2 years, time to freshen up

[Tinrabbit]

So now that I have 2 years on my Sawback it is time for a little freshening up for this year. The original driveshafts gave up & I replaced with another pr of factory but they too have decided to retire, thinking of using the Axial shafts I have in the parts pile.
The rc4wd springs are all bent to wacky land & 1 set did break last summer so I picked up a set of factory springs to replace them.
Shocks, well the original still do their thing but I am tossing idea around of replacing them with oil filled, dunno yet.
The axles, shafts, gears all have held up great, bearings will all get replaced as they are trashed & a few are simply mud filled rather than ball bearings
Speed control & motor I do plan on swapping out, not ruling out going up to 3s capability.
Skid plate, ya finally going to toss it & make something different for the clearance.
Front bumper, have the tubing to create something to help approaches.
I tried to leave this awesome rig close to original for much of the last 2 years to see just how good the thing really was out of the box & I am damn impressed. Well worth the investment so she is easily worth putting a few new goodies into it for a few more years of enjoyment.
After todays little romp in the snow, mud & rocks it is clear that the foams in the tires are crap now, look close at that right front, the tires is soooo deformed from the lumps of foam balling up.
I got a few things rounded up already, tires & rims that I have had good results with in past on other rigs, a new metal gear servo, much better driveshafts & I did buy a lot of new take off parts from a guy in the classifieds so I'm set for new pieces like he hubs, blocks, shackles, springs etc.
I will keep up pics on this process, we ALL love to see pics

[Tinrabbit]

pics dint want to come up first go around.



Can see the popped driveshaft hanging underneath as well as the tires with the balled up foam. Driver Jed still in 1 piece!

[Tinrabbit]

Chassis pic, still pretty much as it was out of box other than a few minor changes. For a rig right out of box, I really didn't quite think it would make me giggle every time I get it out due to how it can just kick that Energizer bunnys ass & just keep on going but it certainly has done just that!

Now the parts I have so far to get on the freshening up.

[dubyas1989]

Nice, can't wait to see it freshened up, also nice to see a sawback with some use and still going, makes me feel good about my one i just got for Christmas.

[Tinrabbit]

So any thoughts as to getting the transmission to quiet down? I have tried several different brands of pinions, have installed new gears in it & still is very noisy. This is the only thing I am really sorta disappointed with but it doesn't keep me from running the bugger like I stole it.

[Tinrabbit]

ok, quick update, getting the rig torn down & parts cleaned up. I opened up the axles to check the gears, replace bearings & everything looks fantastic. No excess wear on the pinion & ring gears, axle shafts in great condition. Only thing I noticed was just a weee little bit of wear on the ring gear shaft opening where the axle shafts go into it, the flat side has a tiny bit of slop which will be filled with a small piece of tin foil upon reassembly. (this idea was in the R1 thread for same issue)

Got the metal spacer kit to replace the plastics, the bushings on the leaf shackles were in terrible condition when removed, the skid plate to help with some ground clearance & finally the stainless screw set to eliminate the Phillips head hardware that I seem to strip out each time I worked on it.
The brass axle weights were on back order so I'll be waiting to reassemble the axles until they arrive in about a week & half.

[Tinrabbit]

Had the chatter box transmission open up to check the wear on the gears & hey they look good. I packed it with a crap load of gear grease to see what would happen, connected electrics & ran it on the bench, yup, still noisy. Sooooo as I removed the motor & mounting plate I stuck my finger in on the first gear the motor turns & gave it a wiggle- it wobbles around about 5/1000 which is prolly binding the next gear & onto the next etc.


I think I may order a whole new tranny for it & check all this fitment to see if it's a bit loose from the get go. I haven't cleaned up all the grease yet to inspect the bearing if they are cause or if the casing itself has worn causing the shafts to all slap around with the bearings.
Absolutely loving the metal spacer kit & the stainless bolt & nut kit for this reassembly!!

[dubyas1989]

Hhhmmmmm I may pull my motor and check mine, I only have a few hours on it. Ill let you know what I find.

[Tinrabbit]

Parts from RCMart showed last night in mail so began to check em out & assemble the transmission. I installed new gears & new bearings from Fast Freddy.

