Mary Shelley's MRC

[89redranger]

Pondering it. I've built around 5 micros on torsion chassis' now, and have grown to love the way they drive in that small a scale. Not to mention the simplicity of it.

For the time being though, anything MRC I had going is on hold. Over the next few months I will be helping a buddy get his hobby shop moved and begin taking over operations full time. In the meantime, I'm putting together a CC01 Pajero kit, with a bunch of mods and goodies of course, as a dual-purpose rig. First being a tow rig for the MRC, secondly, a way to mingle with clients and customers.

I will dig around for those slipper back plates and get them off in the mail though...

[winnerone23]

Well.. the added bonus of steering, that I had, has been gone..
Now the bonus of ground clearance, that I had, is now gone! :mad:

That's awesome Kevin! Great build sir...

Oh man, this year is goin to be a blast!

[MRCrackhead]

Originally Posted by winnerone23

Well.. the added bonus of steering, that I had, has been gone..
Now the bonus of ground clearance, that I had, is now gone! :mad:

That's awesome Kevin! Great build sir...

Oh man, this year is goin to be a blast!

One advantage left Troy.....your better at driving!

I'm still working on that one.

[winnerone23]

Originally Posted by MRCrackhead

One advantage left Troy.....your better at driving!

I'm still working on that one.

Thanks for that.. unfortunately, I haven't been able to keep up with any driving and you have a crawling buddy(I'm a lone ranger in my neck of the woods :().
Ur skills aren't/weren't far off at the end of last year. This year will be trying for all of us. I think it will push All of us as a club to step up the level of driving.

Ok, enough mushy mush. Lets see some progress!

[MRCrackhead]

Originally Posted by winnerone23

Lets see some progress!

No progress this weekend.

Friday (12hrs for him, 7hrs for me) and Saturday (12hrs each), Chris and I were working our butts off building, and staffing, the rock course at the PA Farm Show Complex.

I'm exhausted.

[MRCrackhead]

Moved forward a bit more on the mini.

I made some new rear links that are kinda radical, and I'm not unhappy with them.

I also made 3 new pairs of rear shock/upper link mounts attempting to get the current set.

As you can see, the film is still on, so I can draw on them.

I'm still not 100% convinced they will stay as pictured.



Fabbed up this new rear upper link bracket to replace last season's makeshift mess that I built on the fly.

Upper links are still mocked up with the 4-40 rod. Might get those made sometime this week.



Drive shaft is more accurately mocked up at this point.

The angles look decent, and it's almost completely hidden by the lowers.



Wasn't happy with having bent my servo arm to make my last steering setup.

I wanted to move the servo back to get rid of the bend, and allow the use of any servo arm in the future.

Unfortunately, the drag link end, sitting on top of the tie rod end, on the passenger side knuckle would hit the servo mount at full lock.

So I gave up that idea, and put this slight bend in my drag link to get things in order.

[BliB]

Really like the look of this, how do you plan on giving support for the driveshaft?

[daver18qc]

It's gonna support itself i guess, as there is still only 2 uni's in it, although the output shaft is longer, it shouldn't need anything to hold it there except the bearings ?

[MRCrackhead]

Originally Posted by BliB

Really like the look of this, how do you plan on giving support for the driveshaft?

Thanks

Originally Posted by daver18qc

It's gonna support itself i guess, as there is still only 2 uni's in it, although the output shaft is longer, it shouldn't need anything to hold it there except the bearings ?

You're exactly right..... if I am, that is...

The parts on the rear axle housing will be fixed to the pinion, essentially acting as an extension.

There was no way to have such steep rear links, heavily clocked pinion, and keep the drive shaft angles reasonable without some change in the line drawn from point a to point b.

This was my solution.

[daver18qc]

Install the axle with the pinion output facing the sky, fab a 90 degree gearbox (or use a helicopter one ??) and attach driveshaft to that ! =D

[MRCrackhead]

Originally Posted by daver18qc

Install the axle with the pinion output facing the sky, fab a 90 degree gearbox (or use a helicopter one ??) and attach driveshaft to that ! =D

That could be brilliant. Haha!

If done properly, it could offer an underdrive effect...

[MRCrackhead]

Well, I'm on the road, so progress is slow.

I was able to get this electronics plate/chassis stiffener fabbed up.

