Once you install it, all you have to do is hit a button and checks. It's a little ABC button on the upper right and corner of the reply box I believe.

Thanks everyone! That was pretty close to what I found using my scientific "by eye" method. :)

Glassdoctor; I know what you mean. I don't use the spell check and I find myself going back and editing my post just to correct a typo. Probably would be faster to just use the spell check, but I hate doing things the easy way. :)

I was hoping to stick with the high-end motors for efficiency (and added runtime). I might just have to move the center diff and get some new dogbones made to get the space I need for the motor. Poo.

You would be surprised by the Lehner Basics...

Well, I had originally thought they were good too, but when looking for a motor for my Jato, people were suggesting to go with a 1920. WHile I'm sure they are better than Wanderers, I imagine they aren't as good as the LMT or Neu motors. The buggy will probably be ~9lbs with batts when done. And again, ~11:1 total ratio. So, to get around 35 mph top speed, I'd need a 2000 kv motor. Won't the wind on that be kinda low and cause runtime to go down from the high currents?

Uh...Ya got me...If I were you, I would personally choose a Neu 1515, but for me, a Basic XXL would probably be the choice depending on price. I can't really spend $75 more on a motor that won't perform much better than the one thats cheaper. I originally bought a XL3100 and regret that to no end...I fried it..$150 bucks down the drain...If I had just gotten an XL I would probably still have it and would have came out $60 better...(rant over). Besides, I would probably have to use a cheaper ESC like one of the Warriors I have, so a Neu would be out of the picture and a LMT is just plain to expensive.

I really like the 1512 I have in my buggy. I'm sure a 1515 would run great but I don't know if you need it or if it's a good thing, esp if you want a lighter setup.

My car runs 8.0lbs fully rtr with the 4s 6000 packs. I've run it geared from rather slow 15:1 (10/46) all the way to 50mph-range 8.4:1 (18/46) in the street. On the track I've been running about 11:1 (14/46) which hits 30mph or so. My motor is the 1900kv. I think you can go up just a little in kv and still have a good range of gearing options. I would grab the 2000kv one if I did it over again. The 2600 is too high for me... for racing anyway.

Lower kv means lower currents... at the same voltage, and should be more efficient than the hotter winds. I don't know what happens when you gear the different winds for the same speed... that's the $64,000 question and I assume that's what you mean about the runtime going down.

I got rained out again from doing some playing around (errr... I mean testing ;) ) tonight... but I've been meaning to experiment with gearing some more. And get some video. Maybe tomorrow.

The 1512 motor is pretty nice. The 2.5d is 2000kv. I get about 45 mins on 6000 mah maxxamps lipo. The 1930 10t may be an option for you as well. It has good power to.

In another Hyper8 thread, I was asking about possibly using a plastic/Delrin spur and was informed that the Kyosho 46T plastic spur will fit (with possibly a little shimming). Well, I was looking at the assembly diagrams and noticed that the steel spur has a little "collar" on it that supports the diff bearing. The plastic spur does not have this, so how will this work? Do I just get a different bearing that has the same OD, but smaller ID so it fits snugly directly on the output yoke shaft?

I've attached an excerpt from the manual with an arrow pointing to what I'm talking about.

The Kyosho plastic spur does have the collar for the bearing....

Yep, no problems there.

If shimming was needed were would you shim it at?

Thanks GD and MM.

Cartwheels: If there is a difference in thickness of the gear, the mesh inside the diff cup may need shims to set it right. As to "how", I'd imagine you just add them on the shaft wherever needed...

Yeah, like Brian said. The way I do it (not saying it's the right way) is to put a buch of shims in the diff so it binds, and then remove shims until the binding is gone.

I'm trying to figure out where/how I am going to fit two packs of 2s 8Ah Lipos on the chassis without any part of the battery touching/laying on the dirt guards, while not hitting the center diff or servo.

So, I thought I'd get/make a spacer bar that would make the battery trays sit high enough to clear the dirt guard "nibs". I figure a bar that's 9mm high X ~100mm long X 20mm wide should provide enough support for the battery tray. Now I'm looking for the right material to use for the bar. If metal, I'd have to tap some threads (umm, rather not). If plastic (preferred), I'd have to pick a type that will hold threads, so it would have to be on the soft side. What type of plastic should I use? At http://www.mcmaster.com, I have ABS, Garolite, and Nylon to choose from for the size I need.

