Big update. Parts came on Friday and Saturday. We got more work done.
The servo wires exit from the front. I opened the case to see if the innards could be reversed and the wires come out of the back. Nope. So I had to route the wires under the servo. When I first tried it out the servo rocked back and forth so I shimmed it and snugged it down and that worked well.
Roller!
Of course I couldn't wait to get it down to the park. Body panels? Yeah, later...
But it wasn't all fun and games. I learned about wheels falling off. I learned that the wheel nuts let go, and the grub screws that are supposed to keep the hubs on don't. I learned this by A: losing a wheel nut in the rocks and sand and walking around hunched over trying to find it. and B: finding it, putting it on, and then having the wheel fall off after a high speed takeoff on pavement because the wheel nut and the grub screw inside the axle let go. Finding those things on pavement was fun. NOT. Found out I'm glad the car comes with a spare.
Found out I will need to live with battle scars.
Painting the cage may have been a bad idea. Whatever. My son thinks it looks cool.
So we took the YXL back home and I took all the grub screws out of all the axles and reapplied loctite. They were all loose. And another wheel nut was almost off. Something tells me they let go because the metal parts come packed with a light film of oil on them and this prevents rust and also keeps sticky stuff from staying sticky. I didn't think about it until after I redid them. So I'll be taking them out again and swabbing them with alcohol or using some brake parts cleaner first.
Then I started thinking that we might be able to keep things contained by using a screw with a washer, threaded into the axle center after the grub screw is put in. if done right, maybe the washer would also help retain wheel nuts that are trying to spin off. If I had a drill press, I'd drill a hole in the hubs and axles for safety wire.
Some more thoughts... This thing wheelies on 4s. I can not fathom 6S. It chewed through the stock plastic servo horn. Glad I had the aluminum upgrade on hand. The Futaba radio system had the steering backwards so I had to flip that in the radio. Then the car would go faster in reverse than forward. So I figured out the radio had throttle backwards and the car had the motor wired backwards. I flipped the radio throttle direction and swapped two wires on the motor and all was right with that.
I'd wanted to tape the insides of the tires to stiffen them and prevent ballooning. I didn't because I found the insides were ribbed for her pleasure. Not mine. Figured tape might not work. So I left it. The tires balloon like crazy when they get to spinning. Thankfully, ProLine tire glue works really well. Didn't lose a bead yet. I'd seated the tires on the rims and just ran a little glue in between the rim and bead and let them sit overnight, no bands or anything. If I tug hard I'm sure they'll come off, but I'm not gonna try.
I ordered a couple of castle quick link connectors to leave in the cars so I can use the programming card with ease. I'd set it up to have punch control in the middle, brake drag at 20% or so. Seems good enough for now. Still wheelies.
As for the father/son aspect of the build, my son hasn't shown much interest in the build. He gets bored watching me, and frustrated when I'm watching him. I explained that the first car would have a learning curve, and we'd do things wrong. Which we have. And waiting for parts wrecked our flow. I also told him the first car is mine. Not for selfish reasons, I didn't want his being the car we learned on in case of screwups. Figured I'd deal with issues on mine we could avoid with his. Like the battle scars. Though he thinks it's cool looking. He's now taking interest in getting started on "his" YXL. I hope to let him do much more stuff now that we kinda know how they go together, that's if he wants to. Still have to decide on a pain scheme for mine, something that'll go with the battle scars. I think we've named them. Beast 1 and Beast 2, like Dr. Seuss's Thing 1 and Thing 2.
He got to drive the YXL and took to it pretty easily. He's got more restraint than me. I do bad things with powerful vehicles. He takes it easy. Who's the dad and who's the kid, huh?
