Adventures with Portals
 

Flush with a little Christmas cash, I did a little shopping. About 2 weeks later, a big pile of CR01 parts showed up. I have a strange addiction to this platform, I'm not sure why. Anyway, some are parts I need to finish CR01 #3, but since I recently blew up the rear axle in the crawler bug, I thought it was a good time to upgrade that one as well. I've always wanted to mess with the 3Racing portals, and since I was burning up the debt card, why not! Let's rock!

Pile o'goodies
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps967e598c.jpg

First thing I did was tear into the portals and replace the bushings with bearings. 2 4x7 and 2 5x8 per. Fairly impressed with the machine and finishing work - it was well finished, all the bearings fit snug and it was all properly shimmed. Have had pretty good luck with 3Racing stuff.
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps1046fca8.jpg

Not sure about these gears....those upper gears look a little small. All steel though.....time will tell. Have the feeling I'll be retrofitting pinions in here eventually.
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...pse9bbfe99.jpg

While I had the axles apart, fresh ring/pinion gears were installed, and Tamiya's HD locker sets were installed. Typical Tamiya, everything first like a glove. A bit odd how it all goes together, but Tamiya always does things their own way. It's solid though, no complaints. Been running these in my Jeep for years and they've stayed nice and tight.
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps927a1a07.jpg
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...pscc0e97ee.jpg

Rear axle is done, and compared to the stocker it's only about 15mm wider - not bad at all. Compared to stock, and an AR60 for reference.
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps7b62da58.jpg
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...psf0791c51.jpg
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...psccfdfcb7.jpg

Picked up a few of these KM Racing parts as well - Have no idea who makes these, but they are very nice and super beefy. (I got standard knuckles too in case the portals don't work out) One thing I don't care for with the stock parts is the kingpins don't ride on any bushings or anything, and tends to get a bit sloppy after time. Good thing about these C hubs is there is so much beef, I could drill it out and put 5x8 bearings on the steering posts. No slop at all, and super smooth steering!
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...psb5d2f580.jpg
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps8f88c517.jpg

When mixing and matching parts, there's bound to be some issues. Whoops. Not a lot of steering angle...did some filing to get it back to maximum....which isn't much in the first place.
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps5d1e7290.jpg

Both axles done and ready to get mounted back on! No beef tubes needed here, these axles are heavy!
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps50974463.jpg

Re: Adventures with Portals
 

Good to see this. Will be good to see it all up together.

The KM Racing parts are good value aren't they.

Re: Adventures with Portals
 

Good value and look great too. Super beefy. Very happy with them.

Re: Adventures with Portals
 

super beef, love it

Re: Adventures with Portals
 

Mounted up....shocks are tucked up as high as they can go, might mess around with the lower mounts to drop the chassis back down a bit - back to about where it was sitting before I mounted up the portals. Was very happy with how it handled before. Did gain a little width, but I can live with it. Just flipped the motor wires and went up 4 teeth on the pinion gear to keep the overall ratio the same. Bring on the warm weather!!

http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps3f0c27b4.jpg
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps02de4e3e.jpg
http://i472.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps10368764.jpg

Re: Adventures with Portals
 

That's definitely worth the clearance you gained under the axles! So how does it drive? Any issues with durability while crawling?

Re: Adventures with Portals
 

No idea, everything is still under a foot of snow. :)

Re: Adventures with Portals
 

LOL, not where I'm from!