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My Personal Juggernaut 2 Journal
-= As initially posted on tamiyaclub =-
1 - The Beginning
Surfing the net, gathering info about a TXT-1 (which I wanted so badly after a small demo by Racing Master), I came across an old post of someone selling this car. His asking price was too steep, but I mailed him anyway.
We got to talking, and I found out I had been to school with this guy until I was 9 years old, +- 16 years ago!
So I went ahead and bought it, he lowered his price and added an LRP F1 pro reverse ESC. I was very happy.
The car has only been run a few times, and needs some SERIOUS cleaning... After doing that, I'll probably use it for beach-running... In a year or so...
The bundle: LRP ESC - Acoms std servo and 27MHz AM receiver - manual - some bits and pieces - the car.
I need to repaint the body, and maybe buy another one for display purposes, so if anyone has a full body parts set - mail me!
2 - Cleaning it
As said in part 1, the car was extremely dirty. Most of it was just dust (2.5 years worth), some of it were spiderwebs. The only (tiny) spots of rust I found were on the bottom of the U-shaped to keep the leaf springs in place. But that's nothing to be worried about.
I took the *entire* car apart, down to the last E-clip and screw. Then, I cleaned everything under streaming water and/or in trichlore ethylene. Everything looks as good as new now, and when putting it together I added a full bearing set. Since I'm short 6 * 1260 bearings, I cannot complete it just yet, but it's only the wheels that are missing, so the hard job is over.
The LRP ESC I got with the kit works amazingly well, and I can't wait to finish this puppy and drive it around ;) I just need to put a lot of time in finishing the body...
3 - Driving it
Well, this is going to be a runner, so I am really planning on driving it. But for that to happen, it needs full bearings.
Because I am short 6 1260 bearings, but couldn't wait, I put the wheels on and made a small inhouse testrun. Because it has only one bearing-wheel, I should restrain from running it outdoors, and running it more than the one battery pack I used it now... Gonna be hard ;)
The thing that bothered me - except from the tyres that were slipping on the rims (fixed that ;) ) was that the car turned more to one side thatn the other. The reason was that the ball ends hit the servo and servo fixture, so I had to come up with something. After some serious trial-and-error and measuring the available space, I recreated the servosaver so it can now turn sufficiently in both directions...
4 - Hopping it Up
In the meantime, the body has been painted (blue metallic, still waiting for a decalsheet to arrive to finish it off...).
When driving it, I felt it was not really powerful. The torque and the engines were fine, but the steering was too slow... So I replaced the steering servo with a Futaba S9402 I got off a friend. Now it turns very accurately, powerfully, and quickly. Haven't tested it in the field yet, but seems great so far...
I noticed that everyone that hopped up their suspension arms, did so with those aluminum sticks. They are very hard to come by in my country, and the original tamiya hop-ups are ugly... So I made some myself... They look cool, but need to be tested before I can know how good they are...
I made a small adjustment to the antenna as well, using the same system I used on my Pajero and other cars before that. I used some plastic from an advertisment-plate, put the antenna through, and let it stick out to the top in the end. My antenna is as long as it ever was, but it's no longer visible from outside the car. Still have to test the range, though... I replaced the white tamiya plugs from my ESC by corally plugs with longer wires, so that everything is compatible with my battery packs.
I'm also planning on making a wheelie-bar, but am not quite certain yet how I will attach it. Will need to look into that. I also ordered a lexan Ford F-350 body, which will be arriving any day now. You know, for running ;) Maybe I'll get in some carbon parts as well, along with some more reinforcements and weight reductions.
If anyone has some more tips for me, mail me! They will be appreciated!
5 - Tweaking and finishing
The lexan body arrived, and I painted it in the original color scheme. I attached it with the hinge-system and added body mount posts in the front. Now, I can drive without worrying I might kill my body when flipping. I moved my receiver to the back. The result is that it's tucked away nicely, but also that I have very poor reception. I will need to add an antenna pipe again to be able to drive more that 10 metres from the transmitter. I also had my first bit of damage: I broke a part of the bumper-suspension. The replacement parts arrived as well, so now the car is complete again. I put iin a much stronger servo, and it's a world of difference: now I can turn my wheels while standing still. Try that with an S3003 ;)
The aluminum links I made work fine, but I'm still not too happy about the suspension. Maybe I should buy shocks or dampers...
I think the car is as good as finished, and so is this journal. When I add something, like a wheelie bar, I will add to this section, but I'm not sure if I'm going to do it... Or how long it will take.
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