I just realized how far I have to catch up. :shock: I take a lot of photos. Going forward the build may not be as in depth, but I'll do my best.
Let's grease up the ring and pinion gears and throw them into the axle housing. It fit very well. Little to no slop. There's definitely no need to shim IMO.
Now let's install the bright red pumpkin cover. Did they copy the SCX10 II here? We'll never know. Maybe I'll eventually change to a different color cover, but at this point I'm fine with it. Plus, per my agreement with OSRC this truck is getting built mostly stock so the red stays for now! This is the first area where I experienced some softer plastic. All of the other parts so far are solid. When screwing into them you got a hard stop when the screw is tight. Some brands have plastics where you can't tell if the screw is tight or if it's going to strip. Think assembling Axial kits. This kit is the total opposite. It's closer to something like the Team Associated B5M that I built where you know when a screw is tight. With that being said, this red cover seems to be a slightly different formula of plastics and it's more difficult to tell when the screw is tight.
Ensure you put the pin in the correct hole on the output shaft/axle and that the gear is installed from the correct side and then lather some grease on the portal gears. Simple and efficient design.
And here you have both portals assembled. Somebody else mentioned that they noticed the portals getting tighter when they overtightened the screws. I did not notice this. It seems I could have the screws as tight as I wanted or loose and they were always free spinning. The included grease adds a considerable amount of drag so don't overuse it!
I'm not sure if this is unique to Traxxas, but even the drive hex is well thought out. Axial has the step on the outside (buy why?!) whereas Traxxas has it on the inside to help keep the axles centered in the portal housing.
After all this rambling we have an assembled transmission and rear axle.
Now it's time to move onto the front axle. What's up first? Oh no...my enemy named Mr. C-Clip!
This one was much friendlier than the neighbor on the rear axle. This C-Clip popped on with little trouble. That's what I'm talking about! "thumbsup"
The front axle housing is different, obviously. With the C-hubs installed it looks like a 4-legged spider. But don't smash it because you would have to buy a new axle and be faced with the same conundrum the next time around. As long as you're not tripping you should realize it's not really a furry arachnid!
This is really the only step where I really thought newbies could have been confused. There are three different bearing sizes used in the front portals and two are very similar in size. I'm not sure why Traxxas didn't just use just 6x12mm or just 6x13mm bearings. Seems like a dumb decision to me, but it is what it is. Be careful and you'll be fine.
I will admit I had a noob moment here and tried to install the incorrect bearing size in one of the holes. It may have been on the input of the axle housing itself. But I quickly realized that OJ was going to walk because the bearing did not fit so I must acquit. I did not quit. I realized my mistake. So be careful and you should be fine.
Somewhere in the manual, I believe in an earlier step, Traxxas tells you to press hard to fit bearings. Good advice as most RC veterans know. The bearings all seated nicely and firmly. I did have one occasion where the bearing didn't seem to give a positive indication that it was seated. That was somewhere in the transmission case. Just use a good tool to seat the bearings. Depending on the size I use different tools, but in this case I used a cross wrench.
The step for the universals does not mention lube. I almost ran them dry, per the manual, but I just couldn't.
I spritzed some Ballistol on my universals.
The barrel inside the universal looks tiny to me. I haven't heard any reports of them failing though.
Universals assembled and lubed.
And now installed in the portals.
A lot of RC companies use steel or brass eyelets on the steering knuckles. Traxxas chose to use a flangeless bushing design. I actually prefer the flanged design for easy of assembly and for keeping them in place. I wouldn't say it's a big deal if any at all. And the Traxxas parts fit nicely so the bushings won't move around too much. I will say there is more play between the hubs and knuckles than probably anywhere else in the truck. It's not a ton of slop at all, but a nitpicky person may want to tighten it up with a shim.
And here's the front axle assembled. The transmission, rear axle, and front axle were so easy and fun to build. "thumbsup"
