TOPIC:

Did a bit more tonight - popped some holes in the dish wheels (Look good) & made up body posts. There will be pics, but not until it's fitted up & I'm happy with it (Not gonna commit myself, just in case!). Hopefully the hex adaptors won't be long, it's just those that are holding everything up now.

Hexes came today, so I've just fitted it all up, charged the battery & given it a shakedown run. It goes ok, just a tiny bit high-geared (Due to bigger wheels), so I think I'm going to plop a 13t pinion in it & call it "done".

So, some new pics -
A reminder of what the replacement wheels were like:



Don't like dished wheels, so thought I'd make them a bit more interesting.
I set them up on the mill & pooped some holes in them (8x10mm holes on 35mm PCD).
The rotary table is very handy for jobs like this!



Holy wheels Batman!
Much better!



Next job, make body mounts.
These were hewn out of black 3mm polypropylene. It's horrible stuff to get to look neat, but it's easy to cut with a knife, & easy to bend with a bit of heat. And of course, it's highly flexible & shock-resistant, as body mounts should be!



& TADA! Another one done

You weren't kidding about the ugly

Yeah I know, but it's not for me - the new owner is likely to be more concerned with speed, dirty puddles & crashing to worry about its Ann Robinson looks

Great job on the rims! Gotta remember that...

Cheers Edou! Holes make a difference, clearly.
As for its looks a whole, as Jonny said, yuk. If it were for me & I had more cash to spend, I think I'd go down the short-coarse truck route. But it's not, so I won't....

That was a strange thought - "Well really I have to be thankful to the wheels, after all, if it wasn't for them, you'd never even notice the holes...". I suspect I might not be right...

Anyway, being a skinflint, I went on a mission for the cheapest/best deal on 13t pinions I could find.
Found some helicopter ones with the right pitch & number of teeth, twice as many for less than the price of a proper one. Unfortunately, they were too long & had a 5mm bore, not to worry though, we have the technology...



Thought it best to make a note of where a "correctly set" pinion resides on the motor shaft, seeing as the gearbox is together now & I don't possess the tool to set it. I needn't have worried though, I've found a good way to do it without now!

Ok, 1st job, take one heli pinion & machine it to length & shape.
Next, machine a piece of ally to be an interference fit in the 5mm pinion bore & press the pinion onto it. Machine the sticky-outy bit off flush.
With the pinion still stuck to the (Centralised) bar, pop a 3mm pilot hole through it, then take the hole out to 3.20mm to be a sexy fit on the 3.18 motor shaft.
Part the pinion from the bar, flush with its end.
Drill & tap M3 for a grubscrew.
Done!



Top is the 14t pinion that WAS fitted, left is what's left of the heli pinion, right is the finished new 13t pinion, ready to fit. I thought I'd make the teeth on the new one wider by 1mm, to increse my chances of lining it up with the spur "blind".

Fitted the pinion as per my sketch, cranked the screws up, ah, gearbox has locked...
Took it apart again to have a look, & noticed that the motor pinion had been pressing against the opposite gearbox side. (Pause for thought) The spur also sits next to that gearbox wall, with just enough clearance that it doesn't foul, SO I loosened the pinion & pulled it up the motor shaft by a couple of mm, then lightly tightened the grubscrew, just enough that it was just possible to slide the pinion on the shaft. Then, temporarily installed the motor then removed it again. Pinion is now set EXACTLY to where it meets the gearbox wall, so shift it a tiny amount (0.25-0.5mm) back towards the motor & that should be right. Tada, easy way to set a pinion on a wizzy-shot without the tool!

Gave it a run around the living room, yep much better! So, 87mm O/D wheels prefer a 13t pinion. 14t is ok, just a tad high-geared. 15t kit pinion is too big

eddrick wrote:

That was a strange thought - "Well really I have to be thankful to the wheels, after all, if it wasn't for them, you'd never even notice the holes...". I suspect I might not be right...

It's like the Zen concept of "The Void": sometimes the usefulness of something is precisely where it's _not_ - like a cup, for example

Yeah, & if there wasn't any mint you wouldn't find the hole

Music is more about the silence between the notes than about the notes themselves...
Very nice work on fabricating that pinion.