I plan on sealing my motor the sme way, but there is some stock on dirt in the holes, and I don't think blowing them intot the motor witha compressor is such a good I dea. How should i clean it?

Remove the end cap and clean it.

Any updates Freeze?

Not till next week im afraid, i'm still waiting for FLM to make my parts :whip:

On a good note though, my "missing" Lipos from HK FINALLY arrived. Damn near 3 weeks to the day, i'll never do international air again.

I was putting my flux back together last night, and one thing that has always bugged me about it was the amount of dirt that was able to get up inside the diff through that hole in the bottom. So I'm experimenting by putting a layer of heavy duty grease around the opening - both on the diff casing and the skip plate. We'll see if it keeps the dirt out of the diff itself. I would have used some silicone, but I didn't have a tube handy.

ps. You should buy the sway bar kit. I know you dont want to use those, but the caps for the hinge pins are worth the cost of the kit IMHO.

Totally. HPI really needs to make those standard on the truck and sell them seperately.

freeze, what are the parts that you requested flm to make?

Their still working on the TVP when I called them up directly yesterday, there apparently behind schedule with orders.

I have the swaybars on my truck, and those caps are awesome! Definetely recomend buying the sways just for the caps.

I fixed that on mine with some thin gasket paper i picked up from the local auto parts store. I used the quare ridge in the skid plate as a template and just cut it out with a razor blade, fits perfectly and keeps all the dirt out of the diff. Plus you can still take the skid plates off, unlike using silicone where it might act like a bonding agent. You can also use thick paper if you want. I did this before i ever even ran my flux and its always been as clean as new inside and im still using the same piece of gasket material after probably 6 or 7 times of taking it appart

grease vent
 

You should be able to find a small vent plug for it somewhere. You may have to drill and tap it out to size, but there are vents out there for just this purpose. They are usually used on industrial type bear boxes, and come in all sizes.

Not sure what you are referring to here Jerry??? The hole is about a 1" square hole in the bottom of the diff case. The plastic skidplate "covers" it, but due to the flexible nature of plastic, it doesn't seal it very well.

Weird
 

that sounds weird. A 1" hole in an R/C diff case? Why did they design a hole that big in a diff? Why would you need such a big hole in a small scale vehicle? It seems to me that you could fab a square plug for that and design a smaller vent plug that would let the diff breath, or block it up totally. I have only been in the hobby for a few years, but I have never seen a diff with any kind of hole designed into them. I am an industrial mechanic by trade, and a Mechanical engineer myself and have worked with all kinds of large scale reduction gear setups that have vents intigrated into their design to keep pressure from building up inside the gear cases and blowing out seals, so it makes sense to me. BUT even in some of that largest gear boxes the size of a full size van or larger only had a 3/4" vent built in to them. Any pics of this diff?

It's not a hole in the diff. It is part of the bulkheads and the lower plate to leave room for the diff to be placed as low as possible I would assume. Go look at the manual on HPI's site, it is between part #86067 and #85234 that they have been most likely talking about covering.

What hole?

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

That's the gearbox. They were talking about the front/rear bulkheads.

That's a good idea. I kinda like the hole as an easy way to inspect the diffs, but too much fine dirt gets by

Part 6: Drivetrain/Chassis upgrade



Sorry for the delay in updates, but in combination with my lady friend needing my attention along with a delayed order from RC Monster for my FLM TVP chassis, it's taken awhile. But now were ready for the next phase in getting "Frostbyte II" upgraded and complete! Our biggest upgrade and change to the standard Flux is our FLM extended XL TVP chassis frame. This caught my eye earlier on other peoples builds and I liked how it made the chassis stand out and give it a unique look vs the standard HPI frame. Other's reviews have been positive and after a bit more comparing and researching, I decided to go with FLM's chassis. THe fact that I could get a lower skid plate and included beefier and longer rear drive shaft were bonus selling points. Now that the long way for the chassis is over, lets continue!



Sure does look nice, and comes professionally packaged. Kudos to FLM!

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



Big difference in thickness. Amazingly enough, it was very light weight despite its hefty look, i'd say its only slightly more heavier then the stock HPI frame!

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...te2/frame2.jpg


Oh yeah, that's gonna look nice in comparison

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...te2/frame3.jpg


Were also going to go ahead and upgrade the drivetrain cups with HPI's heavy duty models. I remember on my first Flux, the diff cups began to wear and and get bent from the stress of the motor and usage after a few months. Hopefully, these will keep that from happening, and they look good!

