SVT does nice things for people: Rebuilding a SCX10

[svt923]

I'm a nice guy.

As a nice guy, I do nice things. Occasionally, those nice things benefit other people. Join me as I set off to do a nice thing for someone and be inspired to do a nice thing that benefits someone else (preferably me).

The target of this kind act is my cousin; who, sort of recently, left the only town he has known since birth to move 500 miles away from all his friends and family (except for me but I'm awesome) to take a job here in North Carolina. That not too bad, lots of people move for jobs, right? The job he took is a corrections officer: the hard working, high stress, little reward, and often dangerous life of the unheralded civil servants in uniform. Pile on the added experience of living on your own for the first time and you can see why he is someone that deserves a nice gesture.

Now, being a RC nutjob kinda runs in our family so my cousin does have a nice little fleet of vehicles. Let's review:

Wraith - well built, runs nicely
TF2 - Down with blown ring and pinion
Savage Flux - Down with blown ring and pinion
RC8BE - Down with dead servo
Yeti Jr - Down for rebuild
SCX10 - Down for everything

Starting to get a theme here?

As a busy man in uniform with a tight budget, RC can't and doesn't always get priority. If only he knew a nice guy with a well equipped garage and a borderline hoarder level of spare parts.......

Good thing we established that I'm a nice guy but I will only comment on my garage full of RC crap as "appropriate for the vehicles I own." That is the official statement my wife gets and it will not change.

Scale trucks are the king around here and nothing is worse that being the guy running a Wraith when out with a bunch of 1.9 scale trucks. So I'm going to get that SCX10 back up and running again to prevent training wheel shame.

Here is a look at the truck the last time it ran:



Standard Deadbolt with an atrocious paint job. Damn, that truck is ugly.

Since then, the Deadbolt has been pillaged for parts, started down a project path, then abandoned.

Let's see what we have to work with:



Good god, what the hell is that?

Some kind of unholy monster, mud truck abomination? As I have learned from movies and TV, removal of vital parts is an effective way to kill many types of hell spawn. Thus this tactic was employed.

At least I have a decent set of chassis rails to work with.



Oh, the back end isn't supposed to do point that direction.

Dammit! Is there not one useful part on this truck?

(Walks to bench vise, proceeds to beat on chassis rails)

[Edited for inappropriate content]

There, now I have decent chassis rails to work with.



I officially quit for the night.

Tune in for the next installment in this saga. How much worse can things get? What new parts will be involved? Will I ever do anything nice for anyone again?

So many questions still to be answered.

[Chris81]

Anyone ever tell you, your an awful nice guy??

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[svt923]

Originally Posted by Chris81

Anyone ever tell you, your an awful nice guy??

I get told I'm awful frequently.

[MattySlimz1987]

Looks like fun. Glad to see others with a helping hand, hard to come by nowadays. From this angle it seems it was once a top heavy mega mudder, guess you can pull the trans and shafts, most of the hardware, and maybe the rx box. Lastly, I personally would toss the lift kit ladder plates in the spare parts box for a future build, only because from what was said about fitting in with the 1.9 scale rigs. Nothing worse when there’s great scale detailed trucks in convoy and a Wraith is just hopping over everything with ease.. I can see why you don’t want a family member being “That guy”. Looking forward to the build.

[ussprinceton2004]

you're such a nice guy

[ThatJeeper2017]

What a nice guy


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[svt923]

Originally Posted by ussprinceton2004

you're such a nice guy

Originally Posted by ThatJeeper2017

What a nice guy

Great minds think alike, even greater minds think like me.

Are we ready for more?

Fantastic.

After some therapeutic beating on the chassis rails yesterday, I was ready for some fun and excitement. It is transmission time.

Aside from being filthy on the outside, it really wasn't too bad.



The good, old Axial plastic gears were still in good shape as is usually the case if they don't blow up. I appreciate the fact that Axial doesn't feel the need to lubricate the plastic gears so cleanup was a breeze. The bearings were cleaned and oiled as well to get things running smooth. From my spare parts bin, I tossed in a spare steel idler gear because that is the gear that usually fails and I didn't have any steel bottom gears. Will having a steel idler gear cause the plastic bottom gear to fail? I have no idea, never tried this setup before and it's not my truck so whatever.

After the gears were given a generous coating of Lucas grease in green flavor, they were safely tucked away in their home. I drilled out the motor plate screw holes and secured it with some M3x30mm screws and locknuts ala SuperShafty style. Much more secure mounting.



