I got completely BOM'd this weekend

[soze]

I'm stll running the stock spur & pinion with a 35T 550 can. It's pretty dang quiet for me. Quieter than my Enduro which is also quiet.

[OSRC]

Dug into it a bit and found I am running an 11t pinion. Seemed a bit tight, so I moved it to the 12t holes and it's much, much quieter. My pinion is notably worn though, so I ordered a new one. Clearly, it was running a bit tight.

I remember last time I ran it it was pretty quiet. Seemed to get louder as we ran - not sure if the motor shifted a bit or what. I don't like fixed pinion holes personally...always seem to give a bit of grief. Same as the TRX4. I'd much rather adjust manually where possible.

[OSRC]

Went to my mailbox this morning, coffee in hand, and low and behold a box from Korea! Shipped on the 2nd and here already. Fantastic service!!

Now it means I have to tear my entire truck apart... Afternoon of wrenching? Yes please!!

[soze]

*like*

[VR6 BeelzeDub]

Originally Posted by OSRC

Found some 5mm spacers and drilled them out to fit over the 4mm threaded stubs. Stretched out 5mm front and back.

Same here... when you say 4mm threaded stub is that between links and rod ends? If so which links did you lengthen to not throw off the geometry? (real rookie here if you can't tell)

BTW thanks for the good thread on the BOM!

[OSRC]

Yes, the links have 4 mm studs that connect the aluminum body to the rod ends. I put the spacers in the four rear lower links that connect the axle to the skid/chassis, and the three lower links in the front. The panhard link, which is the diagonal one, did not need adjustment.

Hope that helps!

[VR6 BeelzeDub]

Yessir! Thank you


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[OSRC]

Time to swap over the transmission.... only took about 15 minutes to get it torn down.


Gmade sent the new transmission pieces, and some stickers. Very impressed at their customer service. 6 days from the point of contact to parts in hand. From the other side of the world no less.


Rebuilt, regreased, and swapped in a new 11t pinion in the 12t pinion holes. Transmission is now dead silent and smooth as can be!

Now that the chassis is taken care of, wanted to clean up the back of the truck. Removed all the lights since I had broke some off during the last run, and added some scale details to the cage. The spare tire was nice, but it just added a lot of weight up high. This is much lighter overall.


Need to put something in the gaping hole between the cage and the cab. I'll think of something eventually.


Splurged and spent the $10 on the servo guard. Only option I've added to the truck so far. Kinda adds to the prerunner look imo - I like it.


And my new helper....4 week old DL kitten we found. Momma apparently was hit by a car, and the kittens didn't look so good. We tried to help them all, but they didn't make it. :( This one survived for whatever reason, so we took him in and now he's part of the family. So far, he's doing well! Frisky little guy...chews on my feet while I'm wrenching. Hard to get a clear shot since he's so damn fast!

[Dezertdirt]

nice build. How do you like the BOM? Sorry to hear about the other kittens, but glad to hear you able to save one.

[OSRC]

It's a great truck. As capable as anything out there, and personally, I love the look.

[OSRC]

Haven't really done much to my BOM other than replace the transmission. Never had to really. Performs pretty darn good right out of the box. But of course, there's always room for improvement. Or at least some random wrenching in the hopes of improving.

Was looking into OD/UD options and the AR44 seemed to be the best choice gearing-wise. The BOM axles is a 3.0 gear ratio, and the AR44 stock is 3.75. Thats an effective OD of 25%. Little much.....but with the HR 8/27 gearset, I'm looking at a much more trail friendly 12.5% OD. Perfect!!

Pardon the crappy pics, was working on the dining room table as the basement was soaked for the 54th time this summer. 2-3 more inches of rain in an hour..pretty much sums up this entire summer. Anyway, found a rear AR44 for $44, the worst photogenic towel I could find, and got busy.


Surprised that the AR44 is 10mm narrower. Gmades are 190mm hex to hex. Never noticed that before...


Not quite a bolt in, the lower links needed 5mm spacers in the links to get the pinion angle correct. (ultimately I added 10mm overall to stretch the WB a bit.)


Moved the crossmember/shock mount back a notch...ok, well a hole.


and forgot about the antennae and ripped it right out the receiver. Whoops!


Bottom shot...the shock mounts fit, though they are a bit loose. I'm going to shave them a bit so they clamp a bit tighter. I used a longer spacer to spread them out on the axle a bit which effectively lowers the rear of the truck somewhat. The AR44 mounts are a bit closer then on the GS02 axle and it basically stood the shocks up.


Standing on its own! As much as I like the Pitbulls, change is good. Plus I need wheels where I can adjust the offset. Initially I tried some Gearheads and some 4.75 Hyrax. Looked great, but a total no-go. Tires rubbed the front fenders badly. Not quite ready to hack up the body just yet.

[OSRC]

One day later, and my basement had somewhat dried out by now, so back to business! The Gmade shaft and Axial driveshafts are basically the same, so found a female end and got the trans and AR44 talking.. piece of cake!


Still playing with wheels, I had some .225 hubs here for the front wheels, but no screws long enough to work with my wheel/beef patty combo. Tired of the 4/40 crap and having to maintain 2 sets of hardware, I finally drilled and tapped them to 3mm, as I will be doing to all of my VP hubs from now on.



And mounted up my trusty modded Falkens - I get surprising grip out of these tires pretty much everywhere (except maybe mud. Great on rock though.) Slowly wearing these out, I'll have to eventually mod up another set. I love the narrower, rounded profile of these tires....just looks more scale to me. Running .225 hubs of front and .350 in the rear, with slightly thicker hexes. Font and rear track width are spot on! Just waiting now on my gearset to arrive to do some testing.

[soze]

Nice man, interested to hear how the OD works out for you!

I'm still running the cantilever setup, and it does really well. I do want to try the V setup one of these days though.

[OSRC]

I had the cants ready to go if the V mounting failed. Really like this setup, I'm glad it worked!