Timmy2Tracks "Beast from the East" (Big-Block Blizzard)

[Timmy2Wheels]

Winter's here, thought i'd share this with y'all...

So, the story on this: I have had this DF-300 for about 2 years. I purchased bearings and hardware, and built the chassis up. I got it moving under it's own power, then that was it. I wanted to go back into this and check my work, rather than pick up where I left off. Also, this allowed me to take pics as well...

So, here's what I am starting with...




How did they know I was going to be preparing the engine and electromotive 2 version?


Disassembly. You can see I already have installed the Hexscrews hardware kit.


Install blue bearings to support the output shafts.




Wheels need bearings as well.

[Timmy2Wheels]

Next up is the differential and gear housing thingy. This is a unit that Kyosho used from their FW04 gas car.


Divide, then conquer.


This already has the bearings and some grease in it. On a new DF, it will have bushings, and will be as dry as the sahara desert. Notice there are 4 bearings here, two on each side of the differential unit, and two on the shaft behind the smaller gear.


Differential unit. Remove these 4 screws to open...


I used this flavor of stuff.


Fill it to the top. You want that differential to be gummy, as it is very important so the DF doesn't make a turn every time it drives across a small bump...


Reassemble.

[Timmy2Wheels]

Here be a closeup of the diff unit. Bearing on this side...


...and on this side as well. This was already greased, as you can see.


Back together, and all gummy inside.


Again, remove the two bushings on this little guy, and install bearings.


Drop the diff back into the gearbox housing, and pop the little guy back into his home.


My favorite flavor of lube (for RC's anyways). It's safe to use in contact with plastic, and is so very sticky.


Don't be shy.


Now, reassemble, and pat yourself on back (remove greasy glove first).


Oh, and this housing needs the two bushings popped out of each end, and install bearings.


More to come. Thanks for looking...!

[Timmy2Wheels]

Next up is the disk brakes.

For those who don't know, this generation Blizzard uses a Skid-Steer style turning setup, using a disk brake on each side to slow or stop power to each track independently. Having a differential, one or both tracks will always have power applied to them.

Both tracks get power from a single 540 motor. Steering servo pulls on one disk brake, it slows or stops that track while the opposite track still has full power applied, turning the cat. Simple. Effective.

The stock brakes are a bit "grabby". The system consists of a metal disk, being squeezed my two metal pads. Metal on metal tends to not have much finesse. It tends to give the DF a bit of an "on/off" steering feel...


The brake disks sit in these hubs...


In the past, people have glued brake pad material from nitro/gas cars onto the inside of the metal pads, to help steering. A much easier and mo-betta solution is to get a set of these...


Remove the metal disks, and slide these whiz-bang fiber disks over the hubs...


And drop them back into place.


X2 (Pat self on back)

[Timmy2Wheels]

Now I used a little blue thread locker on the little set screw.


Now you slide the long shaft with the small chain sprocket on the end back thru fro the outside of the chassis, thru the disk brake hub, and into the differential/gearbox. Tighten down your set screw (with fresh blue thread-lock applied)...


Repeat for second side. These two shafts hold the (cleanly wiped just for you ScaleXtreme) differential housing in place.

[Timmy2Wheels]

Braking, continued.

Here is a picture of this DF previously, when I had electronics installed for testing. On the electric versions of the EV/DF-300, Kyosho has the steering servo top-side facing up. This routes the two long pull-bars which run form the steering servo, which is located at the back of the cat, all the way to the front of the cat where the brakes are located. As you can see, there is not much room on the top deck to lay out your electronics. Also, this would not work with a future modification I will be doing...


Here is a closeup of the brake upright (chrome tube with set screw on the top, and hole in the side) that the servo pull bar pulls on.


I don't know why Kyosho did this (I ask myself this question many times why working on these Blizzards), because on the nitro version of the DF, there is no room for the brake bars on the top of the deck, so they run them underneath, flipping the steering servo "upside down". Why not just do this on both models? Got me.

So, I purchased the nitro brake parts bag (X2) to convert the brake linkage to run under the top plate. This will free up much needed real estate up there, while using some of all that empty space down below.


Here is a comparison of the electric brake parts (long shaft) and the nitro brake parts (short shaft).


I should have done this before re-installing the output shafts, but I am a forgetful feller. Here is a picture of the electric brake parts from below.


...remove shaft and brake disk/hub.


Squeeze the metal pads together, and slide out the old "electric" upright shaft. Drop in your new-fangled "nitro" shaft, then reinstall your brake disks/hubs and output shafts.

[Timmy2Wheels]

Mo steering, mo problems.

Next up is mounting the servo, upside down, of course.

I got myself a real whiz-bang red 3" double servo horn. Not only does this look cool, it adds 10 horsepower I was told.


I went thru my parts pile, and found the oldest, weakest servo I could find. In this case, again, the weaker servo will give you much more steering "feel", and cut down on the "on/off" steering feel a high torque servo would create. I believe this servo came from my Blizzard DX, so it's about 28 years old. Mounted new double horn, looks like an expensive servo now.


Got myself another hip hop up. These little Hot Racing servo hold down clamp things are pretty effective, and I can avoid using washers to try and keep the servo held down tight.


New top view. Wide open.


And down below, I connected the brake arms, running from the servo horn to the disk brakes. Once the bottom plate is reinstalled, this will all be hidden from sight and out of harms way.


Hope you like it... more to come.

[Timmy2Wheels]

Next on the agenda is the motor mount and spur gear. Here is what you remove from the Blizzard.


You can see behind that c-clip, I already have installed the bearing...


Remove c-clip, and slide spur gear and shaft out. You would find a bushing here on this end...


...and on this end as well.

