to remove the receiver box


attaching the motor mount as a hinge, then swing it in


clearance underneath the motor


passing the wires underneath


this is the second part of the filing down the post mod


lockwasher and washer for the mesh adjustment screw


mesh adjusted


everything installed


swapped the antenna straw for a black one. You can just barely see what I did with the M4x6 stainless screw and washer: I screwed it in from the back, and dropped the washer down to prevent the motor mount from moving 'backwards' off the post. This motion is probably what stripped the mesh screw the first time, since it's the only thing holding the motor against the plate on the transmission.


reworked the lighting harness


some clever routing negated the need for zipties like last time


there remains minimal clearance from the back


cooling fan


transmission side view


putting in the Nano-Techs


all wired up


front view. you can still see the motor over the spur gear cover lol.


ready for some action!

I took it out for some action yesterday afternoon, I was lightly bashing for about half an hour and there are no problems to report. The Mamba Monster had to be swapped to reverse direction due to the motor leads being in that way, but other than that I kept all the settings I had with the 1515. My aluminum slipper is working well, I may have to loosen it a bit. Inspection of the axle half shafts revealed that the rears are starting to get sloppy...other than that, I'd say the ERBE will be running great til all my parts for the Losi XXL drivetrain are in my mailbox. (:

I've been thinking heavily on how to get my setup to work with center driveshaft dogbones/CV's, and I've come across a solution of sorts...maybe. Using an RCM bore reducer I can use the 6mm output shaft of the transmission and couple it to a 1:8 scale 8mm CV somehow. Or I could just use the RCM outdrive cup in 6mm flavor and leave the 1:8 scale CV on the LST diff end.


buying almost exclusively from Jenny's RC Sport on ebay, great seller and generally the auctions end with a lower price than other places.


researching before paid off...rather than drill out the Traxxas 17mm hexes like mistercrash, I instead went straight with true 1:8 scale hexes off a Mugen MBX-6. On a side note, if anyone has something that requires 8mm bore hexes (8th scale standard) and needs offset, the MBX-6T hexes have about 1/2" offset, and the Kyosho Inferno MP9 TKI2 has a couple mm offset on the rear hexes only. I think the pin bore is standard at 3mm, with a 5x5mm grub screw to secure them. Because these are captured by the wheel going over the hex, I think it will be sufficient to just use some blue loctite and stick the pin in the center.


the LST diff outdrives are roughly the same 'length' as the yokes off the Revo diff. This is fortunate...


this photo was very hard to take with just two hands so sorry about it being a bit off...the point of this photo was to show that if I use the stock bearing 'depth', there needs to be no modifications done to the spacing of the CV and diff outdrive. mistercrash used modified Revo stub axles coupled with an RCM 6mm bore drive cup...this spaced out the shaft a bit too far and I believe in his pictures the pillow balls were unscrewed by 1/8" or so, which I don't want for durability reasons. You can see the hex pin falling out too lol.


mockup of what it will look like attached. The Mugen hexes have scallops on one side of the wheel nut, to prevent backing off. I believe the loosening of the wheel nut is directly related to stripping the wheel hex...even when I had the 14mm hexes, they only ever stripped when the nut became loose. Also, I rounded out two of my 17mm Duratrax wheels because the nut came loose. Traxxas 17mm adapters have no anti-loosening on them, which is why most smart people use loctite on them. I think I will use a bit of loctite on the Mugen ones just in case.


inside view of the hex fitment. The pin is captured so it will run just fine like this even without loctite.


sadly, the Mugen hexes have a different thread than the Traxxas ones, so you can't mix and match nuts. This is as far as it'll go on. Which works out fine I guess, the new wheels I'm getting are black so they will match better with the rest of the truck. I think the Traxxas 17mm's are the only blue anodized part on the E-Revo lol. ps. you can see the serrated face of the wheel nut under my hand.

[Shonen]

Project finished! For now, anyway. The LST diffs are in, and I got center dogbones that fit. first though, a couple photos that I took with the newly 'repaired' EDF-Revo body.


