Jato Assembles a TRX-4 Sport Unassembled Kit

[B-MOW71]

Cool! Would love to see a build-off between two great builders and IMO the best truck on the market now.

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[RCTom]

Originally Posted by B-MOW71

Cool! Would love to see a build-off between two great builders and IMO the best truck on the market now.

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X2. It'll be great to see what works for you guys and what doesn't so I can steel, er I mean borrow, some ideas for my Sport build.

[mewalsh100]

Looking forward to seeing where you take this thing Jato. I'd hit "LIKE" but......................................

[Browneye]

Did you decide on axle weights yet?
I need to order a few things...

[JatoTheRipper]

At work I'm either swamped or have a lot of free time. I've been swamped lately helping sales quote a 400+ part job and now I'm stuck working with my boss to do the engineering on that same job. Ugh! So, needless to say, I haven't had much free time to post up build photos. So, without further ado, let's GIT 'R DONE!

A little bit of a warning. I'm typing this at midnight and I've already found numerous mistakes that I had to correct. It's been a long day and I'm tired so you may have to forgive some typos. I know it's tough. I'm a grammar nazi of sorts myself. Too, to and two are different words. You know that, write? Err right?

Step 1 and I can already tell this is going to be a great manual that would be awesome for a newbie. It's oversimplified for somebody with mechanical inclination and a history of building RCs, but that's fine. I'd rather have too many pages instead of not enough. The page on the left shows different types of screws and how lengths of the different types are measured. Nice touch! The right page shows Step 1 and Step 2. Notice Step 1 is just installing bearings. Very simple!




OK let's open up the "Transmission Bag". Inside you find, well, more bags. Those bags are, thankfully, filled with parts instead of more bags. Everything is so nicely separated and packaged. For the most part Traxxas keeps the bearing sizes and screws the same size for each step. If they do differ they are noticeably different so it would make it harder for a newbie to use the wrong screw.




The manual has other newbie friendly features throughout. I thought this one was particularly interesting. It clearly shows you which hole to use and which one not to use in the shaft.




I was kinda surprised that the pin much shorter than the slot in the gear. The pin could move side to side, but the diameter was pretty close to the size of the slot so it was still a pretty nice fit.




I was going to use Vanquish grease for the build, but first I checked to see what type of grease Traxxas included. It's a tacky green grease. Going from memory alone, and my loyal fans will know how poorly my memory works, this grease seems to be very similar to what Axial included in the SCX10 II kit. I was a big fan of it so I'm going to use the Traxxas grease for this build

This is about how I coated my gears. I've always wondered how others do it. Do you use more or less tacky grease?




These Teflon washers were included for the transmission. I've never seen this in a scaler kit. Usually gears just rub on the bearing or plastic or whatever they're touching. Very nice touch, Traxxas!




And here we have a Bruce Jenner err tranny minus the spur gear and useless clutch AKA slipper clutch. As most TRX-4 owners already know, this is a pretty compact transmission as far as 2-speed capable trannies go. The included version here is single speed, of course. I'm guessing I'm not going to miss the 2-speed, but that's TBD.

[JatoTheRipper]

While building the transmission you run into your first Axial-ism. Traxxas wants you to seal the hole in the transmission with a rubber plug. The rubber plug does into a rubber grommet. As you probably know, dry rubber on dry rubber doesn't want to slide. I didn't want to use lube because that would have caused the plug to slip right out most likely when the truck was submerged in the nastiest mud and water. I also thought about a drop of water, but I ran it by OSRC. He said "Windex". I should have remembered that since I know he uses it to mount tars on wheels.

A drop of Windex and the plug went in like it was being pulled by gravitational forces.




The transmission pieces went together nicely. That was a reoccurring theme throughout this build. There was no need to trim or modify parts. It was molded correctly and the parts fit like a glove!

Now onto the "Spool Bag". My girlfriend was making dinner (spaghetti if you're curious) while I started building the kit. When I pulled out this bag I said "Yay Spool Bag!" She, with her sweetness said, "Spool Bag for a Tool Bag!" Well played.




The spools are one-piece parts. They seem to be machined castings, but they are very nice. And they fit the ring gears with little to no slop.




Here's another example of a bag being filled with screws that were only one size. This step only required one size screws which is excellent. I know, personally, I've realized I've used the wrong length screw on steps in other builds so I had to take the previous step apart to get the correct length screw for another step. Traxxas even includes the dry thread lock pre-applied here. Sweet!




And the Tool Bag completed the Spool Bag. The teeth on the ring gear are very narrow. I don't remember ever seeing gears that narrow, but I could be wrong. Even the SCX10 II ring gears have wider teeth if I remember correctly.

Notice the manual to the right of the spool assemblies. It shows how to tighten the screws in a cross pattern. Again, awesome touch for newbies! It's the small things...




OK here comes the second Axial-ism. They want you to plug the hole in the rear axle with this little, plastic plug held in by an e-clip.