Little bit of gear grease, the shafts were in good cond so I reused them.


Motor on with a 14 tooth pinion & the stainless hardware with threadlock

[Tinrabbit]

So had a few minutes to look it over & really want to see what new trans & dirveshafts will do for rig as it kinda once was on the old skidplate so simply bolted it together & plopped into the framerails for my evening excitement

Got the new leafs & metal spacers put in & the axles rehung underneath. Waiting for the brass axle weights to arrive so I can finish up the drivetrain & get it back to a roller.

[LRTd5]

... there are some nice new parts ...

Cool -- your sawback also get a Crawlster steering ... I am sure, you will love it!

Regards
Wolf

[OSRC]

Any quieter with the alloy gearbox?

[Tinrabbit]

I really won't know if it is much quieter with the metal box than plastic until it is under a load of the chassis & drivetrain. Brass tube weights are on way, once those babies arrive then the axles go back together & she'll be ready to hit the trails once again

[Tinrabbit]

Got the brass axle weights last night in mail & decided to pop em in tonight, very easy to install & is a good clean fit. 1 weight is slightly longer than the other to fit the longer side of the axle housing, slipped in with just a bit of pressure from my press & voila ready to reassemble the axles & get it back to roller
These weights were pressed into housings in under 2 minutes so no hassle or time wasted during commercial break during the news broadcast.

[JatoTheRipper]

I need to rebuild my first Sawback as well. I love that rig so much.

I wonder if the extra weight of that transmission case will help or hurt.

I definitely need to get some of those brass axle weights. The zero Ackerman knuckles and tierod from GMade are also on my list.

[Tinrabbit]

Quick update time, selected my shocks!!! Decided to go with a set of oil filled with internal spring from RcWorld. Shocks are approx. 9-10mm longer than the original shocks so I will be remaking the frame mounted shock brackets. They are metal, have a 2 hole (big holes) shock piston in them & comes with 3 different sets of springs for soft, mid or stiff tension. I'll give them a shot & see how the rig responds.



Also got the TSL SX tires mounted up on the Axial rims, they are a lot taller tire that what I ran the last 2 years.


Finishing up on the Axial driveshaft swap plus the Crawlster steering will be joining the mix real soon!

[Synister_Intent]

Very nice build my friend. My Sawback is in the mail but I have a couple questions. A what is the quality of that transmission case? Are the frame rails powder coated or anodized chrome? Keep up the good work l am watching your build closely.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

[dubyas1989]

the chassis is nickel plated steel, i still cant wait to see how this goes back together, i have stolen a few ideas like the axle weights and tranny case, so thanks.

[Tinrabbit]

The frame rails you can scuff with scotch brite pad to get rid of the shiny & either paint or rub it down with used wet coffee grounds to stain it so it looks like rust & dirt. The tranny case I think is alright at this point but I have not gotten to run this baby since install so too early to tell just yet.
I got the axial driveshafts installed but with this set that had the bigger pins I had to open up the holes in the shafts on axles & the tranny for them to fit.

Also got the crawlster kit installed, that went fairly easilly onto the rig but I will need to shim the servo outa bit so the servo horn does not hit the link itself. My servo choice is a shorty so the shims are needed. Several servos out there are taller or stik out farther & will clear the link w/o spacing but since I am a cheap ass I will use spacers

Now the shocks I have spent most of my time with. Since they are aluminum body I had to put a bit o thread tape on the threads on both the cap & the lower sealing housing so they wouldn't leak as they did profusely upon first oil fill. I left the internal dampening springs out & just filled with 40wt.

1 of the shocks didn't have good freedom of piston travel so I popped it open again & found that 1 of the piston holes had the factory "flap" that is left over from making the hole partially blocking the opening sooooo drained all shocks again & inspected each piston.
Now they are perched on the stand all closed up & I will recheck them in 24hr to see if any leakage occurs.

[Tinrabbit]

Forgot to mention that with the Crawlster kit now on & the new tires & rims mounted up the Axial rims have the screw on beadlocks & the screw heads do hit the upright screw & nut on the outside of the link as well as the tire knobs rub a little with a very slight flex applied so I'll be getting some wideners to push em out to keep them happy