This upper plate won't do much except resist axle wrap, so I figured lexan would be strong enough, and it would reduce weight up high.



Here are the electronics, roughly placed according to my grand plan.

Battery out front, for easy access.

Receiver and FXR in line, behind the servo.

BEC hidden under the esc on the drivers side.

Wires need to be cleaned up a lot, but at least it all fit!

[BliB]

I would not be that confident in those 2 bearings on the pinion to give support to the amount of torque that wanna turn the extension, i really hope tgat it will be enough, but im afriad it will tare the housing appart, the housing is really weak and flimsy!

When the pinion is turning it will also push itself away from the ring gear, the driveshaft also wanna spin that pinion extension causing double violence!

Atleast be really really careful! Dont wanna mess up a nice rig in 2 seconds!

[daver18qc]

Originally Posted by BliB

I would not be that confident in those 2 bearings on the pinion to give support to the amount of torque that wanna turn the extension, i really hope tgat it will be enough, but im afriad it will tare the housing appart, the housing is really weak and flimsy!

When the pinion is turning it will also push itself away from the ring gear, the driveshaft also wanna spin that pinion extension causing double violence!

Atleast be really really careful! Dont wanna mess up a nice rig in 2 seconds!

Thinking about that and i must say that makes sense.
I'd put a zip-tie on the outside of the axle's bearing area where the shaft exits to prevent any "opening" of that part at least..

[MRCrackhead]

Originally Posted by BliB

I would not be that confident in those 2 bearings on the pinion to give support to the amount of torque that wanna turn the extension, i really hope tgat it will be enough, but im afriad it will tare the housing appart, the housing is really weak and flimsy!

When the pinion is turning it will also push itself away from the ring gear, the driveshaft also wanna spin that pinion extension causing double violence!

Atleast be really really careful! Dont wanna mess up a nice rig in 2 seconds!

Originally Posted by daver18qc

Thinking about that and i must say that makes sense.
I'd put a zip-tie on the outside of the axle's bearing area where the shaft exits to prevent any "opening" of that part at least..

I'm definitely concerned about all the things you've said.

I've thought the same thing, but I'm going to try it and see what happens.

This whole build is experimental, so I don't want to invest too much time in case the whole thing is lame .

I could run a typical drive shaft and lose some of the clearance in the rear, but I'd like to try it.

Very gentle on the throttle first test drive, of course.

Good idea about putting a collar around the outer bearing.

I'll look into that this evening.

Do you see a different solution?

The helicopter gearbox is really good, but again, I don't want to go that far since it may not crawl very well...... just won't know till I drive it.

[MRCrackhead]

So after constant nagging by my piers (actually read: good advice, lol), I decided to take another look at the driveshaft extension.

It's been on my mind since the beginning, and I just couldn't stop thinking about it since other members have raised concern.

I realized I'd never truly get to test this experiment, if it wouldn't drive 100%.

I needed to punch the throttle, get it bound up, recover upside down, etc.

Without testing it at a comp level, I'd never know if this crazy rig was going to work or be a colossal failure.

So out to the garage I went to fab up a couple parts.



I made up a UHMW shaft support and the aluminum brace to hold it in place.



Now the pinion is supported

Held stable, that far from the housing, it's arguably stronger than it was in the stock configuration.

I certainly hope that's the case....



Here it is in the rig.



Now I don't worry about the rear housing flying into pieces when I pull the trigger.

[winnerone23]

Sick work Kevin.. I'm so Stoked for you to run this creation, it's not even funny!

[BliB]

Great to see you gave the support a try!

Great finish on the aluminum! What you use to get that brushed/blastered finish?
And what tools do you use? If those brackets are products of eagle eye and dremel. I really need to start practise

Some video on this maybe?

[chris.martell]

Nice job amigo. That's should do the trick.

Sent from my C811 4G using Tapatalk

[MRCrackhead]

Originally Posted by winnerone23

Sick work Kevin.. I'm so Stoked for you to run this creation, it's not even funny!

Thanks Troy.

It's getting close.

Button up the wiring, rear uppers, shock oil, and a lid.....

Those are the majors, the rest is minor now that this driveshaft should work.

Originally Posted by chris.martell

Nice job amigo. That's should do the trick.

Thanks Chris.

It turned out a lot nicer than the hand sketch I showed you, that's for sure.

Man, I suck at drawing....