The spur and slipper were still in good shape but the pads were as glazed over as a fresh dozen from Krispy Kreme. Can you tell I'm thinking about breakfast? Is it distracting? Oh well, I don't actually have to read this. I hit the slipper pads with some sand paper to deglaze them. A bronze bushing was thrown in to replace the plastic one in the center of the spur and keep things running more true. The slipper was tightened some more to prevent so much clutch slippage.



The stock Axial 27T motor was never anything to write home about so I tossed in this Traxxas 550 motor that was yanked from my TRX4. Has a bigger motor ever not been better? Not in America, commie.



The Traxxas motor has a really long shaft (hee hee ) and was getting in the way of the gear cover. I cut a little clearance hole in the cover for the shaft and pinion. Most of the crap will still get kept out and wires can't get into the gears, that is all I need from the gear cover. The 11T pinion is also from the TRX4 (I never actually took it off the motor) and should provide a good mix of gear reduction and wheelspeed.



With the transmission better than new, the front axle was next. The outside was dirty as expected but the inside.....



It was exactly as expected too. Look at that factory Axial grease and none of it on the gears. There was also a nice grey tint to the grease from the wearing of the stock sintered gears.

Speaking of the gears, I hit them with some engine degreaser to clean them off and found them in better than expected shape.



You can tell there is some wear but nothing excessive so back in they will go. Again, its not my truck so I'm not dropping $50 of HD gears. I'm nice, not a charity.

Same thing with the locker, very little wear so it stays.



Here is where things get interesting. As we all know, the holes for the c-hub screws are easy to strip out and prone to failure. It has been this way since the dawn of the AX-10. The easy answer is metal axle tubes. Well, I don't have any spare tubes laying around so I got creative.



3mm flat nuts were epoxied into the inside of the axle housing to serve as a solid mount spot for the c-hub screws. A little of the nut will have to be ground off the outer edge so the axle bearing can sit flat but I think the results will be acceptable.

Now I play the waiting game as the epoxy cures.



I'll be back.

[OSRC]

Todays helpful hint for restoration projects: a toothpick with some CA glue. Insert into said stripped plastic hole and swirl around a few times. Let cure. Can now thread screws back into said hole, and they bite like new again. Has saved many a vintage Tamiya part during restoration, as well as quite a few AR60 and Scx10 housings in the house that low budget built.

Nice work - keep the updates Coming good sir

[svt923]

Originally Posted by OSRC

Todays helpful hint for restoration projects: a toothpick with some CA glue. Insert into said stripped plastic hole and swirl around a few times. Let cure. Can now thread screws back into said hole, and they bite like new again. Has saved many a vintage Tamiya part during restoration, as well as quite a few AR60 and Scx10 housings in the house that low budget built.

Nice work - keep the updates Coming good sir

I have a feeling the CA will be needed for a few screw holes between the awful self tapping screws and the ham fisted owner. The transmission was held on by 3 screws so I'll bet at least one of those holes are stripped.

[mjotrainbrain]

Originally Posted by svt923

I have a feeling the CA will be needed for a few screw holes between the awful self tapping screws and the ham fisted owner. The transmission was held on by 3 screws so I'll bet at least one of those holes are stripped.

Psh, it's fine until there's one screw left!

[svt923]

Originally Posted by mjotrainbrain

Psh, it's fine until there's one screw left!

What the hell, it's not my truck.

I'll use only the finest rubber band I can find to hold down the transmission.

[mjotrainbrain]

Originally Posted by svt923

What the hell, it's not my truck.

I'll use only the finest rubber band I can find to hold down the transmission.

Cheapass, gotta use one of those scale ratchet straps!

[ThatJeeper2017]

Originally Posted by mjotrainbrain

Cheapass, gotta use one of those scale ratchet straps!

Haha, is this Roadkill or something?


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[ThatJeeper2017]

Oh wait that would be a zip tie...


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[svt923]

Originally Posted by mjotrainbrain

Cheapass, gotta use one of those scale ratchet straps!

I can't go breaking the bank on scale ratchet straps and stay under the budget of $20.

There may be some old shoelaces in my closet that kinda look like tow straps, would that be any better? If not, my kids have an Elmer's glue stick I could borrow.

[ThatJeeper2017]

Originally Posted by svt923

I can't go breaking the bank on scale ratchet straps and stay under the budget of $20.

There may be some old shoelaces in my closet that kinda look like tow straps, would that be any better? If not, my kids have an Elmer's glue stick I could borrow.

Here's how you do it. First elmer's it to the skid plate, then duct tape around it 3 times, then get the shoelaces and tie one or two loops for extra security. Best scaler ever built.