I am sad because that day we took the Revos rock crawling was the day that I fell onto my roof when there wasn't a roof. The 1717 has some dings on the endbell and fins now. Hopefully this Gorilla Tape will be enough protection until I get my new body painted.


It is definately strong enough to withstand the ERBE abuse though. I only overlapped the tape on the body about an inch or so on each side, and it's more than strong enough to support the full 10 lbs (or so) of truck. Anyway, on to the modding


This actually started the night before, I took out the Thunder Tiger ST-1 wheels/tires and taped them.


They look so funny when they're inside out.


used reflow station at 350F to melt the red loctite. It still was very difficult to come off.


The two diff cases. Top one has been ground down slightly on the top next to the screw.


I found out that my drill press has a hole the perfect size for the output side of the diff case to fit. I can rotate it when it's in the hole but not move side to side.


and it also keeps it perfectly flat. Perfect for milling


Underneath view


I used a dremel sanding stone for all the work done. These are the bulkheads after removing enough material to let the LST diffs fit (just).


Front bulkheads


Rear bulkheads


I had to make the diff case slightly thinner in order to not have to weaken the bulkheads too much. Using the hole in my drill press platform, I was able to mill off about a half mm from each side.


View from the other side


Diff halves laid out


Other side. I didn't bother painting them cause that would just add thickness back.


A quick wash to remove all the dust from grinding


Getting ready to complete the swap, pushrods removed


Drivetrain as it was


Traxxas drive cup starting to show some wear. Maybe I'll order more RCM ones...


rear assembly dropped.


removing bits from it


diff gonna go in


that RCM drive cup is really nice


closeup of the 'machining' marks. lawl


I will also be swapping in a new set of hingepins, since this one is more important than the 3.3 conversion


RPM arms on the new bulkhead


modifying the chassis to allow the larger diffs to fit


temporarily mounted to the chassis. It looks like the wings of an insect


ok, now for the front. The rear was the 'first try', the front will be the documented one


new hingepin brace installed, holding the bulkhead together before it gets bolted on


screwing in the rocker posts


Top A-arms transferred over


now bottom arms and rockers


pushrods installed.


this one was tricky, cause in the middle of the diff support that needs to be removed is a hole where the front bumper/body post assembly mounts.


my 1:10 scale dogbone for use in the front. It's almost short enough where it can fall out...what to do?


some ingenuity, that's what. The blue things are the shocks off a broken DVD drive laser assembly, and the spring is off of something I took apart years ago. It serves two purposes: to center the dogbone in the drive cups, since it's 6mm rather than 8mm, and also to keep the dogbone more or less in the center of both cups.


Hub carrier installed on one side, still need to do the other


Interesting thing I found about the Summit shocks versus the original E-Revo shocks: look how much farther down the threading goes. I'll be going for Summit shocks exclusively from now on unless Traxxas did a running change to the GTR shock bodies.


Another mod to prevent the rear shocks from rubbing on the E-Revo chassis is to use a spacer to bump them up a bit on the shock mount. Here I'm using (of course) Xmod gen.1 bushings. Perfect fit.


Rear CVA bone at maximum droop


Rear CVA bone at full compression


Front CVA bone at ride height


Front CVA bone at full compression


Everything put back together.


It looks kind of strange with the skinny axle shafts, but I know for sure that they're stronger.


all that's left is testing and seeing what a difference it is!


I also changed the front/rear skidplates to new ones, seeing as how the old ones are almost shot and are better suited to a WIP project


new front skidplate


it almost looks factory.


dat ass!

I also shot a video of me testing the center drivetrain setup mid-project, check it out:

The total time this took me (grinding the diff cases/bulkheads, E-Revo disassembly, testing and assembly) took almost seven hours. Not a mod for the faint of heart, but hopefully these upcoming bash sessions will prove if it's worth it.

[Shonen]

world first: E-Revo with LST diff/CVA swap, Mamba XL, Castle/Neu 1717 running on 8s.

