Snowman is alive and doing well, this weekend we had a lot of fun bashing around on the frozen sea, I posted some pictures in
this thread. Concerning the problem I posted above, with speed control not working properly in reverse, it's working fine now. I think I adjusted trim on channel 2 slightly, and then the problem just disappeared. Throttle control is now really smooth, forwards and backwards.
A few updates has been done, and one upgrade. The upgrade regarded the sloppy steering. When I first heard talk about steering being sloppy, I didn't quite understand what that was supposed to mean, but I soon found out. I did what so many others has done before me, and put a bearing in the servo saver, to tighten it up. That made a lot of difference, all of a sudden I can actually turn the wheels their full range on grippy surfaces, which I couldn't before.
I had expected this little mod to go very easy, but that loctite made it a PIA. I stripped the screw heads disassembling the steering rack, which really made things difficult for me. Luckily, I managed to get them out and had some spares for the assembly, dating back from my Kyosho of 1994. That head came clean off when I tried to screw it in. Oh, the grief. In the end, I found exactly two Axial screws after doing some serious digging in my bits box and got it all together. More M2,6 screws need to be ordered.
After a few packs though, the steering went sloppy again. Checking it, I realized I hadn't put in both small tightening screws in the servo horns, the small ones running perpendicular to the servo axle. That made the horn come loose and the steering becoming sloppy. Now that's fixed as well, and steering should now be as good as it gets. I haven't tried it though, too much snow.
I also changed the 4-mount links from STRC aluminum to original Axial aluminum. An update, not an upgrade. You might remember that my kit came with two left-sided mounts and since customer service was really slow I ended up ordering a pair from STRC. Then Axial came through and sent me a pair of aluminum link mounts. I felt like doing something, so out went STRC, and in went Axial. I quite like that bronze colour as well. Grey, black and bronze, that's all the colors that are going on this build.
STRC mounts vs. Axial mounts. Aside from the colour difference, the axial mounts allows me to switch the position of the trailing arms, should I want to. I don't, but still it's a nice feature.
While I was at changing from STRC to Axial, I also changed the upper link plates for the rear suspension. I made an order for a future Bomber build (Oryx!) from Tower a while ago, and needed something to fill it up to a certain discount level. In went Axial plates. Note that they use four screws instead of two for the STRC, so I guess that makes them slightly more stable. Not likely to be a noticeable difference though. But I like the color! Ridiculous, I know, please be kind on me...
SRTRC plates. Two screws.
Axial plates, four screws. Revolutionary!
Please excuse the crappy pictures, I'll compensate for them with some action shots of Snowman enjoying an outing:
