Some "minor" changes, now it's nasty

[tarpon4me]

Been hitting up the crawler track in Myrtle Beach, SC called Lets go Racing, and i've been catching hell getting over the bounty wall with my AX10. Been a while since i've posted up, but I had already done some major mods to my deadbolt, to include vanquish parts front and rear, Mickey Metal wheels, 35T motor, Zero shocks, etc...

Well I was still having an issue with getting over that wall. I crawl with my real jeep, 1:1 scale, and was in a discussion about pinion angle and bigger lift kits. Then it dawned on me, I need to have a peek at my AX10 and see what's up. I sat my AX10 beside my sons SCX10 and noticed something. The SCX's driveshaft have a downward pinion angle where as the AX10 was up. This is what causes the AX10 to bind and the driveshafts to hit at full flex where as the driveshafts on the SCX10 flatten out at flex.

I had some 98mm aluminum shafts laying around, and decided to try something. One of the ways to correct geometry on a real jeep when you add lift is to install longer lower control arms. It rolls the axle around correcting pinion angle and brings the spring level under the upper perch. So I installed the longer lowers, leaving the standard high clearance aluminum uppers as is. This is the result:

In the picture below, you can see the stock pinion angle rolling upwards, which causes binding.



With the longer lower links, you can see a MAJOR difference in the pinion angle. It's moved the angle downwards at the same degree, which will be it's maximum stress point. I'll explain.



I mentioned maximum stress point, well as you can see in the photo below, at full compression, the pinion angle is almost perfectly flat. This means a couple things. first of all, there is zero binding and when the rig is all kinds of crazy off camber, the power deliver is going to be smooth and the stress on the drivetrain is going to be minimal. The other thing is, it no longer smack that drive upper control arm, increasing articulation.





In addition, the height of the rig was dropped by what I figure to be at least an inch, which made it incredibly more stable. the only down side is the old deadbolt body no longer fits with the meaty TSL's I put on.





I have a feeling that with this simple and inexpensive mod I will have a completely unstoppable rig. May end up with high clearance lowers depending on how it goes, but it completely changed the rig. Oh, and I had to rotate the front hubs so the steering was square. Don't forget to do that. Enjoy!

[Creepcreep]

So....how did it do? Looks some great add ons, did you clear the wall?

[tarpon4me]

Sorry for the really late reply. For some reason I didn't get a notification that there was a reply. Yes, I cleared the wall. It went up with the swampers, but made very short work of it with Rover white dots.

I've changed gears and ordered a wraith skid and SCX10 chassis. Going to make a wroncho type set up for fun now that i've accomplished my goal with the AX10.

Going to used the drivetrain from my ax10, wraith skid, and SCX10 chassis. should be nasty.

[Phatz]

Hey Hey, if you are going to do a wroncho then do check the build from HarleyDesigns on you tube. If you are going to use your ax10 gear box, you are going to have to lengthen the rear outdrive( maybe get one of thoselonger outdrives from supershafty) a Buddy of mine made a short one for me, check my build @ the German Forum here; Ridge-Mog - 4x4 Scaler 2,2" und grösser - Rockcrawler.de I can read and speak German I just cant write it so everything I write is in English, but on page 2 thier are some pics of the one I have on mine.

[tarpon4me]

I ended up using the scx10 skid. My issue now is pinion angles and getting the right link lengths on the outside. Become more of a pain in the ars that I wanted it to be lol. But, that's all part of making something custom. You have to work through the pain to make it work.

Originally Posted by Phatz

Hey Hey, if you are going to do a wroncho then do check the build from HarleyDesigns on you tube. If you are going to use your ax10 gear box, you are going to have to lengthen the rear outdrive( maybe get one of thoselonger outdrives from supershafty) a Buddy of mine made a short one for me, check my build @ the German Forum here; Ridge-Mog - 4x4 Scaler 2,2" und grösser - Rockcrawler.de I can read and speak German I just cant write it so everything I write is in English, but on page 2 thier are some pics of the one I have on mine.

[ranger01]

Awesome write up. Thanks for getting technical!

[rockpunisher]

Looks good. I did the same thing to my deadbolt. Curious tho how much it can handle speed wise? I just crawl so no biggie but if I wanna switch the setup to rock race I think the pinion angle might cause problems??

[no_named_sk8er]

did you have to make your lowers or did you buy them i would like to do this to mine and how much longer are they or a total length would be good