[Shonen]

Alright, got the photos up. Here we go!


taking off the 40mm fan


the grating isn't built in, but it is aluminum. looks good too, it's powder coated or something cause it's not smooth.


unfortunately part of the casing is cracked, since the soldering of the wires was sticking up a little bit more than it was supposed to, thus increasing the diameter and cracking the plastic when it was pushed down. no biggie.


decals went straight to my netbook :mrgreen:


a look on the inside of the ESC, from the battery end


underneath the battery end. I think they used thermal adhesive on the BEC coil to stick on the end cap, but it doesn't adhere very well to the plastic.


capacitors are on the motor end of the ESC as well. black gunk to keep it from detaching.


it could very easily be run PSU style with a fan creating airflow through the ESC


gigantic 8AWG beefiness.


I sure am glad I have my reflow station because with just a 45W iron these would've been impossible to solder. 500W of 400C air was enough to melt all of the solder and form a good connection on all of the 6.5mm bullets.


okay, now how am I gonna do this...


there's some aluminum dust from the slipper but not as much as I thought. It's still working perfectly, I'm very happy.


I had planned on changing the 1717 bearings out with the ceramic set I got from Boca...


really beefy looking.


front endcap taken off, bearing is just pressed in.


a closeup, a couple of whacks with a screwdriver and it popped out.


this was a disappointment though...the Boca set was 6x16x5. after googling a bit I found the correct size is actually 6x17x6. Just in case though, I emailed Castle to confirm. I will have to return these and buy the correct sizes :?


while I was at it, I replaced the RS4 dogbone in the front of the E-Revo.


the TC5 bone blades were pretty wrecked though.


at least it's still in one piece and not bent this time.


no damage at all in the diff input cup, RC Monster Mike knows what he's doing. (:


more metal dust, this time it's from the dogbone. there was damage of some sort on one of the balls, dunno how it happened but there you are...


the bone blades survived, more or less, but they are unusable.


the 6mm dogbone was indeed too small for the job. it was overtaxed by the job of the front center driveshaft...the front was usually off the ground when accelerating, but under braking the full force of the truck overwhelmed it. This is proven by the direction of the twist, which is clockwise (power from the transmission is clockwise, which would result in a counterclockwise twist).


size comparison of the new 7mm dogbone. I would've preferred an 8 but that's all I could find... the damage on the old dogbone is visible on the right side.


taking the washers out of the transmission to lower CoG back down to stock height. the mesh of the gears I'm using (24/54 0.8M) is big enough to clear the shaved rear shock tower.


checking the wear on the rear center driveshaft. RCM drive cup slightly affected.


Traxxas drive cup not so good...


Traxxas drive cup slightly dimpled from the front center driveshaft


new driveshaft in. Only about 2mm front/rear play with the cups.


a shot of the motor mount post mod. It's hard to see cause the washer is mostly poking out the back, but the lip of the washer goes over the motor mount, thus removing any play on it. It's a lot stronger and stiffer than just having the gear mesh screw at the top.


heatshrinking the bullets. It looks creepy, lol.


drilled a 5/64" hole, to tightly accept an M3 screw


having fun heatshrinking the Mamba Monster motor terminals


looks like a very clean install to me. two layers of sticky foam underneath (directly on the heatsink...not my ideal solution but it works) and a screw in the location I drilled earlier. I was also able to run the receiver cable through the heatsink fins, I doubt it will cause problems.


top view of the setup


you can kinda sorta not really see the screw, I used the last button head M3x6 stainless screw from my TC5R set.


I had to cut out nearly all of the rear left battery vent for clearance, the capacitors are huge! the spaghetti in there is my balance tap :mrgreen:


looking from the rear


can't put a fan there anymore, not without a Y adapter anyway. Used the bracket for some wire management.


data log from my run in the video. I could hardly break 2hp on the damp road. I took it out again this afternoon on some dry grass so we'll see how much power this baby's dumping! I actually ripped off one of my tires, I will need to reglue it... very happy with this setup.

