FJ with a V8!

[rustneversleeps]

wow did a great job.....Ya need seat belts or a couple of grab handles...
now when are the vids coming out....and any pics of your rig flexing or is just mainly for trail....

[makaveliks]

Once it's done, whenever someone round here wants to go play I'll get some pics. This coming weekend looks like nice weather.

[makaveliks]

Done?

[rustneversleeps]

Your seat belt screw did you tap them before putting in the scale bolts...
And if so are all your screws tap and die or what ever you call it...lol
A thing to make threads.....
Frigging awsome build...

[makaveliks]

Originally Posted by rustneversleeps

Your seat belt screw did you tap them before putting in the scale bolts...
And if so are all your screws tap and die or what ever you call it...lol
A thing to make threads.....
Frigging awsome build...

I sure did tap them first. The buckle on the seatbelts is just for looks. I used bolts on seatbelt ends so they can be removed with the people in case(or when) I need to open my radio box seat tray thing. LOL. The passenger may be able to stay, but not the driver. Looking back it would have been easier to make the steering wheel removable.... LOL

[makaveliks]

Took this out in the dirt today! Got some scratches, dust, and broke it a couple times. I bumped one of my fenders off in a dirt pile, but that's ok since there removable I can put it right back on. In the video I'll share later the fender is missing.

What I broke was the front driver's side driveshaft. I broke the cup off of it after a while so then I switched trucks to finish the trail. Went back to our cars and someone had a spare, so I swapped it out and we hit the trail again. After about 20 minutes it broke again... I need the XVD shaft and have been looking for them for months, but there never in stock! If anyone from RC4WD reads this, You make great parts, but you need to step your game up and actually stock them! This truck is gonna be parked on jackstands now until they get in stock somewhere... If I end up waiting as long as I have been, this may miss out on running next summer too!

[rustneversleeps]

Hey great pics and to bad for XVD .You might be able to find them in the for sale section here or better yet you could always put it down in the wanted section until some one replies or contact them here in the vendors section.....RC4WD does have great parts like you said but being available is not often.May as well put it on the shelf and start another build...
I'd like to see your next project...

[makaveliks]

Originally Posted by rustneversleeps

Hey great pics and to bad for XVD .You might be able to find them in the for sale section here or better yet you could always put it down in the wanted section until some one replies or contact them here in the vendors section.....RC4WD does have great parts like you said but being available is not often.May as well put it on the shelf and start another build...
I'd like to see your next project...

My next project has been starting while waiting for today's get together! And since you asked....

Go Fast

[makaveliks]

Here's a video!

[makaveliks]

I found some of the Yota II XVD driveshafts on Amazon a couple weeks ago. They arrived last week and I got them installed. They appear to be a much beefier, better design than their stock driveshafts. Also there is no binding when I turn, so I may have been turning the originals too far also helping them break. I ran it and it runs great again! Been busy at work though so haven't had time for anything cool. maybe in a few weeks if the weather is still good enough!

[Jeepfixer1]

WOW! Truly another epic build. I was impressed all the way through. I love the styling of the body and cage. Thanks for sharing this with us ��

[makaveliks]

Took the FJ out today! It did great. XVD axles are here to stay! I ran 2 packs through it and I think I have nearly ruined my motor's pinion gear, but it's still ticking! Took some big tumbles about 30ft down a steep dirt pile and held up fine. Now it's getting some trail damage! The green truck was my trail buddy for today!




https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-O...2/IMG_7313.jpg

[makaveliks]

My steering servo was getting tired so I got a new 500 oz/in Savox SA-1230SG Monster Torque Coreless Steel Gear Digital Servo. Figured over 2 times the power should hold up in this truck. The motor pinion was making some noises so I wanted to replace it too. I also wanted to fix the glitch issue I was having and try re-doing some of the wireing and replacing the main BEC so I took the truck apart. I got all that stuff replaced and then put it all back together again. Gave it a short test run.

To my surprise, the truck went forward fine, everything worked fine so I tried some slow crawling back and forth while turning the steering to try and see if my glitch would return. Well it did! It glitched once real back and stopped dead in it's tracks. The ESC immediately began to heat up and smell bad. Then it was done... So I came to the conclusion the glitch must have been something with the esc which eventually led to it's death... hopefully.

I decided to go back to what I know with crawlers... High turn brushed motors. I shopped around on Holmes Hobbies website and found myself a nice 40t Torquemaster Expert motor which should be slow enough for me to put the original RC4WD 14t pinion in and Torquemaster BR-XL ESC.

Now the truck is disassembled AGAIN and sitting waiting for the Holmes Hobbies stuff to come in. I'm hoping once that's in all my problems are gone. I never had these glitching and jittering problems with any truck before until I got a sensored Novak brushless motor/esc so I doubt it was me at fault. Maybe it was a fluke, but I'm not gonna chance another couple hundred bucks with them again.

[makaveliks]

So my Holmes Hobbies stuff came in the mail and in it went! I have it on quiet mode and man, is it quiet! The brand new servo was making lots of buzzing and you couldn't hear the motor over it! LOL I went with the 40t hoping it would be nice and slow to run with the original 14t pinion in this v-8 so I would not longer need the 10t I keep wearing out. With this 14t pinion it's faster than the brushless setup on 10t pinion. I'll have to run a bit and see what my run times and temps are like. Hopefully this setup works well together and doesn't kill another pinion. I'm not a fan of taking this truck apart... I spent about 8hrs today just bolting it back together! It's worth it in the end though, as long as it doesn't happen that often!

[makaveliks]

Here's a video of this running super quietly and glitch free! Thanks Holmes Hobbies! Outstanding electronics! This is filmed with a GoPro in it's waterproof case so it muffles the sound a bit, but if you turn up the volume you can even hear the snow crunching under the tires over the sound of the motor!

[makaveliks]

Now that this had quiet electronics I was really disliking all the other noises from this. I could hear the shafts banging around, the gears in the axles, the transmission/transfer case adapter AND it also had a ton of play in the drivetrain. To get rid of both I did a few things. First I removed the set screw pins from all the shafts and joints and replaced them with long set screws that I had sanded the threads down a bit on all except the ends. This lets it pass through the holes on all the output shafts like a pin, but fits securely and doesn't allow play in the joint.

Next I took off the wheels. The hexes had play between them and the wheels allowing the wheels to spin a little bit on them. To fix this I put some jb weld in there to fill the gaps... That's right, these brakes are never coming off again! and my play is gone.

The last bit of play required some new parts. The axle shafts had play inside the original diffs, and the ring/pinions were quite worn adding to the play and you could hear the gears clicking. They also did not spin smoothly under load. Probably from high power brushless and no grease. Plus they were used to begin with. RC4WD has some sweet helical gears available as replacements and only cost about 5$ more than the regular ones. No question, I got the helical ones. The axial shafts fit snug in these new helical diffs so no mods required there, and the gears are not worn so just put them in with some Red 'N Tacky and ready to go.

I got the axles back together. Before I did all of this I could roll the truck about 3.5" back and forth before the motor would stop it because of all the play. Now I can only roll it about .5". I'll have to live with that because the only play that's left is in the U joints on the ultra scale drive shafts and a slight bit in the XVD axles. Can't wait to run it again and see how much more quiet it is now!