[Timmy2Wheels]

So, the main reason why I have been putting this build off for a while is this part in particular... I have been looking around for one of these dual motor plats for quite a while. Chris had made a small run of these a few years ago, and I knew I just would not be satisfied until I tracked one down for this build. I finally contacted Chris and he happened to have this last one stuck somewhere in some long lost box, at the back of the Rogue Element skunk-works. With my family connections in the black market body parts world, we struck a deal, and this was in my mailbox...


Dos. Uno.


Giddy as a school girl.


I wanted to find a metal spur to go along with the new plate, but no luck as of yet.

[Timmy2Wheels]

Here's the main concept.


Some cutting required.


Since I did not have the plate, I did not know that the top plate would have to be modified, so I removed it again...




And stripped it back down...

[Timmy2Wheels]

By adding dual motors, both motors will now sit much lower in the chassis plate than the single motor on top of the chassis plate. Therefor, you must essentially cut the hole much wider to accommodate this. You will loose the original mounting holes the the original single motor plate used. So, using my nice sharp pencil and square, I drew two parallel lines and marked the width where the wider mounting holes would be...


The planned body will require two new front mounting hole as well, so those were marked also.


Over here.


Brad point bit. Fingers crossed X4.




New front body mount holes.

[Timmy2Wheels]

Time to cut.

First I decided to cut just a small section to allow the plate to sit where it belongs first. Baby steps. Square and pencil, again.


Went to fetch my CNC, or wait, my Bosch jigsaw. It's okay, don't worry, it's variable speed...


Using a thin metal blade, and running very slow RPM's, I was able to cut right along the line.


Half-way there.


Both the way there. You can see that some material will have to be removed in front of the motor plate as well, to access the lower motor screws.

[Timmy2Wheels]

Some more pencil and square layout went down.


...and more. You can see the areas with the scribbly pencil marks, they will be removed.


Are we there yet?


Yes dear.


Used a file to make sure the edges were square and flat, as there were a few faint "waves" in my straight cuts.


Then some 220 sandpaper to remove the bur, and give it a smooth feeling edge. None of this is particularly necessary, but good work is good work, even if it is covered up later.


More air than plate. The bottom highlighted area is only bent by the lightbulb reflection. It looks like I took a hammer to it. Sorry for the bad picture.

[Timmy2Wheels]

It fits.


Begin reassembling. A few new scratches on the plate, even though I thought I was careful (it was late).


Now, the long servo brake arms were hitting the motor plate, since it runs the width of the chassis. The servo could not sit down flush with the chassis.


I called upon my M3 spacer collection...


Raising, or actually, lowering the servo.


Re-installed the Hot Racing servo clamps, but with longer screws this time.




Much better than cutting that beautiful motor plate.


Puurrrfect.


New lower servo.

[Timmy2Wheels]

Reassembled. Here's the overall look.






I quickly installed two silver-can 540's just to get a look. I cut the motor recess hole out longer than needed here, as I modeled it after 550 length motors.






As for the top plate: I would love to, someday, try and find a source to have a new top plate CNC'd for this. All my cuts are straight (some curves would be nice), and there are many holes in the DF-300 top plate that are not necessary. It's a bit ugly, and doesn't do the look of the dual motor setup any justice.

As for the big block to be installed: I am hoping that in about a week there will be a man with brown pants, and a brown shirt, driving a brown truck, that will have them in a brown box, for me.

Thanks for looking, hope you like it so far...

[Timmy2Wheels]

The UPS man delivered me a small box. I immediately set to work. I heated up the soldering iron, and made up these...



...and soldered them to these.



Then I mounted them up.



They look great, and mean business.



These Traxxas Titan "Monster" 550's are 21-turn brushed 550 motors. Although, they are rated to handle up to 4S/14.8 volts. These motors should throw down some serious torque and speed under 4S power. Just what I need...

[Timmy2Wheels]

Next up: Body. Not a snowcat body, but I like the 1953 Ford F-100. It's a handsome truck.



Disassembled.



First task is to remove that horrid sunroof. I think Tamiya would put a sunroof in a hot-air balloon if they could...



Styrene, knife, straight edge, glass.



Before.



Removed the ridge.



Where does this belong?



Nice and snug.



A little putty, and sanding. Like it was never there...

[Timmy2Wheels]

Next was to fill those body mount holes in the front fenders. I turned some little styrene circles on my lathe, and tapped them into place, then filled the small circles with more styrene.



Sanded smooth.



Next is that bed. It is rather shallow; I don't think I will be able to fit too much in there. Also, there is those bump-outs for the Tamiya roll-bar as well.



Dropped bed. Dropped. Dropped right out.



Sanded and evened out.



"Runaway Pancake" is not convinced, it seems...

[Timmy2Wheels]

Time to tackle that bed.

I purchased this Rogue Element drop bed kit for the (Original) Tamiya Blackfoot body a while back. I had no particular plans for it, but figured I would put it to use at some point. Here's what Chris packed up (there are some non-styrene parts not in the picture).



Styrene parts trimmed.



Bed bottom, bumpy.



Since this kit is not meant for the Midnight Pumpkin body, some alterations be necessary. The Blackfoot bed is slightly more narrow, and much longer.
So, let's bob. First the back is cut is sectioned...



Excess material removed.



Next is the front. Measure, cut.



Correct.



Welded back together. Bottom bobbed.

[Timmy2Wheels]

Now, the bed-sides. Bob required.



Cut rear section, x2.



Mo trimmed.



Welded back together.



Front sides.



Shorter.



All welded back together.



Back to where I started, in 2 dimensions. Still need to do some sanding and finessing.



Getting there. Thanks for luukin'...