Idk how i missed this thread lol. Always enjoy your build threads SVT, very entertaining! Lookin good so far. The upgraded panhard mount looks good. Subd n watchin where this rig goes
You have exquisite taste it which build threads to follow, allow me to reward your good decision with another installment.
As everyone may recall, we left off last time with a drying chassis and a transmission. Though the kit was substantially built at this point, I decided to add some odds and ends because trucks are never truly complete.
Here is the now dry chassis, the paint I used came out as a pretty close match to the factory finish. I'll pretend that it was planned like that but really was a complete oxidant (still winning the chemistry pun game :mrgreen
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Because I know you are curious, here is the Element chassis rail vs an Axial rail.
And here the Axial chassis laying on top of the Element chassis. Avert the gaze of children or just tell them the chassis are wrestling.
You screw a bunch of things together, and you are lead to this point.
I added the hard battery tray mount and rear brace then installed the stock battery tray mount/chassis brace in the rear for a little more support. All together, the chassis has a fair amount of torsional flex. The amount of flex is a little less than an SCXII and much more than a TRX4 on a scale of comparable trucks.
Quick, who can tell me the difference between these 2 shock towers?
No one, as I thought.
Technically, they are labeled as "LR" and "RF" for their correct locations but I'm convinced they are identical.
The stock panhard mount was cut off the stock shock tower, it fits so nicely snugged up against the new mount.
Here is another big gripe with the Enduro. They touted the cross platform compatibility as a big feature so you can use much of the current aftermarket parts then do this:
The hole spacing on the sliders is off by 1.5mm from the SCXII making those sliders incompatible. You would have thought that something that is changed as often as sliders would have been considered, especially since the mounting points on the Enduro trays didn't need to be 1.5mm more narrow for any good reason.
While I was on the chassis and before things progressed too far, this seemed like a good time to make something new. The first step was shamelessly stealing HumboldtEF's idea of flipping the battery mounting cross brace to lower it. I fired up the CADmium and designed then printed a couple of spacers.
While it is appreciated that Element throws in 2 different battery trays, neither of which fit my preferred batteries nicely. The short tray isn't long enough and the full size tray is enormous. This one, however, is just right.
While I was at it, the battery got lowered a good bit because of the flipped cross member and the fact the tray is much narrower. A little visual reference:
The rear tray in the pic mounts about 2mm higher but the overall drop is about 5mm.
The Helios 3000mah 3S packs fit like they were made for this tray (can't imagine why) but most 2200mah 3S packs should fit too.
A servo was dropped in around this time as well.
This is an Xpert WR6601; it is brushless, H2O-proof, puts out about 320 oz of torque at 7.4V, and was sitting in the box of servos. I can't stress the last part enough because it meant expending the smallest amount of effort and money. A Vanquish servo horn replaces the stock plastic horn for reasons which I will not bother explaining as they are so obvious.
While electronics were going in, this Spektrum receiver was tucked into the very generously sized electronics box.
It is "sealed" and "waterproof" but I trust no box to actually be so thus a waterproof receiver was used. The seals do stay in place nicely which is better than a lot of boxes and it is separate from the side tray for easy removal or use in other projects.
A minor nitpick about the receiver box is this integrated antenna mount.
First, who uses an antenna tube on a scale truck? More importantly, why does the fact of not using an antenna tube (of which nobody does) leave a gaping hole in the top of the receiver box lid? I sealed mine up with some E6000 from the inside. I would suggest you do this as well if you argon in the water.
Moving on to the axles, I'm less than impressed right away.
5x10 inner pinion bearings in 2019? Really? It looks like a much more durable 5x13 or 5x14 bearing could have been used here with all that material around the bearing.
The gears are a machined helical cut pinion and a sintered 1 piece gear/locker combo. Here they are installed in the housing.
And with the chunky, ugly diff cover mounted up.
One of the things that makes me happy is you can tighten the diff cover down nice and tight and the gears still spin smooth. Speaking of the gears, they are reversible inside those cavernous housings so you can do whatever you wish with that knowledge.
When it came time to install the c-hubs, one tightened normally and the screw just kept spinning in the other so it must have stripped although from surprisingly little effort. Popped it off and noticed this split which was causing the screw hole to spread apart when attempting to tighten.
I'm unsure if this crack occurred during installation or it was cracked out of the bag either way doesn't make it any less annoying.
My solution was to replace the stock M3x14mm screws with M3x16mm screws and some M3 nuts to clamp everything down.
New c-hubs will be ordered at some point but let's see how this goes. While going through this annoyance, I did appreciate the marks for correctly aligning the c-hubs on the axle.
As all good trucks should, the front axle is equipped with universals.
They do seem to be lightly binding when rotating at the steering stops, a slight clearance would probably be a good thing.
I do wish the kit version got metal hexes but I'll try the plastic ones first.
One thing is for sure, they won't be failing from sloppy tolerances. These are a tight fit on the axles and getting them off will most certainly suck.
Reread the last few sections and use a little imagination to learn about the rear axle then we get here.
There is a chassis and axles, now we need some kind of link to link them together. Hmmmm, maybe these things will work.
It says they are steel I'm thinking tungsten has the more appropriate atomic mass for the incredible density of these. Not sure if I'll manage to use all 50 but maybe I can tape a few to the bumper because front weight yo!
Links were built and I advise caution because there are exactly zero spare rod ends included in the box.
I went with the optional steel pivot balls because who doesn't want balls of steel? Or is that brass balls? Whatever one that makes you sound tougher.
Speaking of balls, here is a comparison of the stock Element balls, the optional steel balls, and Axial balls:
The Element balls are nearly identical to the Axial ones and can likely be used as a direct replacement. They also fit Traxxas rod ends so the Element balls should be a good option for using those on your Axial trucks. If I haven't said it enough at this point: balls.
All for now, time for me to xenon my way.
