Ugly Betty

[chris.martell]

Your steering seems to be coming together for you Merc! I know what a pain this has been for you since everything is so tight behind the axle. Great job, I'm sure you are looking forward to getting Ugly Betty on the rocks!

My rigs are built not bought!

[winnerone23]

You sure have been putting some work in Kevin. Rigs looking great and as always you parts work awesome!
Its goin to be sweet to see Betty on the rocks next weekend...

[MRCrackhead]

In response to no anticipation....Bottom of the Dumpster Fab proudly presents:

The ugliest tie rod ever.......available at a scrap yard porta-potty in Mexico City.........




Times are tuff here these days. I'm all out of link material and so is my local supply spot.
The only thing I had to work with was a piece of 1/4" x 2" aluminum flat stock.
For what it started as, it's not too awful bad. I plan to get something better in the rig when I get a chance.
It's going to the comp on the 15th with this beauty.....

[MRCrackhead]

Originally Posted by winnerone23

You sure have been putting some work in Kevin. Rigs looking great and as always you parts work awesome!
Its goin to be sweet to see Betty on the rocks next weekend...

Thanks man, this steering project has been tricky.

I sure hope it works cuz I'm fully invested with no backup plan.

[Colgout]

I think the tie rod is pretty sweet...

Just a suggestion that you shape the tie rod so you can eliminate the 2 long spacers at the knuckle, I don't think the plastic of the knuckle will withstand the force.

[MRCrackhead]

Originally Posted by Colgout

I think the tie rod is pretty sweet...

Just a suggestion that you shape the tie rod so you can eliminate the 2 long spacers at the knuckle, I don't think the plastic of the knuckle will withstand the force.

There are 3 spacers and 3 bolts holding it there, not 2.



I just couldn't get it to work with stock plastic knuckles unless I kept the tie rod below the lower links.

The mounting points are just too low to get a "reasonable" tie rod above the links.

I don't disagree that my setup is........well, interesting.

However, I feel this setup is quite strong.

The "notch" is the reason I say this.

The notch in the arm actually locks around the knuckle.

With no bolts at all, the arm "steers" the knuckle.

The bolts really just hold it in place, and at that elevation.



My fun money budget is spent and the comp is one week away.

VP knuckles will hopefully bolt right in now that I've done the work.

I do appreciate your advice, but it's just gotta go down this way.......... for now.

[MRCrackhead]

Got a bit further today with the front axle.

I fabbed up a couple of tabs to hold my electronics.






I placed the FXR and the Rx on there just to double check that everything would clear.



Haven't quite decided what's going where yet. I also still need to find a home for the battery.

I tried desperately to get it out on the axle, but it just won't fit with the shocks moved forward.

I guess it's going on the front links.

Hopefully I can get it wired in tomorrow and take it for a ride.

[MRCrackhead]

Finally got to see the rig move today.

I haven't finished the battery tray yet, but I'm burnt out on fabrication. Time to drive it while the sun was out.

I have an Exciter body for it, but doubt I'll get time to paint it.

Ugly Betty will have to do one more time......



All the wires are two miles too long.....

Items need to be de-cased.....

Plus a host of other things, but I'm running out of time.

So, I tucked everything in the best I could.




Time to get some weights/bias figured out and start tuning.

Also, I need to get in touch with Troy at Custom Fiber to get a servo guard with no hole in it. This one will do fine for now.

[Jslick]

Looking great!! Are you guys going to make it out to Palmerton this Sunday??

[MRCrackhead]

Originally Posted by Jslick

Looking great!! Are you guys going to make it out to Palmerton this Sunday??

I plan to go. Put in a request for the day off, I'll see you there.

Chris is planning to go.

[MRCrackhead]

Couple more action shots.



Just couldn't resist.



Driving is so much more fun than fabbing.....

[chris.martell]

All I have to do is tune my tires tomorrow and te 5:12 will be ready to run that Betty on your rock pile

My rig is built not bought!

[MRCrackhead]

Awesome Chris, I'm looking forward to that.

I still have some bugs to work out, of course.

Getting some wheel time is going to be crucial in the next couple days.

I've already changed about 5 things and only ran two batteries through it.

The Futaba servo doesn't seem to be tweaking my ghetto knuckles at all. It does try to rip the tires off the rims though......don't miss my poor, old, broken 100oz servo.....

[chris.martell]

Agreed I need wheel time witb this new setup! One more day of building and ill be ready to unleash my beast... or my big piece of junk we will see.

Awesome news on the knuckles but I never had a doubt about them being there notched around the knuckle, it's a mechanical lock and its attached in 3 points! SOLID



My rig is built not bought!

[winnerone23]

Great to see you two getting ready! Steering looks real good!

I'll get a servo guard made an brought with me. :thumbup::cool:

[MRCrackhead]

One more comp under my belt with Betty.

Everything worked really well yesterday.

The new behind the axle steering is awesome for approach.

As with any untested system, there will be room for tweaking.

The servo struggled in a couple spots, perhaps due to the ultra grippy rock at Palmerton. I hadn't noticed it while testing here at home.

I'm going to fab another passenger side arm with the drag link hole extended a bit. That should give the servo a bit more leverage.

Managed a third place finish. I'm really excited about that.

BUT.........studying the numbers, I've decided I'm a terrible driver. The top two spots beat me by a mile.

More driving, less building. That's my latest, greatest project on the bench!

[MRCrackhead]

Nothing new here. Just thought I'd post up my Maxx shaft mod since somebody was asking about it.

I was out of town most of the week before the comp last weekend due to my work schedule. When I did get a chance to drive the rig on Thursday, shafts just kept popping. They just weren't holding up to my new 3s batteries.

Friday evening I took a trip to the local hobby shop to get "anything better than what I had". Maxx shafts were what they had on hand.

I didn't have time to order in any "cool" parts, so I decided to make the Traxxas stuff fit.

First thing, of course, were the two flat spots inside the yoke. The stock Axial output only has one flat spot. So I removed one flat spot from the plastic yoke with the dremel.

Next I slid the yoke on and realized it ran into the transmission before the set-screw hole was on the output very far. I didn't want to drill the hole that close to the end of the output shaft.

So I shaved off the "rounded" part on the back side of both front and rear yokes.

Stock on the left, shaved on the right.



Now it slid on the output all the way. I used it as a guide to mark the hole and drilled the outputs.

This picture shows the undrilled output with the scars from the Axial set screw. Next to it is the drilled one. Worked out just right.




Here you can see I have just a smidge of daylight between the yoke and the transmission.



Unfortunately, the local shop didn't have any spur/pinion combos I was looking for either that day.

So I had no choice but to shave down the front driveshaft to clear my 87t spur gear.

I wasn't too thrilled about doing it, but it was my only option at the time. I felt it was worth trying a shaved Maxx shaft and hope it would hold, verses running the stock shafts that just weren't working at all.

[MRCrackhead]

Here they are in the rig.

Since I'm running Axial OD/UD gears the Maxx shafts bolted right up to the axles.



Happy to report they held up just fine and I've been driving it every day since the comp and still no issues with the front shaft.



Best picture I could get of the spur/shaft tolerance with the chassis brace in the way.



My plan is to order the Crawler Innovations extended output. I'll be able to run the stock yoke that way. I'll cut these male shafts down and run double female shafts. With that, I'll only have wasted the one front yoke by doing this last minute mod.

[chris.martell]

[chris.martell]

Merc you did a awesome job at driving today! -47 not to shabby.