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[svt923]

Hi everyone.

It's me again and I have returned with glorious tales of garage conquests in pursuit of doing nice things.

Let's revisit the front axle before moving on. Remember my idea with the nuts epoxied to the inside of the axle housing? Yeah, that was a failure. The nuts would break free from the epoxy and spin in the housing when trying to tighten the c-hub screws. Obviously that wasn't going to work so I did this:



Yes, I found some axle tubes in the parts bin so in they went. These are the versions from a website in the far east that sounds like they sell t-shirts but don't. Now when I say "found" I mean they were pulled out of another truck that isn't getting driven for a while so they won't be missed until I order some more. It wouldn't have been very nice of me to mangle the axle housings and not do anything about it.

There is one meaningful upgrade on this truck and that would be these Hot Racing high steer knuckles. The 10x15mm bearings on the inside of the knuckles were the only ones that have been too crunchy for my liking so they were replaced. The new bearings have blue seals, that means they are waterproof. Right?



The lower links were in rough shape. Notice that nice "P" shaped rod end? Yeah, that isn't a offset end. Axial's M3 rod ends are so terrible. Anyway, I ruined this lower link further by cutting it up.



Why would I ruin a perfectly salvagable lower link? To make shock tower braces of course.



The shock tower were kinda mangled and pointing in directions not originally intended. Between the newly straight chassis rails and these braces, the shock towers are back to being useful.

With the chassis all back together, I was reminded that a SCX10 chassis is amazingly floppy. Oh well, that adds extra sikkk flex, bro!

I should probably do something about lower links since I cut them up. Meh.

A Wraith servo mount was thrown on and the front axle rebuild was complete. It looks brand new compared to the rear axle.



Speaking of the rear axle, it wasn't too bad on the inside. Gears and axle were still good, only one bearing was toast. The housing were cleaned up and I stuck a new bearing on the inner pinion side.



Oh yeah, I was supposed to do something about links. Lucky for this truck's owner, my garage not only contains an assortment of spare parts but also a nice selection of building materials. One such material is 6 ft of thick walled 1/4' aluminum tubing which is perfect for things like building links. I chopped, I drilled, I tapped and voila:



SSD rod ends and some M4 setscrews complete the whole "functioning link" look. These should serve much better than the "upgraded" aluminum Axial links.



The new upper links are an even better upgrade.



Now before someone decides to give me the whole "blah blah aluminum grabs on rocks, blah, blah stainless slides better, blah, blah weight down low" riot act, I present my 3 prong case for aluminum links:

1: This truck has been abused with weaker aluminum links and they are still perfectly in tact.
2: Have you ever made stainless links? It sucks. Stainless sucks to cut, it sucks to drill, it sucks to tap. I don't want to go through that for my own truck much less another person's truck. I'm nice, not a masochist.
3: Would you rather have a truck that runs with aluminum links or a pile of truck parts waiting for stainless links? That's what I thought.

While I was installing the links on the rear axle, I decided to shave off the rear mounting posts for that nice clean look. Smooth as a baby's bottom, if your baby is made out of plastic that has been dragged over rocks.



I also made a bent steering link to clear the diff pumpkin. Now the steering is limited by the dogbones while before it was limited by the tierod hitting the axle. A Traxxas turnbuckle was used as the steering draglink. I like using turnbuckles in the steering setup because the length can be dialed in with a quick wrench turn.



A Tower Pro MG 958 servo with a SSD aluminum horn from my parts bin replaces the previous non-existent steering servo. Approximately 280 oz of torque should keep the wheels pointed in the proper direction much better than nothing.



Fine, since you won't shut up about steel, I made something out of steel.



It's a battery tray. Not what you wanted? Too bad.

I made an accompanying electronics tray too.



Painted up. Mucho stealth.



Anyone notice I said "accompanying electronics tray" and not "matching electronics tray"? That is because I superfluously use big words and also because the battery tray is steel and the electronics tray is aluminum. The steel tray adds 1.5 oz to help offset the weight of the motor. You see where this is going, right?

Fine, here is a picture for all you "deductively handicapped" readers.



Slider mounted electronics trays.

The tray nicely holds typically sized 2200mah 3S packs up to and including this Helios 3500mah 3S pack.



You might have noticed the shocks in the background of a few pictures. Well, I'm going to pull the curtain back and let you in on the shocks.



They are Yeti front shocks all around from my parts bin. At 93mm eye to eye, they are a tad longer than the stock SCX10 shocks but infinitely better than not having shocks (as was the case when I started). They will get actually mounted when I find the pivot balls for the caps.