I will also be reusing the Losi Zombie-Max tires, I glued them to some RPM Revolver 3.2" 17mm rims last night. I am trying a new idea on the stock Traxxas foams, using spray adhesive to stick the ends together.


despite being dirty and dusty, the adhesive works pretty well. I used some 3M general purpose SA that I had laying around.


it becomes extremely tacky within two minutes of spraying on, I can only imagine how strong it is when it's fully cured.

Here's the log from my run this afternoon on grass:

I also glued on the Zombie-Max tires to the Revolvers, I'll see how those do tomorrow.

Also rethinking my cooling solution.

this will do for now, but I would like to try getting both the ESC and motor with a single fan.


tearing down the slipper clutch


inspection...not too bad, actually. I expected the hub slipper plate to take more damage than the spur slipper plate, but it seems fine.


went legit - Hot Racing long aluminum slipper pads


they machined the holes big, so I used some loctite to temporarily stick the pads to the spur assembly


install complete

[Shonen]

I've received multiple questions on forums and Youtube regarding what I did to prevent the drivetrain from exploding, and what I would recommend to others who want to build a similar E-Revo.

I have to say first, as a disclaimer, that I would not advise doing this to your E-Revo. I understand that some of us (you) like pushing the envelope, shoving huge motors into things that weren't really designed to take them and I fully understand that. With that out of the way, here are my recommendations and thoughts on why I did things, all in one place.

First and foremost, the E-Revo has well-documented proof that its stock plastic telescoping shafts are not up to the task of serious brushless torque. This is not the fault of Traxxas, and I believe that the shafts are actually extremely well designed. They will flex under impact, telescope through suspension travel, and when they fail they rarely (if ever) break anything else on the truck. There are people that will complain to no end about this, saying that their 6s powered Revo keeps twisting driveshafts in half and that the stock driveshafts are useless. Having something be durable that fails gracefully is wonderful in RC, I've gone through several shafts in my ERBE and I never complained. Why? Because shafts are cheap; transmission internals, differentials, rotors and ESC's are expensive. You can get an unused set of four shafts, pulled from a brand new RTR, for less than $20. If you think that's expensive, then RC is not the hobby for you. With that said, the stock shafts will absolutely not stand up to the monstrous torque of a 1717, and an upgrade is necessary (if your car makes 800hp, you will probably not want to be running the stock axles). Traxxas CVA's are expensive and reportedly not that great. Losi LST2/XXL CVA's are the right length, support standardized 1:8 scale 17mm hexes, and obviously mate well with the LST2/XXL diffs which are a popular swap into the Revo bulkheads. Having the diffs and CVA's from a true 1:8 scale, ~40% heavier truck, will make the drivetrain more durable where the torque is at its greatest. The LST2/XXL CVA's are different dimensions than the Traxxas half shafts, so you will have to modify the hub carriers, and buy new bearings/hexes. You will at the very least need new diffs, because if people are exploding them with a 1515 on 6s, they will not be up to the task with bigger motor on higher voltage.

There are two options for center drivetrain at this point: using the RCM Revo coupler v2 (8mm bore) to use the stock center driveshafts, or to do a custom dogbone conversion. The first option seems to be popular, as the torque at the axle CVA's is almost three times the torque experienced by the center shafts. 8mm bore is to fit the 8mm LST2/XXL diff input. I opted to go with the second option. There are several center dogbone kits out for the E-Revo, but I didn't go for any of them...main reason being that they are all sold under the premise of replacing stock parts, but because the Revo diffs have a 6mm input (not 8mm) then I will have to buy two new cups anyway. I chose to build it from scratch and some trial/error. I used two RCM hardened drive cups (8mm) attached to the diffs, and Traxxas extended drive cups attached to the transmission (normal would've worked as well, extended just gave me more room for error). For the front dogbone I found the best fit was HPI 7x57mm #86233 (out of the Nitro RS4MT I think) for the front, and HPI 8x142mm #86054 was a perfect fit for the rear. I debated using RCM drive cups 6mm bore for the transmission, but it will mess up the spacing. The Traxxas cups work well since they are made to attach to that type of shaft, but they wear about 5x faster than the RCM cups do. Good job to Monster Mike. (:

Having your slipper clutch set correctly is key to making a setup like this last, but also having a more durable clutch helps with fine tuning the pressure. I first used a handmade mistercrash-style aluminum slipper pad, but I have since swapped it for Hot Racing 'long' anodized aluminum pads for the sake of high-RPM balance. Using powerful slipper clutch springs does not make a difference, since you are not trying to lock it anyway. Start with the clutch loose, and work your way up to your preference.

I personally swapped the pinion and spur gears to 1.0M pitch, both for the gearing abilities and for durability. I first ran the 8s ERBE with 0.8M gears, but I would not trust it for doing fun stuff like jumping, racing starts or speed runs. Because the 1717 makes so much torque, the slipper has to be set tigher than it would normally be for 550/775/15xx motors, which puts more strain on the spur gear in particular. The small sizes of 1.0M Revo spurs is offset by the fact that the 1717 has a much lower Kv than the motors it's replacing, and RC-Monster makes some amazing 1.0M pinions that go all the way up to 30t. Mine is geared 23/40, which is just about the minimum required to make the 1717 be able to reach the mesh correctly. I've had it at 23/38 before, but I needed to shim up the transmission with washers for it to mesh. Even running the Revo on 4s with a 1717, there's enough gearing options to crack 50mph.

The lipos I'm using are Turnigy Nanotech 4s 4500mAh 25/50C. They are just about the biggest 4s batteries you can stuff into the E-Revo battery bays, and while their specs far exceed anything you'd need running 4s (450A parallel burst!) you will need it running 8s. They come back from 8s runs at 100-110 degrees, so you will need at least 40C burst at a similar capacity to stand up to the abuse. I highly recommend these, as they have not failed me so far and even though a lot of people talk shit about Turnigy/Zippy batteries, truth is they do their job. These are the same batteries I've used in 8s config in the past powering two 90A motors at the same time. Sure, they are a bit pricey compared to other Chinese branded lipos, but this conversion is not for the budget-minded anyway.

I will definitely be changing out the bearings in the 1717 to ceramics once Castle gets back to me on the official size (what's taking so long?), as that is the single highest RPM point in the entire drivetrain, and I would like to reduce friction as much as possible in the motor. The motor runs very hot even though it's not pulling its 120A rating in the Revo, because in my setup it spends most of its time >30krpm. I'm thinking another fan is necessary, and after I swap the bearings I will definitely put Arctic Silver between the motor face and the motor mount. The Mamba XL's 5A BEC is most welcome with powering all the fans, high-torque servo and body LED's. With the Mamba Monster, I ran a BEC for the fans and LED's.

Other minor things include changing the springs and shock oil to heavier/thicker ones. I use blue in the front and purple in the back, with Associated 80wt oil and P3 rockers/pushrods. The Revo will be much heavier than stock with this setup, mainly due to the motor and the batteries required to run it on 8s. ARB's are nice, as there is more mass to roll in corners, and it also helps with preventing traction rolling. However, I mainly use my ERBE for speed runs and jumping, so your mileage may vary. It will definitely not be as nimble as a lighter, more or less stock ERBE, but then again once you blast past them at 70+mph with the 1717 screaming, it's not like you will care. (:

[Shonen]

update!


tape blew up, hence the imbalance.


the Gorilla Tape came off, but the adhesive stayed on lol.


drilling some aluminum for a rear body post brace


drilled new holes in the body posts, and attached the aluminum


connected from the Tekno ARB mount to the aluminum

I went to the park today to do some speed runs, but was interrupted by a guy with his dogs...so my friend shot some video of me bashing with it instead. I hope you guys like it:



Also, some people have been asking about my battery harness, here's some photos I took to clarify:


series harness


parallel harness


the two harnesses, along with another one I use when running the lipos in parallel


this is what repeated 8s sparks do to bullet connectors...


and something random, the bullets on my 1717. one of them is different...lol

[Shonen]

Cleaned out my spur gear yesterday :\

[Shonen]

here's the log from my last video in the park. (:

[Shonen]

I keep shredding my Gorilla Taped tires.


at first I just thought it was a bad finishing job, ie. where the tape overlaps


but then I realized that it happens on two sides of the tire


I will overlap this one more next time...

also, my new 1717 ceramic bearings came in.


Boca finally sent me the correct sizes, and I finally had enough spare time to put them in (it rained last night).


Castle bearing on the right, Boca bearing on the left.


cleaning off the glue on the front motor plate, as I doubt it's highly thermally conductive


applying Arctic Silver 5


more or less evenly spread out


slightly messy


getting the rear bearing out took literally an hour


the carnage of failed attempts...and yes, that is the tip of one of my flathead screwdrivers in there...


motor mount reinstalled, you can see some of the TIM left on the motor.


ready to go back in.

I'm currently rethinking the cooling strategies with this thing...one fan on the XL doesn't seem to be enough for my taste. I will try to run two fans like I used to with the 1515. Experimentation will be happening this weekend.

[Shonen]

since this week has been rainy, I've taken some of my free time to do maintenance and redoing or cleaning up my mods on the ERBE. I've added back the auxilary cooling fan, and redid the 1717's wiring since it was far too long for my taste.


zipties are my best friend


The standard Revo pushords were too long, so I had to dremel off part of the threads


Closeup on the modified pushrod, along with a modified and unmodified rod end.


had to make a small cutout for the rear body mount tower end. I ended up having to remove the pivot ball, since the body tower has an M4 hole (not M3 like the Tekno sway mount).


Used an E-Revo mesh adjustment screw on the rear body tower, and a nitro Revo engine mount screw on the shock mount side.


E-Revo servo screw used due to its huge lip


several ziptie holes were drilled through this battery vent in the ERBE's lifetime


that space where the Rx box used to be looked empty, so I decided to put some decals there.


the relocated receiver box really does make wiring so much nicer. I'm loving it.


the rear LST diff outdrives are starting to show some wear and tear.


I also cleaned up the rear battery vent cutouts with a razor blade, no more sharp edges to tear my wire insulation.


showing off the other side. the cleanness of the vent cutouts is apparent in this photo.


looking from the receiver box. (:

[Shonen]

I decided to finally fix that front axle that always pops out. We went to bayfront to bash all three Revos at once, and it was very irritating to have to go and pop my pillow ball back in after every single jump.


I got some crap stuck in there


and this is why the pillow ball would pop out so easily


my wrecked pillow ball. It was very gritty due to the knuckle popping off over pavement several times.


it's really not that hard to pop in our out. I actually ripped another ball out of the socket recently, and it took a huge amount of effort with pliers to get back in properly.


new knuckle bored with bearings installed


installed


and I also managed to round off the Traxxas nut driver. |: might as well go find a 17mm socket to do the job...

[Shonen]

I thought I posted an update yesterday but apparently not...


I got a package from RC-Monster member nitrostarter yesterday.


it's a center diff for an E-Revo


custom 1:8 scale put together by mistercrash himself


disassembling the ERBE to access transmission, and I find this rock stuck there


57x7mm front driveshaft showing no signs of twisting. Yay!


front LST diff


quite a lot of metal dust in there. More than likely from the diff case, where the screw contacts it.


rear driveshaft


RCM drive cup holding up well


unfortunately it's been eating my dogbone ):


transmission side of the rear dogbone


pieces removed


transmission finally out


the guts of the transmission


comparing the custom diff to the stock output


deconstructing the diff, carbon fiber plate removed


input gear removed


nitrostarter included a bearing (thank you!) because the spot for the bearing is 8mm instead of the usual 6mm on the front.


standard TRX bearing on the other end


stack of shims for proper spacing


mounted in the transmission case


comparing after installation. The custom diff is slightly (2mm or so) longer than the original TRX part.


a quick checkup on the slipper unit when I was changing the spur back from 38t to 40t. It's wearing very nicely.


spur installed, and mesh set


putting the transmission back into the chassis


don't really notice the extra length


drive cups installed


length different is better seen in this photo


installed dogbones backwards so hopefully I can squeeze more life out of them...


installation complete!

