The multiple HPI super (nitro) rally rebuild thread

[Gula]

So, I got this for a lifetime deal these days, and all it seems to be missing is: rear and center drive shafts, center spur gear/shaft, rear shocktower, and rear body mounts. The rest I am not in need of as i plan on making it electric anyway. Here it is before i received it from the seller.When i was separating the diff housings the ring gear fell right off the diff cup! WOW, no screws holding them on at all. Not in the front or back. One of the diffs had the small nubs sheared off
So I disassembled the whole shebang, but only put in the parts I'll use into a giant pickle jar, and soaked all the pieces in a 98 - 2%Acetone/Purple power degreaser mix.
This Chassis is in really good shape and I'll have to figure out if I want to make it a runner or if it will get sanded and polished and go up on my "shelf queen"

 

[high plains drifter]

I was excited till you said "convert to electric"... j/k. Cool project/ will follow.

 

[Gula]

Ya, I don't have a nitro mill, and am not fond of them after numerous renditions of ownership. Plus here in California the fuel has got to cost $100 a gallon by now!

After cleaning and a little bit of sanding and elbow pain, this is where we rest.
The chassis has been replaced with a runner and stripped with Purple power.

 

[Gula]

Assebly begins

Diffs: I'm going to use the ring and pinion from the original car, the spider gears look ok in one of the diffs. So one set of spiders, and a set of new bearings and a coat of grease will do the trick there.
After 30 minutes of assembly, the 2M diff silicone settled at the top of the bottle for me to unscrew the cap and scoop two tiny bits out. I then I took the diffs out into the still blazing California heat for the goop to settle inside all the little crevices.
Back before 500K, 1M and higher stuff was around there used to be a spring kit that you could i stall to give these more a "diff" I may still do that, or use the newer Axial diff cups with o rings, those seal for sure!

 

[hnoroian]

Invest in an ultrasonic cleaner, it’s so nice, I won’t be turning back cleaning things.

 

[Gula]

How does it deal with grease and silicone?

 

[Gula]

So this is how far I got before other duties started calling my name.
Haha, i was also looking for the parts this was missing and started "digging" through an old parts "bowl", I found one more "dogbone". lol. Now I have 3 wheel drive. I swear i have a couple more somewhere in this mess.

 

[OSRC]

You have my attention......

 

[hnoroian]

How does it deal with grease and silicone?

Simple green or purple power works pretty well. A quick rinse after and a wipe after, some times a toothpick to get some crevasses. Just make sure there are no air pockets anywhere.

Heated tanks work better too, but are more $… I wouldn’t use it for a quick rebuild but a complete strip of components like this is where it’s at. Even my brass comes out shiny, but still needs that next step for polished.

I still have a nitro 4tec you are making me want to rebuild

 

[Gula]

Simple green or purple power works pretty well. A quick rinse after and a wipe after, some times a toothpick to get some crevasses. Just make sure there are no air pockets anywhere.

Heated tanks work better too, but are more $… I wouldn’t use it for a quick rebuild but a complete strip of components like this is where it’s at. Even my brass comes out shiny, but still needs that next step for polished.

Oh so the ultrasound is not really the trick then. See, with the pickle jar I dont have to do much after I drop the parts in there either. Possibly agitate it once. The cleaners are what removes rust, paint, grease, oils, anodizing. Sometimes in seconds. (So, I thought about it, especially while working @ a manufacturing Job a few years ago with oily small Ti parts.)

My ratio for the purple power to acetone is more than 80pp/20a for in a jar

In the past i have cleaned large batches of large rc parts (T/E maxxs) that I've boiled water for dumped parts in 5 gal buckets and added only degreaser cleaners, and then used a toilet brush like wand in the middle to agitate the parts back and forth.

 

[hnoroian]

Possibly agitate it once. The cleaners are what removes rust, paint, grease, oils, anodizing. Sometimes in seconds.

In the past i have cleaned large batches of large rc parts (T/E maxxs) that I've boiled water for dumped parts in 5 gal buckets and added only degreaser cleaners, and then used a toilet brush like wand in the middle to agitate the parts back and forth.

It does the work itself, yes for the cleaners.

My gripe I guess would only be cleaning the tank it’s self as I don’t want those oils and grease on what I put in there next. But even that’s a simple rinse and wipe down.

Even tub-o-towels (or the like) works great on removing the crud.

 

[Gula]

It may be a good idea for me to invest in a small ultrasonic cleaner regardless. Just a small one for bearings and such, you know. The jars are free, as , essentially every time someone finishes the pickled carrots or asparagus, I get a new jar anyways. Hey, show me what you got BTW

 

[high plains drifter]

Not sure how relevant this might be but I've been having good success using foaming aerosol engine degreaser... cleaning/ restoring my 25 yr old nitro aluminum parts... brush on with toothbrush or small stiff-bristle brush and soak for a few seconds, then rinse or use compressed air to dry. Safe for plastics/ rubber too and the fumes aren't bad unlike things like carbeurator cleaner. The one I'm using is Walmart's Super Tech brand and costs less than $4 a can.

 

[Gula]

Pulled down some tires for it to run on. yellow/green wheels (I'm color blind) with paddles should be a hoot at the beach to drive. White wheels for on road and mixed surfaces. Black wheels for loose soil only as they wear super fast. Original, HPI 20 years old. Probably blow off first, naw, they're good

Well since I'm rebuilding this one, and had the parts bins out and was looking for two bits ( forever lost in a polisher ) why not pull down the other one I have
I had it running years back with a ckrc sc10 conversion but that was removed for a bit in anticipation of installing a wr8 trans.
I wish i could still find more of these Tamiya TGX 1/8 rally tires as I have one with dry rot. Somehow the other 3 look good, strange.

I'm forgetting things these days, (45) but faintly remembered putting a complete front end together for another project. My Ford ranger rebuild was going to get that. Ok, it will get the beefed up version. Removed all parts from that project
But, I'm not happy with how far the front dogbone comes out of the diff cup. There's a HPI NITRO RUSH part that remedies this, however, you still have to add a spring to the cup at the diff to push the dogbone out into the axles, nothing there (otherwise, in a turn the dogbone falls out and your wheel up and you usually destroy the C, knuckle and axle cup.

Again, I remembered having bought those nitro rush parts, just cant find them. Then right in front of me i had the diffs out of my "shelf queen rs4" <-more on that one later. TADA or, more like NIKE, thats the parts, I was missing and bought 15 years ago ....
I guess It helped that I pulled all my rollers/scrapers and parts together to find what i needed. These are the HD parts so they should hold up to some power. I also have the HD diff parts for the HPI MT2, if the need arises.

My other conversion is running parts from the normal HPI MT2: diff inputs, cups, stub axles, 5 rear center dogbones for driveshafts, center slipper, front center dogbone. I've run it on 3s an it's been clocked at close to 54-58 I think from what I remember. It's pretty durable and the drivetrain is thick. It's also getting slowed down. I think 20-25mph is plenty
I'm not after speed anymore this will get something like a 2400kv on 2s or a 1800kv, we'll see

 

[Gula]

I took the diffs apart and soaked the parts in my magic mix. This was because the white lithium grease I had used way back turned into a brown poo and really made it very hard to rotate the outputs. This was inside:
Removed the banged up front lower shock mounts and straightened them back out against a piece of steel. Like new again.
Having a hard time finding/remembering what small axial # o- ring seal, fits into the diff cup output, and on the ring gear at the outputs to seal them. Help appreciated
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