Long post incoming:
Thursday;
Full Vanquish Currie F9's are built:
Front: 38/13 incision gear set and spool, Vanquish VVD shafts
Rear: 43/13 incision gear set and spool, and Vanquish rear axle shafts
I took my time with these, hand tightened everything with blue thread lock. I built the rear first. It took maybe 2 hours including tear down of the stock axle for the bearings and differential. I used my blue o-rings on every link point, I really like the way it feels and I think it looks scale, like blue poly bushings.
The front went a little faster at first, but setting up the c-hubs and knuckles took awhile, I think this one took me 3 hours. I'm sort of sad that the kit didn't come with stainless screws to attach the c-hubs....it came with everything else. I also tried the reverse servo mount trick but my arm made contact with the diff housing, so I had to put it back to normal.
so beefy, much wow
while I had the Bomber apart I upgraded to a 64 tooth Axial steel spur gear. It's noisy as heck not sure it's for me.
Friday I picked up my shocks from the LHS.
I got the truck together, the rear sway bar was binding up and hitting the chassis when mounted on the axle, so I had to move it to the upper mounting position for the trailing arms no big deal. Much better.
I also had to trim the rear sway bar mounting tabs off for axle clearing, as it was limiting range of motion by contacting the truss.
I got everything together, took it for a test drive in the house, I was hearing awful grinding noises and I thought I had my spur/pinion mess off or something even though I was super super OCD about it. Tore truck all the way back apart, only to realize it was my shift servo being slightly out of adjustment after being disassembled, set new end points, and issue resolved.
After some drop tests, lots of squat eye-balling, flexing, twisting, etc. I have decided that the Pro-Line Powerstroke Slash rear shock set springs were a little too stiff for the front and too soft for the rear, I picked up a spring set today. I went one step softer primary and secondary in the front(these are rear springs afterall) and one step stiffer in the rear primary and secondary. I'm sure more tuning will have to be done once I drive it some. With the out of package spring setup the front didn't sag one bit, and the rear was really soft. I'm running 30wt oil all around.
Front: blue/green
rear: yellow/red
Also, what ever foams are in these these tires have met their weight limit and them some, the tires are just squatting so bad. I think I will pick up some CI double duece mediums for the front and firms for the rear, probably get some Chanquish wheels(but I really want bronze colored wheels with black rings) and some different tires to try out, not real sure what tires yet. Something more rock racer and less pure crawler, that way I can still have these super soft crawler ones. I haven't tried the stock RTR bomber tires yet either.
I think I might pull my cage apart and paint it silver to match the axles. What is a good paint to use?
The rig has picked up some noticeable weight, that is for sure, but its all low COG and un-sprung which should really help with stability over-all. Along with the steel skid AMF skid plate and Scalerfab rock sliders, and the steel winch mount plate up front, it's pretty heavy, I wish I had a scale but I don't.
Yawn.