Herbie Rides Again!! Sporty Rebuild Thread

[alexchen86]

I am completely surprised why I never bothered to do a build thread with the amount of time and money I spent on my sporty.

Basically started life out as a fist gen AX-10 Rock Racer kit...crappy lockers, phillips hardware, AM radio, blah blah blah...it was on consignment some guy just built it up and never ran it. Oh yeah and that old Axial green rock racer body lol!

Current running gear:
Holmes Torque Master 35T on 3s
O.G. Sidewinder on my ghetto lexan electronics plate
CC BEC @ 6.3V for a Hitec 7955TG
Rowdy Racing Servo Armor
4 Linked F/R
DNA Thrashers on CI Foams White Dot Rovers Siped
D Link on Rear Axle
OD/UD
Axial CVD's on Gunnar Pins
Loaded RR Tranny
HR Aluminum Tranny Case
MIP Rear/Junfac Carbon Steel Front
32p Conversion
Losi 4" Rear 40wt running yellows
Axial XR10 4" (I believe) 35wt running golds
STRC Front Low CG 4 Link Plate
Gunnar Mounts
R2J Delrin Phattys Rear
BTA Jones'N tie tod custom dremeled to not rub on the shocks or links


The theme for this rig is Herbie as you can tell by now:


Issues I need to figure out is how to get the shocks closer in so the tires don't rub on the springs. Tried inboarding them but on this particular chassis it is very difficult. Ended up using a bunch of spacers and trying to bring the bottom of the shocks closer to the differential up front.




Also apparently the VP Incision Axial chassis was never a major hit I guess which is why I picked it up used off here for $20 shipped....but I figured at the time it would be better than the stock chassis.

This chassis is so hard to tune and the steering is just driving me nuts!

Take a look at my front upper links the shaft is simply blocking where I want to raise it. Any ideas?




I have no problems at all with the rear end thanks to 4xFord!! Front end is giving me issues day and night with the steering. Might get some decent wheels with a wider offset perhaps? Maybe some DH II's but what hubs would I be looking for?

[Tomy]

Have you tried to mount your front uppers on the outside of the chassis plates? This could possibly give you room for more adjustment.

[mindless]

Clock your Cs back to gain clearance for the shocks adding caster not only helps turning but helps clear the shocks

[alexchen86]

yup C's are clocked all the way back...i tried the front uppers on the outside but they were too short...I would need some sort of tube bender. I'll tinker with it some more. God I'm so tired of this damn chassis!!

[mindless]

any chassis is going to put the links in about the same area so switching chassis isnt going to fix all your problems. First do you have beef tubes so you can add more caster? second BTA steering is a great idea but you are trying to fit a ton of stuff in one place a simple set up in front usually gets rid of alot of issues.

[ittybitty]

x2 on putting the uppers on the outside of the chassis

[alexchen86]

Originally Posted by mindless

any chassis is going to put the links in about the same area so switching chassis isnt going to fix all your problems. First do you have beef tubes so you can add more caster? second BTA steering is a great idea but you are trying to fit a ton of stuff in one place a simple set up in front usually gets rid of alot of issues.

I see your point in adding beef tubes as my next step, however even with the BTA setup and zero ackerman/clocked c's the front tires are rubbing hard into front shocks and even the front of the lipo pack. If I add more caster by installing tubes that won't solve my issue will it?

Or should I just bite the bullet and buy some decent .7" or 1" narrow SLW's up front so I can run a hub and get a wider front stance?

[ninja turtle]

I put my caster pretty much parallel with my shocks so the tire turns around the shock instead of into it. It helped a bunch.

[Eric Perez]

If you widen the front end either with junfak wideners or with the XR10 mod all your rubbing issues will go away. You can also do the beef tubes with stock parts and swap out to longer front dogbones. I picked up a set of berg long dog bones for about $10. Just measure, cut with a dremel and re-grind the end with a grinding stone. It really is not to hard just grind both side little by little and until it slips into your locker.