Here is an idea of the ride height.



Man, that was a whole lot of niceness going on in one weekend. I'm going to have to kick an orphan to realign the karmic balance.

Excuse me while I find my kicking boot and some shock bushings.

Edit: I would like to thank Imgur for taking a torpedo to all my pictures this morning. Way to start off Monday guys!

We are back up and running in all our visually stimulating glory.

[mjotrainbrain]

Good idea for using a turnbuckle as a drag link, can't believe I haven't thought of that! It would certainly save a lot of time with tuning the steering.

[svt923]

Originally Posted by mjotrainbrain

Good idea for using a turnbuckle as a drag link, can't believe I haven't thought of that! It would certainly save a lot of time with tuning the steering.

Steering links, panhard bars, and upper links are all great uses for turnbuckles.

[svt923]

Good news everyone!

I found those shock bushings! Now everyone can stop worrying.

I also did some more building. Well, more like installing because we are past the phase that requires drills, saws, and hammers.

Oh, where to begin.

I broke out the soldering iron to get the electronics in order.



It may be a little hard to see through all that superbly managed wire but there is a Hobbywing 1060 ESC, Castle BEC, and Hobbyking orange receiver. The HW ESC was originally in this truck, then pulled for a Yeti Jr, then the Yeti Jr got a brushless system and the HW was without a home again. The receiver was also originally from this truck as well but I wrapped up the antenna and stuck it inside the case for the wireless look. The BEC was my contribution from the bin of spare electronics, it was plasti-dipped and set to 6.5V for maximum steering power. 4mm bullets were added for motor connectors because no one should be forced to use RTR motor connectors.

The driveshafts were a little beat up but generally in good shape. I sprayed the joints down with some brake cleaner and relubed them with some gun oil. Popped them back in after some thread lock on the screw pins and now movement can be transferred from transmission to axles again.



Wheels and tires were stuck on.



The tires are Vaterra Swampers with some random foam that is stiffer than the average RTR stuff. They are pretty broken in and work well enough.



The wheels are good, old Axial 8 hole beadlocks with a long history. They were originally silver wheels that I bought way back in 2014. I blew out a hex in one wheel so I glued in some plastic hexes to get in another run. I blew out one of the glued in plastic hexes so they sat for a while. Inspiration struck me and I soaked the wheels in acetone to get the glued in hexes out which also ate the silver finish off them.



The bare wheels were given a dye bath and some steel hexes were epoxied into the wheels. The end result looked pretty good so I gave them to my cousin and they have held up for 2+ years. So back on they went.



We are sitting at about 2.75 inches of skid clearance. Not too shabby for longer shocks.



Speaking of shocks, check out the mad bench flex bro!



The shock springs are a little too stiff so it doesn't quite get to a tire height. I would call it good if this was a more scale build but there is more travel available with softer springs. I'll leave that decision up to the owner.



It weighs in just a hair over 5 lbs RTR minus the body.



Speaking of the body, the original ugly ass Deadbolt triumphantly returns!



It makes for a nice juxtaposition:

Crappy, beat up truck



Clean, nice chassis



Again, pile of junk



Hey, is that a new truck?



I make fun but only because that body is so awful, it deserves shame.

Fully RTR with the body, it sits at a little more than 5.5 lbs. Under 6 lbs RTR with no effort put in to reduce weight while beefing it up is a pretty solid number.



You might have noticed the axle is off for the rear wheel well of the body. That is because I extended it out to a (nearly perfect) 12.3 inches.



I know this Deadbolt body isn't going to stick around very long but I'm going to leave the body choice up to my cousin. The options for a 12.3 inch wheelbase are much better than those for a 12 inch wheelbase. I have a feeling something with a Honcho bed will be in the future.

Before I recap this build, let's take a minute to thank the taken off pile of junk for serving this truck well. God speed parts, may you never be a vital part of a vehicle ever again.



At this point, I am happy to say the truck runs. It was tested in my driveway to get the steering trim on point. I will commend my eyeball measurements because it only took one click of subtrim to get it tracking straight. Even let my 2 year old son drive it around the house to his delight. All in, this build cost me a little over $20 in parts I bought just for this (about $10 for a 2nd set of Yeti front shocks and $12 for 2 packs of SSD rod ends) and a bunch of parts bin finds. Yay cheap builds.

The truck will be returned to it's owner this weekend for some driving fun. Seems like a nice, tidy way to wrap up this build.