I typically don't have too many problems with e-clips. My adoring fan(s) may also remember my patience is as short as my memory. This little e-clip got my blood simmering, but I kept it together before I boiled and went WOOOOOOOOOOOO like a tea kettle.

It surely tested my patience though. I probably struggled with it for about 10 minutes.




Success...is the only mother****ing option!

[high plains drifter]

How mad are you gonna be when you look at the underside of the rig after the first time out and find that e-clip is gone?

Awesome step by step details, Jato! Following along... can't wait to see it's maiden voyage! Many likes!

[soze]

Awesome start Jato! I finally found 1 hour to have time to do my own thing today. I was able to use that 1 hour to complete the Transmission Assembly (with video + pictures in between). Your pictures are way better than mine though LOL.

I packed a little more grease than you did, but I checked to see if it was overly dragging, and it wasn't. The most important thing I found out is to not over-tighten the housing. Over-tightening it puts some binding on the transmission.

I f'ing hate e-clips.

[kincer]

Great write up Jato, now I know what to look forward to and actually look forward to it and not dread it. Can't wait for mine!

[B-MOW71]

I “Like” your build so far.

I have to say, when I built my kit (the first kit) I was really impressed with how well laid out the manual was. Nice color pics and easy to understand. They even added a nice touch to it by adding the scale ruler at the bottom of each page.

Great start and looking forward to more!


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[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by high plains drifter

How mad are you gonna be when you look at the underside of the rig after the first time out and find that e-clip is gone?

Awesome step by step details, Jato! Following along... can't wait to see it's maiden voyage! Many likes!

I was thinking the same thing!

Thank you!

Originally Posted by soze

Awesome start Jato! I finally found 1 hour to have time to do my own thing today. I was able to use that 1 hour to complete the Transmission Assembly (with video + pictures in between). Your pictures are way better than mine though LOL.

I packed a little more grease than you did, but I checked to see if it was overly dragging, and it wasn't. The most important thing I found out is to not over-tighten the housing. Over-tightening it puts some binding on the transmission.

I f'ing hate e-clips.

Thanks! I don't have the best lighting, but I bought an overpriced iPhone just so I'd have good RC photos so I hope they don't suck!

It's odd you say that. I didn't notice it being possible to overtighten the transmission or portals! The screws had a hard stop when getting tight and I didn't feel more drag than if they were looser. Now you have me worried.

Originally Posted by kincer

Great write up Jato, now I know what to look forward to and actually look forward to it and not dread it. Can't wait for mine!

Thank you! Building this kit has been a real treat up to this point!

Originally Posted by B-MOW71

I “Like” your build so far.

I have to say, when I built my kit (the first kit) I was really impressed with how well laid out the manual was. Nice color pics and easy to understand. They even added a nice touch to it by adding the scale ruler at the bottom of each page.

Great start and looking forward to more!

Thank you! Good to hear. I don't think you could have chosen a better kit as your first.

[mass-hole]

I didnt have a problem with the e-clip itself, but the plastic plug wouldnt come through far enough on either of my axles to allow me to get the e-clip on without pushing with my hex driver really hard. I got kinda nervous.

[kincer]

Hey Jato I read your comment about low light, I use a headlight sometimes when working on my rigs and sometimes when I need a little extra light for a pic here's a link to the one I use but there are several out there.

https://www.northernsafety.com/Produ...hoCNBQQAvD_BwE

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by mass-hole

I didnt have a problem with the e-clip itself, but the plastic plug wouldnt come through far enough on either of my axles to allow me to get the e-clip on without pushing with my hex driver really hard. I got kinda nervous.

Odd. Mine went through the axle no problem.

Originally Posted by kincer

Hey Jato I read your comment about low light, I use a headlight sometimes when working on my rigs and sometimes when I need a little extra light for a pic here's a link to the one I use but there are several out there.

https://www.northernsafety.com/Produ...hoCNBQQAvD_BwE

Thank you. I do use a headlamp now. Mine is a Skilhunt H03 RC. It doesn't always make for the best lighting for photos, but I really like it for working!

[OSRC]

Originally Posted by mass-hole

I didnt have a problem with the e-clip itself, but the plastic plug wouldnt come through far enough on either of my axles to allow me to get the e-clip on without pushing with my hex driver really hard. I got kinda nervous.

It's a a slightly oblong shape IIRC, it only goes in 1 way. if it wasn't going though, it was probably oriented the wrong way.

[kincer]

Quick question, what's in the kit for body mounts? Just the standard for the Sport body?

[mass-hole]

Originally Posted by OSRC

It's a a slightly oblong shape IIRC, it only goes in 1 way. if it wasn't going though, it was probably oriented the wrong way.

I def had them the right way. They would just poke out of the hole but not enough to expose the slot for the clip unless i pushed.

[rattmobbins]

Pretty impressed with how detailed the instructions are. Well done Traxxas. Might have to pick one of these to build for my 4th TRX4. Nope, I don't have a problem at all. LOL!

[Thloftus]

Looks great so far, Jato! Reading along with this one too!


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[JDM74]

The instructions look top notch. I'm impressed.