[Shonen]

More information about the center diff (mainly for me):

http://rc-monster.co...t=20864&page=18
http://s177.photobuc...0center%20diff/

[Shonen]

My HPI Savage shoes came in last week, so I installed them. This weekend we had an epic bash sessh, but unfortunately I must have landed a jump wrong because I had a surprise when I pulled off the body.


stuffed into the box


changed the Mamba XL fan back to stock, the larger fan lost a blade and was causing quite a bit of vibration


got home and saw this...uh oh!


transmission looks fine. It turns out that the motor was just caught on the shock mount. However, just to make sure I tore it down


part of the front where the LST diff is hitting the chassis. I cut off and smoothed the area so hopefully there's no more rubbing


center diff output shaft


using an Axial wheel nut for the slipper clutch, it looks a lot better in black


took off the slipper clutch, and there was a lot of dirt (bearing grease attracted) and dust (aluminum from the slipper).


I was running the slipper quite loose, and this is the result. Even if it's curly, I'll reuse it til I get another one.


properly set mesh, rather than having the pinion go on at an angle...


no more crooked motor


ready for more action!

Thinking about it, I was considering putting back on the double motor mount plate for two reasons. First, it's taller than the motor so in a rollover it acts as a rollcage. It will ruin the body but it will protect the motor. Secondly, there is a hole so I can stick a fan on there to cool the motor through the motor mount, and also the slipper clutch. I will probably have the fan blow into the motor mount, I'll just have to stick a filter or screen over it since I don't want rocks and crap flying in there. I guess I'll do that when I buy the HR Double Up slipper assembly I've been looking at. Even if it supports six pads I will probably only run three...being chang ftw.

[Shonen]

Did some experimenting in the maintenance session last night...


took out both ERBE and O-Revo's transmissions to see what can be interchanged between them.


next to each other (interestingly running non-nitro and non-electric pitch, respectively)


this has always caused wonder for me, why the hinge isn't metal for better heat condutction to the motor plate.


taking more measurements so I can possibly make my own. Couple of washers and/or shims should do it.


not surprisingly, there are no interchangeable parts between a brushless-ready single speed and a two speed automatic (with mechanical reverse).


overlaying the single and double motor plates for comparison.

[Shonen]

I had some free time last night so I started the dual motor plate modification.


when I took the transmissions out, I marked on the plate where the plastic would be.


best positioning for the fan, I think


pencil outline with holes drilled


fan attached


I marked the material I have to remove. It will be another time, since this was 10pm and milling aluminum is quite noisy

[Shonen]

didn't get around to milling yet, but I did manage to pull out a pushrod with no apparent damage last week.


screwed it back in without any problems. must've been more serious a crash than I originally thought.

[Shonen]

did some work on ERBE's tires this past week. My fingers and hands are still sore.


outside view of the tires


the dirtier inside


after about two hours of chemical action


the Gorilla Tape barely overlapped, so I put a third strip down the middle


):


an hour and many swear words later


another hour and several more swear words later


the end result...


also made a cutout in the roof just like in the old body. hopefully it will help slightly with the cooling.


small air inlet. also thinking of cutting out the radiator grill, as it's right above the bumper.

we shall see how these mods work!