[alexchen86]

I ran wideners before including Junfac, Integy, and rc4wd on some scale rigs....they either break the drive pin on the aluminum hex into pieces, crack the axle housing, or round out the extender themselves. Thank goodness I never had any of the aluminum wheels they were attached to rounded out. I think out of them all Junfac had the best quality.

I remember selling the Junfacs as a set so that means the extenders were great. But I don't remember why I sold them lol. Although I have almost enough parts to do the XR mod...I know you can do it without beef tubes but that is probably asking for trouble later down the line I bet. What do I use to cut down the XR CVD's would a dremel with just a cut off wheel be sufficient?

[Eric Perez]

Dremel cut-off wheel to cut the shaft the right length and a grinding stone to make the new flat spots. If you get the fiber reinforced heavy-duty disk, you can use that to create the flat as well.

[alexchen86]

Yup a lot of guys have mentioned that to me before Eric...it's an inexpensive way to get a heck lot more steering w/o beef tubes. And I'm super strapped for cash right now building up my Chaotic XR, rebuilding my Tundra SCX10, and now my sporty!! Jeez why do you tease me so Vanquish?!

Oh and contacted Shon at R2J to cut me some straight 3/8 delrin phattys to replace my front lowers...that should help smooth out some of the kinks especially since those plastic Axial rod ends and balls suck ass.

[JeremyH]

Alex, a small note....it looks like the nut on your driver upper link is rubbing the driveshaft....you might want to use a low profile nut or reverse the bolt so that the head is on the inside.

[Colgout]

You can try using a bend rod end (RC4WD) and fit the upper link outside of the chassis plate. Or use a screw from inside out (so nut is outside the chassis plate), look like it will clear the drive shaft. Or swap the drive shaft so the male part is fitted to the gear box and female on the diff to give you a bit more clearance. A combination of these should allow you to put the upper higher.

For the steering, I would say, clock it all the way, use wheel that allow adjustable offset and shave the inner wall to give you the best chance to clear the shock and battery. Don't use widener......

[alexchen86]

Okay gentlemen....finally got 99% of my issues sorted out. Turns out I can move my uppers outside the chassis so that fixed the upper link rubbing the front drive shaft issue. Also replaced the front shocks with Traxxas BB's since my XR build isn't ready yet and we have a little fun comp on Sunday running scale tires so I threw on some CAC's swapped out the front hub so now I have no issues with turning/rubbing the springs.

The only thing I hate is how high my belly sits right now...so any ideas on a quick and painless solution to lower my ride height besides limiting my shocks internally with nitro fuel tubing? Or maybe I can try flipping them upside down? Or run my other pair of Traxxas BB's in the rear.

Basically right now the front end is 3.5" BB's and 4" Losi's. Still have to tinker with the front uppers since now the rods are hitting the tops of the shock so I have barely any vertical articulation...

[Crawling Calvin]

Try moving them on the chassis. I know that sounds "doh" but it can help...

One thing that could help your "semi fixed" BTA troubles is a smaller diameter link for the BTA unit. Coulda helped

[alexchen86]

Yup something about this rig never seemed to have a connection with me if that makes any sense lol. I feel like I'm always fighting with it instead of working with it and improving it like the rest of my rigs.

Herbie and me have bad mojo lol. Or perhaps it's because it was my first crawler and I have no idea wth I'm doing?

[alexchen86]

Btw since this next comp will be scale 2.2 tires only would you recommend siping or cutting every other outer lug? CI closed cells currently in them...

[rangercat23]

Looking good Alex!

As far as tire mods, I am clueless for those rubbers. If all else fails shave the sidewalls, that always helps.

[alexchen86]

I don't think I'm gonna go all out on them. I remember on my Wraith they fold just right and if I cut too much or even sipe too much the tires aren't going to support my sporty or my Wraith....that's what almost happened to my rovers lol got a little too dremel happy with that one good thing those CI foams kept them firm enough and good thing I didnt mess with the sidewalls too.