Below is a rough picture of the spacer idea, which is shown from the rear end looking forwards. Basically, you are looking at the end of the lipo pack.

I would go for ABS.

Is ABS the type of plastic used by Traxxas and other brands? Those types of plastics hold threads pretty well. Or, whatever RPM uses for their plastics...

If I can't find a plastic that I think will work well, I may just use aluminum. Like I said, I'd have to tap threads though and I've never done that. I heard 7075 is difficult to tap, but what about 6061? Any recommended tapping tools, or will any suffice?

Either way, I'll probably use standard 3mm countersunk screws.

This project is gonna be costly. It doesn't have to be I guess, but I'd like it to look like it was designed to be a BL truck from the maker. One thing I have to do is talk to Mike about making a combo motor/center diff mount to replace the stock diff mount. The battery trays will be ~1/16" aluminum plate that I want to have cut and bent to order. I may also incorporate slots in the batt trays so I can adjust the total length to suit the exact lipo packs I end up getting. I'll probably get a 1515 Neu motor - after careful measuring, I think it will fir. By the time the rest of the buggy is done, maybe Castle will have released their Monster Max ESC. The more I think about this, the more I can hear my credit card whining!

Brain, 6061 aluminum would be a good choice. It shouldn't be to bad to drill and tap. Sears should have a good set of taps you can get . RPM uses a type of nylon I believe. Pretty sure its not ABS.

Cool. I might stop by Sears tomorrow to see what they have. I've checked Lowe's and the like and I can't seem to find a decent set for smaller scale stuff. My LHS had part of a set - had the actual tap but no handle. :rolleyes:

Something for you to think about, you could go with a rectangular tube instead of a solid block to reduce weight. Something like this might work:
http://www.industrialmetalsales.com/1972.html
It's 12.75mm tall instead of 9mm, and 25.4mm wide instead of 20mm. I think 6063 is just a more corrosion-resistant version of 6061, and it should definitely be strong enough (the walls are 1/8" [3.17mm] thick).

Unfortunately, ~13mm is a bit too tall. The batteries have to be mounted at an angle so they fit lengthwise, but then that brings them close to the edge of the body where there isn't much room height-wise. So, I have to keep the tray as close to (but not touch) the dirt guards so save as much height for the batteries as possible.

That's a good idea though - I'll have to keep that in mind if I see something that is small enough to work. I was planning on drilling some ~10mm holes in the bar to help cut down on the weight, but you have the right idea. How would I secure the bar to the chassis and batt tray - locknuts? As you can see in my crude drawing, I'm using the thickess for the "meat" for the threads.

If only the actual chassis was wider with smaller dirt guards! I know it's for weight considerations, but still aggravating!

I don't know if you are familiar with my PRP Swift buggy, but I too ran into a similar dilemma. I couldn't mount the batteries on the mud guards, and I didn't feel like raising the batteries. My solution was to get smaller batteries - they're about 35mm wide x 105mm long, and 40mm tall. They fit on the chassis behind the center diff, with the motor on the front-left floor of the chassis. Would this type of setup be feasible for your, or would you rather use the standard 6cell NiMh size batteries?

Actually, I was shooting for two 2s2p 8Ah Maxamps Lipos. Nothing else will give me the runtime I want, with the size and weight I need. Plus, a continuous discharge of 120A will ensure the voltage won't drop much at all when I anticipate peaks of about 100A. which will be better for the batteries and I can squeeze more of that 8Ah out on each cycle.

According to the site, each 2s2p pack is 44mm X 137mm X 26mm. I figure if I make the trays adjustable from 130mm up to 150mm long, it should allow me to use pretty much anything within reason. I also plan on making the tray 50mm wide to again allow room for future packs and/or a little extra side padding. 26mm high is just right so it won't touch the body - even with the raised platform.

I also thought about moving the diff forwards more, but that would mean cutting a new groove in the chassis for the bottom of the spur, moving the steering servo, modding or getting new bones, etc. I'd rather keep it looking nice without too many extra holes and such.

I made little 150mm X 50mm cardboard cutouts (to simulate the packs) for test fitting. It's tight, but I think it will work.

Do you have any pics to post of the car/layout etc?

I'm having the same battery fitment issues on the 8ight project... as I expected. ;) I have some options that will work, just can't decide...

I will snap some pics after work tonight.