[Shonen]

Finished up the dual motor plate fan mod.


during teardown, I noticed that the slipper pads were wearing at an angle...weaksauce slipper hub metal.


everything out of the way


fortunately, the Traxxas engineers allowed us to remove the motor plate without having to remove the transmission from the chassis. THANK YOU.


didn't come out too fugly for being hand-milled...right?


fan installed. I replaced the stiff, high-AWG fan leads with some extra length off of a BEC


modifying the gear cover to accept the 1717


installed


also removed the wing mount, as it's taken a beating


high stress point on flipovers


stock wing mount reattached


much better!

I also lost one of my Mugen wheel nuts during a high speed run, so unfortunately I have to look for an alternative. Since I had those 23mm hex truggy wheels/tires that I got for free (eBay reimbursed for misrepresented item and lack of seller response), I decided to look for any cheap 23mm hexes online. I found some on eBay, for the LST2 (woot) and they came in the mail today.


they were $2/pair + $1 shipping, so I bought six


each hex/nut comes individually packaged to prevent scratching in transit


interestingly, there are two sets of pin holes


fit perfectly in the Pro-Line wheels


nut fitment. now all I have to do is find a 23mm socket wrench.

[Shonen]

taking the 17mm hexes off


trying to get the 23mm hex on. I tried using a hammer, but then realized perhaps I should've just bored it out slightly.


a long ass time later, I managed to get the hex off without completely destroying it.


there was significant damage though...oh well, I'll still use it.


after some milling


stuck the hex in the wheel for easier manipulation


now they fit properly


23mm on all corners


super beefy hexes. I just need to find 3x23mm pins


Pro-Line shoes installed


back in action!

[Shonen]

also made a new balancing tap for my 4s lipos.


this one allows parallel balance charging when hooked up to the charger

[Shonen]

got in some AKA 17mm wheel nuts from InsaneRC on R/C Tech


They fit on the Mugen hexes, so now 17mms are viable on ERBE again

[Shonen]

I had taken the ERBE out recently and upon landing, broke one of the tie rod ends.


completely disconnected


even the screw had pulled out and misaligned


rod end completely sheared in half


much better...

[Shonen]

Had some fireworks of my own (the bad kind) this past Independence Day. I was cruising around at a park waiting for a friend's bbq, just running the ERBE. Nothing out of the ordinary, I admit that it doesn't see much action these days but it's not neglected by any means. About fifteen minutes in, I hit the throttle and the truck didn't respond properly. It was similar to when it hits LVC and since I was running 8s I figured my tired lipos were just not cutting it anymore (weak cell). However, as I was walking over to it there was two loud, sequential bangs accompanied by two shots of smoke similar to a gun barrel. I was extremely worried that my lipos were venting (a slipper clutch adjustment couldn't have overstressed them THAT much?!) but when I tore off the body extremely wary for smoke I found that it was the Mamba XL's capacitors that vented.





there's electrolye everywhere on the lipo wire and rear arms on the XL side. I needed to clean it up quite good after I got home. Fortunately nothing else was killed in the incident, my receiver/servo/lipos are alright.

What an adventure! Looking at the CC website it looks like the first generation Mamba XL had a recall, so hopefully I can get this fixed for free. There isn't even a flat-rate out of warranty repair charge for the XL1 (XL2 is $175 :s) so perhaps the XL is in a similar situation as the Mamba Monster v1 and v2.

[Shonen]

I had sent in my XL back to Castle last week (after much forgetting) and turns out that they sent me a package tracking number today. I can't wait to get it back in the ERBE and tear more shit up.

I think I will replace the connectors on my battery however, as battery ripple current apparently killed the caps. Perhaps I'll get to ordering more capacitors (or the Castle official one) as well.

[Shonen]

got a box in the mail...


no ESC box, but not by any means sloppily packed. Even Amazon has succumbed to the "let's put padding only on the top of the box" bug these days, but not Castle.


on the bottom of the box was this lanyard. very nice.


protective foam


and now the XL2 comes out.


it's a little bigger than the XL1.


revision sticker on the Rx cable


red dot saying it doesn't have to be further recalled for pressure foam


I've forgotten how big this thing is. Time to order some bullets and fire this bad boy up again.