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



Allright, it's its long over due to get this thing put back together! We can make it bigger, better, strong, faster..... we have the technology! With limited funds....

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m.../assemble1.jpg



Off go the old drive cups, in with the new! I put a little grease on the interior gears, its NOT rust!

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...yte2/cups1.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...drivecups2.jpg



Now lets start making this part pile look like a monster truck again! Piece by piece.....

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...2/assembl2.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m.../assemble3.jpg

The FLM TVP's come with a very nice, beefy looking extended rear driveshaft. Don't think we have to worry about that one breaking!

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m.../assemble4.jpg



Allright, now it's starting to look like an RC truck again! Onwards!

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m.../assemble5.jpg

Part 7: Suspension arm upgrade and mods


I learned my first lesson quickly with my first Flux: "Stock A arms do not last long" With that, after suffering major front end damage on my original A arm's, I immedietely switched to RPM arms. However, like everything else in life, there was a tradeoff. RPM's fit and finish with their products tends to be "hit and miss". That being said, I had to do some major dremling in order for the RPM arms to swing freely on my first Flux. And the second time around unfortunately, was going to be no exception

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...Flux/oops2.jpg



Not much to say this time around except I spent SEVERAL hours dremeling out my new, blue RPM arms in order for them to swing properly without binding. What a farking pain......


http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...yte2/arms6.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...yte2/arms2.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...yte2/arms1.jpg


The upper arms required the most work. I had to bore out the hinge pins holes majorly to get them to swing freely. Thanks alot for the quality control RPM...

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...yte2/arms3.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...yte2/arms4.jpg


One arm down, three more to go. Ung......

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...yte2/arms5.jpg

Looking slick Freeze!

This looks to be more build and $$$ than I thought you were going to do cheezebite. I'm impressed with your commitment to making this one better than the 1st sav.

Part 8: Drivetrain/axle reassembly


With the major PITA part of the build done, namely, dremeling the arms, it was time to continue reassembly with a few extra's and upgrades


HPI's stock grease is allright, but were gonna put on some high quality Lucas Oil Red n Tacky stuff for my diffs. It sticks real good and lubricates very well with just a small bit grease.

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



Were also gonna go ahead and upgrade the axles with HPI's new HD wide axle set to give "Frostbyte II" better corning and handling, especially under 6s power.

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



Oh but wait! We've got more purple again and that just won't do! Time for another soaking in Greased Lighting!

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

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...astpurple2.jpg


Ah, much better!

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...astpurple3.jpg

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



I also decided that the shocks were just too "stiff" with 40w oil and white springs and I didn't wanna chance blowing the shock caps and or causing other parts to break due to the reduced dampening. So I'm going back to 30w to be safe.

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



To keep the ESC and motor wires from rubbing against the body, I decided to zip tie them to the frame

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



Were looking good now, she's coming to life!

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

Freeze it looks great, ready for some major airtime.

1 thing, where's the 2.4?

Oh another thing that would really set it off. Dremel out some of the 5.5 plugs so that you could solder them at 90 degrees, as well as shorten the wires dramatically.

Oh its there, its just stock 2.4, nothing worth taking pic of. I don't have the balls to try something like that with the bullets, so i'll leave them as is.

Oh, wow long receiver antenna.

About the weight:

From
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_oXx8nzDDQME/S1...2/P1040317.JPG

To
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_oXx8nzDDQME/S1...2/P1040399.JPG

;)

Nard, I couldnt read the numbers on the second pic....enlighten us!!!!

I hope you dont plan on gaining suspension performance by going to dual bigbores.

looks like 3772g to me, so he lost 228g. Not bad at all.

No doubt that the FLM chassis is lean but Nard's weight loss would have come mostly from the removal of the stock battery boxes (~130gm each) and the radio box (~140gm). Freeze won't get the benefit of either of those.

Part 9: Battery tray mods and skid plate


The end is in sight! Now we all have left to do is final assembly of the chassis, battery tray mods, order and paint the body! So lets get to it, I wanna drive this thing soon!