I remember seeing yours - that 8ight is MUCH narrower! I can fit the cells I want; but the rear corner of the pack will stick out of the body/chassis a tad. No matter what, a battery platform will be required since I refuse to mount anything to the dirt guards. I suppose the batts could be mounted on edge, but that would raise the cog and the motor will be bad eough since I plan to mount it over the diff.

very cool, I really want to see....

Not really much to see since it's basically en empty chassis.

The two attached pictures are the two battery placements I was looking at. I figured on worst-case battery size of 150mm X 50mm. The battery tray will be a smidge bigger (~4mm width and height). Either layout leaves a little bit of the pack off the edge (red circle) although the angled one is not quite as bad. The straight layout looks better though.

The only option i see is to move the steering servo to the other side and use the bell-crank on the opposite side

Yeah, I was looking at that option, but as you can see, the shaft really isn't that far off center. I'd only gain a couple of mm's. I'll probably just make the battery holders and see how they look.

this is what i did to work around that problem.

Hmmm. Something to think about...

OK, I came up with the battery trays. I just have to either find a metal shop with a nice cutter and bender or do everything with a dremel and vice (ugg). So now I'm looking for batteries. The buggy as seen in the pictures above currently weighs 5.28 lbs. I plan on using a Neu motor with a kv ~2000 on 4s Lipo, total gear ratio of 11.1:1. I was looking at the Maxamps 7.4v 8Ah packs, but am not sure if those will be big enough to get at least 30 minutes of racing runtime.

As a comparison, my BL Revo gets 14 minutes of track runtime using 14xGp3300 cells. The Revo weighs 10.78 lbs loaded with batts. That's an average current draw of 14.14amps. If I were to use 8Ah packs, the runtime should be around 34 minutes.

I'm thinking the buggy will (hopefully) be lighter and therefore require less power to accelerate/run, but I thought I'd ask the experts here. :)

With my 5s lipo 8Ah on my 11lbs gmaxx, i'm getting 30-34min of runtime. Does that help?

Well, for as far as i can tell; a buggy is relative heavy. (at least daniels mbx5, Nieles his ofna mbx and my my MBX4)

Yes, it does. Although, you're probably using a lower kv motor on that 5s, so average current draw will be less than my Revo. It looks like I'll be right at the edge of 30 minutes.

How heavy? I figure the batts, motor, various mounts, ESC, and receiver can't be more than 4 lbs. I suppose it feels heavy for such a small vehicle compared to a MT...

Update:

Well, I finished the battery trays and think they look OK. They are specifically sized for the Maxamps 2s2p 8Ah lipos (~140mm X ~50mm). All I have to do now is wait for the plastic I ordered to arrive so I can make the tray standoffs (since some you may know I had "trouble" tapping some Al stock).

Speaking of trays; I made one, then deciding it was too much work, sought out a metal fab company. I gave them explicit dimensions and even the tray I already made as a sample. Well, I picked their product up and was extremely dissatisfied. Below is a pic showing my finished product alongside their crap. The cuts are uneven, the tabs are not the size I wanted, there are bend stress tears at the corners of the tabs, and the tabs themselves are uneven. I attempted to fix one and rounded off the edges, but gave up and just made another one. How can a metal fabrication shop with all the right tools make such a shoddy product when I can use a hacksaw, dremel tool, files, and a vice to do a MUCH better job?? Or am I just being too anal?

http://scriptasylum.com/forumpics/crap_batt_trays.jpg

Anyone want the unfinished ones? Just pay shipping and they're yours...

From the Neu motor dimensions thread, I'm running into motor placement problems because of the room I have available. Well, I made a BL motor mockup with the EXACT dimensions of a finned Neu 1515 motor along with a 14T pinion to test fit. Yes, that's a toilet paper tube and the stock 14T clutchbell. The screw things are just spacers. The only way for the Neu to fit is to raise the diff about 4mm. Even then it's close:

http://scriptasylum.com/forumpics/motor_placement.jpg

Your certainly not being anal about it...Serum, he is anal about things...but I don't think you are being anal about it...I can clearly see the uneven cuts and such...Looks like a 11 year old made them with a Swiss Army knife...

OK, just wanted to get someone else's perspective. I tried to clean up the one on the left by filing down some of the jaggedness and to make the sides straight, but just became more disgusted and gave up.

The one on the left? Or the one on the bottom? The one on the bottom seems to be the one with crooked sides and jagged edges....