Yeah, I planned on going with gorilla tape for taping my tires now after I got to use some of my fathers. That stuff was freaking sticky.

Part 2: Shock and Diff upgrades


Until payday theres not much I can do as far as fancy stuff, but there were a few little things I could take care of while I wait for more fun funds! I decided to go ahead and tear apart the diff and see if it needed any attention as well as upgrade the shocks.



I went ahead and took out the stock drive gear and put in the HD version to avoid the mess of having the stock gear slowly be filed away which leaves a helluva mess.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...e2/compare.jpg



I also noticed that the lower tranny shaft had a fair amount of play in it. I had a few small shims that fit right on the shaft and reduced it quit a bit. I'm also thinking of taking out all the stock gearing and putting in the machined lighter HPI gears instead since I already have the diff apart. More parts to the shopping list!

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...byte2/shim.jpg



Done with what I could with the drivetrain, it was time to move onto the shocks. Seeings how i'm gonna be doing a fair amount of jumping and bashing around, I wanted to reduce the bottoming out. I decided up the stock pink springs to white and change the stock 30w oil to 40weight. The white shocks are a nice set up without being too stiff.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...shocksocks.jpg



Because ABSOLUTELY HATE shock maintenance and repairs, i've been installing shock socks since day one on all my cars to help prolong shock seal life and keep dirt out of the oil. Once again, Bad Horsie had just what I needed for the right price. I decided on silver instead of my usual blue this time. For $9 shipped, these suckers are hard to beat. The only bad thing with them is they can be a royal PITA to get onto the springs as its a matter of patience and gentle moving and sliding them on without hooking or tearing them

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...e2/covered.jpg



30w oil isn't bad, but I wanted something a bit thicker to help reduce the bottoming out on large jumps, so its gotta go

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...yte2/empty.jpg



After owning a baja 5T and dealing with its HUGE shocks and messes, going back to small shocks like these are a breeze in comparison!

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...tbyte2/dry.jpg



Putting in some nice, blood red 40weight Team Losi shock oil. I'd put in HPI but my LHS only carries this brand, so whatever....

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...2/redblood.jpg




Team Associated's Green slime is great stuff. It helps lubricate shock seals and shafts, reduces wear and prevents oil leaks. What more could you want? I highly recommend it on any and every shock.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...te2/greeny.jpg



With that said, its just a simple matter of sliding everything back onto the shocks and were done here!

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...shocksdone.jpg

Next on the agenda was to take apart the bulletproof diffs, clean out the light, stock oil and put in some fresh 50k to help reduce wheel unloading and keep the power to the ground. Unfortunantely, I ran into a problem with the first diff. One of the screw heads immediately broke off when I tried to unscrew it. Crap...... the rest of them were loctited so hard I had to use all my strength to both push in the screwdriver and twist at the same time to get them removed. Whata pain, someone in China put on WAAAY to much loctite at the HPI factory, Grr.......

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...yte2/snap1.jpg


Luckily, the other diff wasn't as bad and I managed to take it apart with no issue. But again, my luck wasn't with me today as both diffs bevel seals completely ripped apart when I remove the bevel gears making them unusable. Luckily the seals arn't very expensive but I am left with one diff case with a broken screw inside it. I've sent HPI an email to see if they can help me out with this. Worst case, i'll just have to go buy another one at the LHS.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...yte2/snap2.jpg



With that, there was nothing more I could do until I get my lovely paycheck and order some more parts and wait and see if HPI can help me out. Stay tuned for Part 3!

Hey chill guys. I like the thread so faar:) keep on going:). It´s intresting for me who is a newbi on the savy platform since I will try to get one soon and it is more "learning" to see someone dealing with "factory" parts instead of 90% custom made parts.. So keep on going man:)

You can call me a NOOB to because I had exactly the same issue taking mine apart and ended up using a dremel...

And you guys acted like it was my fault when I had that happen on mine last year......:na:
If your going to rebuild factory HPI diffs, you better have at least one new cup available....

No idea why HPI likes to mix hex and phillip headed screws in kits. Go all hex, damnit (and Losi/Horizon, just go metric, ok?!).

I didn't ever break one, but I knew you had to be very careful anytime there are phillips head screws into alu. I was worried I was going to strip the head tho. I always put mine in a vice and put a lot of weight down on it and try not to wrench it too hard. Have to be sure to have the right bit also.

The CEN diffs I got were actually worse. I think they used red locktite on some of their screws for a while. I'd take a soldering iron to those first (you can do this w/ the HPIs also.) Even at that, it still a war of whether I was going to break my tool or the screw loose first, as you can only get the screw so hot. Basically I held a constant and strong TQ on the head and just waited for the thread to break loose. Try to force too much and the head would strip. Some of my hex tools are permanantly twisted from those suckers.
They like to mix heads between + and hex on the diffs too. Craptastico.

That's a pity ... I was curious to see how FBII would look like ... and learn from your findings.

Naah come on man, keep on going! I really liked this thread.

???? Wha? Where?

Ditto that.....

I think he meant elsewhere... this was essentially posted at here, RCU, Savage-Central, RC-Tech and maybe some others. Things definetly took a turn south over at S-C.

It was here too - I've had to delete A LOT of posts and actually recreate this thread once already!

Dear Mr. Freeze,

It is ultimately your decision, what you do with what is yours. You can choose to share or not. That's up to you.

Obviously, I don't know what was said on every forum you posted your project to. But IMO, that was a mistake. By posting to so many forums, you get trollers and lurkers following you around, from forum to forum, saying things to get under your skin.

Speaking for myself, I was excited for you, when I seen the original Freezebyte make the magazines. I hope this build does also.

I've been following this thread since you created it, and was excited to see this project to completion.

RC-Monster is a collection of some great people, and some great minds. IMO, HERE could be the only place where you find a decent maturity level.

We have some great mods that look after things. But, the first thing you should do, is IGNORE the negative comments and the people who are jealous of your original build that made the magazines.

Word of Advice:

Greatness was never achieved without facing both negative and constructive criticism.