R2 trans in a Crawler King

[hank the crank]

[hank the crank]

O-k Guys and Gals. Here are a few more pics. ope you enjoy them! Hank

[TONKA TOY]

Originally Posted by hank the crank

By the way, I forgot to report on the pinion swap. RC4WD supplies a 8 t pinion and with the trans gearing it is pretty slow. I picked up a 12 t and a14 t pinion. The 14 won't fit thru the trans without some dremel time so I installed the 12 to test. Wheel speed is much improved with 0 loss of torque or crawling ability. I'll try the 14 soon. Hank

How are you putting that gear on? Through the hole that the motor shaft goes through?

Take the cover off the front of the tranny, stick the motor shaft in....... DO NOT MOUNT THE MOTOR...... Put on the larger pinion gear through the front of tranny (where ya put the screws into the motor to mount) pull the motor & part of pinion gear out of trans until you can see & access the set screw for the pinion, tighten the set screw accordingly.

Check gear alignment & adjust the pinion down on the shaft towards the motor or away from the motor & re-tighten if needed.

There is no reason to dremel the case of the trans. I would suggest using at least a 17t pinion & a good quality 45t motor.

I run a 21t pinion & 45t motor. It has plenty of wheelspeed & torque.

[hank the crank]

Gotcha! ! I like that a lot better than cutting on the case. I haven't done this yet as I'm still playing with the suspension. It works fine but as usual I can't leave it alone It spends way more time on the bench being improved than running on the rocks. Hank

[hank the crank]

O-k. Heres what I've been up to lately. I took the motor plate out and made a new one from a cutting board thats about 5/16 in thick. I dropped it to the bottom of the frame rails and trimmed the front and back to match the slope of the side rails. I moved the lower links inside the frame and put them in the center of the motor plate. This really triangulates the links. I may have lost a little of the flex I had before but it still seems o-k. I've upgraded the drivline by using Traxxas shafts and yokes. I also got some of the longer Revo ball ends and used them in most spots and I made new steering links. I'll get some updated pics on soon. Hank

[lonleycreeper]

What yokes did you use? Part number would really help.

[hank the crank]

I found that the t-maxx shafts, PN 4951x and the t-maxx yokes, PN 4928x parts work great. I had to shorten the rear shaft for the disconnect but the front shaft is just right. My wheelbase is at 13 in. Hank

[lonleycreeper]

4928x is the 6mm, thanks for the reply. Pics?

[hank the crank]

I'll try to get some on this evening. Been busy with some family stuff. Hank

[hank the crank]

O-k heres the pics. Sorry it took me so long. As you can see I made a new motor/trans plate and moved my lower links into the center for better triangulation. I also installed Traxxas shafts and yokes and I made rear lockouts and new steering links. Everything works so much better, the links being centered up even seem to help the rig slide over obstacles better. Sheeessshhh, I forgot to size the pics! Watta noob!

[hank the crank]

[adamargue]

Looks good man i have a r2 disco witch would cool to have kn my rig. May have to try this

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[hank the crank]

Thanks, It wasn;t too hard. Just had to do the usual try and fit several times. It is a lot more capable than its ever been.

[hank the crank]

I finally found some big rocks to work this rig on. I"m in Harpers Ferry WV and brought my crawler with me. I found plenty of rock along the river, very smooth rock, and had a lot of fun there. Then I moved to the cliffs just out of town. Things were going great untill from about 15 ft up, on a 50 deg slope, I lost control coming down. At the bottom I had snapped a ball end on the left front. Repaired that and found the outside axle shaft slightly bent. No problem. I wheeled about 4 1/2 hours and finally, in a real hard pull on the right front tire I snapped the axle. I finished the day with 3 wd, you just have to bounce that wheel thru. I think its time to upgrade the drivetrain again. More improvements to be made. I'll use the search feature for the knuckles, c-hubs and axles.

[hank the crank]

I'm back in business, welded the rear shafts; oh broke another one after my last post, and have finally changed out the pinion. I had a 12t in there and was going to a 14 but found a 17t in my stuff and installed it . Wheel speed is greatly increased, almost as fast as a stock WK, but i can't see any difference in torque or crawling ability. I'll get her out this weekend and see what esc and motor temps, runtime will be like. On my incline board in the shop, a piece of plywood, I can spin the Rockgrabbers fast enough they will actually warm up slightly and grip better. No smoke tho. Dang!

[hank the crank]

O-k. With the 17 tooth pinion I have no issues with motor or esc temps. Everything works good. I do have a slight issue with the drag brake not locking but thats because its a 17 tooth pinion. It still works but allows the rig to slowwwwllyyy drift down hill. Its controllable tho. I still haven't replaced the c-hubs, knuckles and axles for better steering altho thats coming soon. Been working on the house. Hank

[hank the crank]

O-k folks, I'm back. I have finally upgraded to a lipo batt and the difference is great! My crawler works good and I'm not changing anything else for a while, altho I'm looking at a 35 turn motor and a 21 tooth pinion to really boost the wheel speed. It's not easy to flip back on its wheels with the 55 turn thats in it now. I'm using a Dynamite 2s lipo. In some of the previous pics the upper links were mounted on the axle with the stock plastic links and just screwed into the mount body. I have made some alum mounts out of channel that mount on the axle and the links bolt into the top of the mount. I'm on my second set, the first set was too light. I'm still going to install cvd's and some c-hubs and knuckles one of these days. Probably sooner than later because I've run out of stock axles.They tend to break easily in the front. Going crawling! Hank

[Rubiclod]

Nice build, I've been tinkering on my CK and want to use some of your R&D. First, the upper link mounts on the axles are the originals drilled and threaded? Second, when you relocated the lower links back inside the chassis, what did use for mounts? I see the aluminum in the pics, was wondering what you used.

[hank the crank]

Thanks for the compliments. The upper link mount on the axles , the stock ones, I just drilled the holes 1/16 in and used a pretty aggressive screw to screw straight in. For the lower links on the trans plate end, I drilled thru the mount from side to side and used a stainless rod to push thru and mount the link ends. When the plate is mounted in the frame the stainless rod is captured by the frame. Ask away if you have any questions , I'll even put more pics on of details if you need them. Hank

[hank the crank]

O-k all. Time for an update. My axle upper link plate made out of alum angle ended up being too light. I found a 20 turn motor in my box of stuff and installed it with the 12 tooth pinion. Lots more wheelspeed, I can flip her back on her wheels now! But the rear upper link just couldn't handle the torque. So, I made a axle truss , mounted it between the shock/link mounts and tied the 2 together. Now the upper link mounts have a 3 point anchor. Works great! I also modified all the links to bring the wheelbase back in a little. I was running at 13 1/2 in but there were times when the longer wheelbase really limited the crawling capability. On a climb at breakover there was as much behind as in front and even with wheel wts, under power she didn't break over very well. Also in just general climbing/crawling the belly would drag too much. so I went to 12 1/8 in wheelbase. I've had limited test time but general crawlibilty is much better, less belly drag, and breakover seems better. Its easier to get her to hang at the breakover point and balance now so I think if I add a little more wt out front I should see a improvement. I'm wondering if longer links in front, unequal length links , would help or hurt? It would extend the wheels farther forward for more front wt bias , but would chassis geometry suffer? Has anyone tried this? Thanks for reading, Hank