The flux's battery trays are substandard at best after dealing with them on my first Flux. Without some modification, I found it nearly impossible to get any Lipo to fit decently inside, depending on how the wiring came out. Even with "Frostbyte II" extended savage frame, I still wanted to place more of the weight on the font of the truck to increase forward traction and reduce wheeling.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...yte2/tray1.jpg


Were first going to go ahead and remove the all but usesless rubber clip holders as I'm switching the trays on the chassis so the top lid opens outward to allow for easier battery access. With that, we need to also remove the clips as they are now useless in reverse position

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...yte2/tray2.jpg



Next, I clipped off the forward, slanted section the tray lids. This allows me to slid the Lipo's all the way forward into the tray

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...yte2/tray3.jpg



I'm then cut out some shaped pieces of foam to keep the Lipo's from shifting in the tray. Once again, im going to use velcro straps to keep the batterys secured.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...yte2/tray4.jpg



I then clipped off part of the rear section of the tray lid to allow the wires to easily exit out.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...yte2/tray7.jpg



With some last bit of trimming of the foam to keep the Lipo's securely in place, our battery tray mods are all done!

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...yte2/tray6.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...yte2/tray5.jpg



Now its time to seal up the bottom of the Flux with our sexy skid plate thanks to FLM. I decided to go ahead and use the small hubs to attach the skid plate rather then the braces themselves for the time being to see if they would hold up under bashing abuse, not to mention the braces included hex screws don't fit flush with the skid plate either.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...yte2/skid1.jpg



With a little bit of blue loctite on each of the screws to keep them from getting loose, my tranny is now safe and protected from the rigors of bashing!

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...yte2/skid2.jpg



Lets throw our new tires on and see how she looks now!

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


Wooo, I'm getting close to completion of "Frostbyte II"! Our final step is for me to make up my mind on a body, figure out a cool paint and decal scheme and then take this thing out on its maiden drive! Hang tight folks, the grand finale is coming up!

So why did you cut such a huge portion of the battery doors off? I know you said it was for the battery wires but looks like you cut the wrong end? Looks like those hard case batts fit perfectly

Because the tops, for some bizarre reason, slop downwards. And therefore you can't get most 2S, or especially 3S, batteries to fit. So he basically removed the slopping part of the battery tray top.

^ yeah that

At long last, I found the perfect body for "Frostbyte II" after days of google image searches. I'll give you a hint, its a SC body!

True Finnster, I lost 228gram with going XL.

That's indeed were I cut weights.

Freeze it's looking good. As for a body, me next one will be a SC as well. Am curious to see what you got / are going to get.

Yup S/C bodies are big and cool i've got a desert rat on one of the Muggy's

Try Slash bodies, as the Slash has the longest wheelbase. Still the difference between XL and Slash wheelbase is 2.44"! Heck the Savage X has about the same wheelbase as the Slash (336 vs 333) and, at least IMO, most bodies for Savage X look stupid on the XL.

UPDATE: Steering mod and test run damage


I had all but forgotten about the steering modification you can make to the Savage hubs to give a little extra angle during steering. I remember doing this on my original Flux but I totally forgot about it until the other night when I was browsing through another forum. Seeings how its been shown in variety of forums, i'll be brief with this.



As you can see, that small piece of plastic right under the upper arm screw on the hub is preventing the servo from turning the wheels more. Were gonna fix that!

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...te2/steer1.jpg



After removing the axle and bearing housing, we can can see we need to remove both of the small ridges to net us some increased steering throw

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...te2/steer2.jpg



Mr. Dremel will make sure work of this!

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...te2/steer3.jpg



Were also going to remove these small tabs as well as they are also preventing the steering from maxing out

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...te2/steer5.jpg


And in less then 10 minutes, we've increased our steering throw for free!

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...te2/steer4.jpg



Later in the day, I was simply dying to take "Frostbyte II" on its first real test trials at the new bash pit I found several months ago for my Baja 5T. I really did want to reveal my project as all brand new, shiny and with no scratches. \But I just had to know for sure how this build was going and if it needed any changes or modifications to my liking. With the weather clearing up and my patience at an end, I took "Frostbyte II" on its trail run and....well, this was the result


The included FLM XL chassis rear dogbone pin snapped after a hard landing and I was instantly down to FWD on my Flux after only driving 10 mins. Lame......

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...te2/break1.jpg



To make the day end on an even more sad note, I incorrectly took a jump and flew sideways into a dead burn pile and slammed into a sharp tree branch, puncturing one of my new wheels. Grrrrrrrrrr, talk about bad luck for a first time drive out.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...te2/break2.jpg



Now i've got emergency orders placed at Amain and TCS Crawlers to replaced my damaged parts along with my enroute body and paint. With that said, I hope to get the project done by Labor Day weekend. Ung....I was not planning on buying a new set of tires and wheels already, this hobby sucks sometimes. I guess its still cheaper then owning/running my Baja 5T.....

that sucks. How mcuh more steering did you notice with the mods?