It was a pretty long week. At the same time, it was a 100% different experience than last year. By the time qualifying started, I was really confident in my car. One thing that was different was having a better awareness of tire prep. In the beginning runs, I was using Simple Green to clean the tires, which does work very well. The only thing I did notice was that it was not as good on longer runs, the tire would tend to overheat a bit. Oddly enough, Buggy Grip to clean and SXT 3.0 heated up with tire warmers was really good any time of the day. It also ran as long as the battery lasted. The only caveat to this was the fronts. I ran new rears each round, which was great. I found they actually ran the best for about 3-4 runs, then traction began to drop off, but for the nationals I just ran new skins each round.
The fronts were actually broken in, and could be used for many runs. However, as I found out the hard way, the insert has to be monitored to make sure it is still in good shape. I basically threw away rounds 2 and 3 because the fronts I had been using became very soft as the inserts started to break down. The car became very unstable, and was pretty hard to drive. As soon as I went to a less used set of fronts, the correct feel came back and the car was very good. Just keep an eye on the fronts, and especially watch for the death groove.
Another big issue was lead weight. A little discussion has already occurred on RcTech about Austin Brumblay's lead setup. I noticed his car looked like it was kind of hard to drive in Q1, which allowed me to Tq the round, despite his very fast initial pace. From what I could tell, the lead showed up in Q2, and his car was VERY dialed from that point out. In short, he cantilevered the lead out sideways from the radio trays, and stacked lead up (6+ oz.). This was more like a 103 with the battery sideways in terms of weight distribution. This added weight transfer really worked for him. After seeing how good his car was, I added 4 oz. (as much as I had, LOL) to my car in a similar fashion. What was interesting was not the fact that the car became much more stable- in fact I had to add 30 points of dual rate to get the steering back. What was more interesting was the tire wear on my rears was much better. Without the weight, the rears grained pretty bad, and I'm sure the car broke the rear end loose quite a bit. After the weight, the tires came back in almost new shape.
For asphalt in general, I can't recommend this more. I haven't run it enough to monitor improvement in the number of runs on a tire, but I would imagine there should be a couple more before the tire is slow.
Before any of the racing started, I did show my "lowered" front end setup to race director Fred Medel, who shut me down immediately, LOL. I was sort of expecting it, and Craig "Cuda" Hammon warned me it would probably be thrown out, as they were pretty harsh on creative setups at the last couple races. It worked out fine though. I did use a short Tamiya ballstud on the camber plate to get a bit of the angle back into the upper arm, but they seemed ok with that. I was allowed to run the shorty servo with the output shaft facing up and forward as I have in the past. This was ok since no parts were cut or altered. I ran black front springs, which was fine until I put the lead on the car. Looking back, I could have run gold or even softer, since I needed steering. Austin B. mentioned on RcTech that he used gold springs with AW grease, which sounds just about right, and his car was great.
I'll probably have more in the next couple days, but for now congratulations go to Austin Brumblay TCS NAF winner! I'm sure he'll be issuing beat downs in Japan...Also congrats to Anthony Fung in 2nd place, and thanks to my rc.F1.blog team pit buddy T Marshall. The rc.F1.blog team managed to qualify 2nd and 4th, and I got to the podium in 3rd, which wasn't too bad.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
Pre TCS Nationals
I arrived at the Tamiya facility early Saturday morning to get some testing in. After last year, I waanted to get a handle on things early. I had not planned to come out so early, but some friends urged me to do so. Luckily I was able to change my flight (and actually get a better price!!) and come out early.
Just some quick thoughts:
*The track like last year doesn't have a ton of traction. However, it seems a little stiffer chassis is working better as I thought. There is a limit to this, but stiffer helps the car have a better feel out of the corner.
*Simple green!! LOL
*Maxing out the front ride height may not be the way to go. I was trying this to help stability, but it may be making the car hard to drive. Essentially, the roll center raises with the ride height due to the fixed arm, so
too high of a ride height may make the car too reactive...
*I am a big dummy dept: The plastic camber plate is 0 and .5 camber, I guess. I did not realize this, but using a caliper, the 1 position has the holes ~21mm apart, 2 is ~20mm, and 1.0 on the aluminum piece is ~19mm. Closer hole spacing = more camber...........
Just some quick thoughts:
*The track like last year doesn't have a ton of traction. However, it seems a little stiffer chassis is working better as I thought. There is a limit to this, but stiffer helps the car have a better feel out of the corner.
*Simple green!! LOL
*Maxing out the front ride height may not be the way to go. I was trying this to help stability, but it may be making the car hard to drive. Essentially, the roll center raises with the ride height due to the fixed arm, so
too high of a ride height may make the car too reactive...
*I am a big dummy dept: The plastic camber plate is 0 and .5 camber, I guess. I did not realize this, but using a caliper, the 1 position has the holes ~21mm apart, 2 is ~20mm, and 1.0 on the aluminum piece is ~19mm. Closer hole spacing = more camber...........
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
F104X1 Carbon lower deck?
Just a quick thought, I have been thinking about trying the carbon lower deck vs. the FRP that comes with the car. As I alluded to in my previous post, the car was better with two chassis post installed all the way forward. I'm wondering how a carbon chassis with no posts installed would be, maybe a medium between no posts and posts on an FRP chassis. It's food for thought....
Monday, August 15, 2011
F104X1 panic at the racetrack
So Sunday I was trying to get some last minute testing in at the local track before setting out for California and the Tamiya Nationals. There was a bit of rain during the day, and I had a lot to try out, so I was scrambling a bit. Not to mention, there wasn't an F1 turnout, so I was trying the car between rounds once practice ended.
A couple quick things that stood out to me:
One thing that I had used in the past on the F103 was the shorter kingpin setup that traps the spring between the top of the steering knuckle and the upper arm on the standard front end. Usually, the spring rides under the lower arm. I can't remember the Tamiya part # or the name, but it's very close to how an Associated "old school" front end is set up. The main point is, it seemed to produce a bit of preload on the spring, and I even added shims at times to increase the preload. The car has a more stable feel, especially entering the corner. This was helpful with the 103 on foams.
I was trying some "sag" or droop on the front end of the 104 by removing a .5mm spacer. That did add some on power steering, but it came with a less than predictable steering feel. Going to a extra .5mm spacer over standard (.5mm preload) gave a very confident steering feel. The relationship of the steering wheel to how the car turned was very proportional, very linear.
I also changed the steering links to the forward hole in the steering arm. This does two things, changes the ackerman relationship, and also speeds up the steering. Mostly I wanted to change ackerman, but I didn't want to move the servo. It was easier to have an extra set of links. I think that it helped the car get through the turn a little better because of less wheel scrub. Now, what I'd really like to do is set the servo to have straighter steering links (mine are currently very angled) and also go back to the rear holes in the steering arm.
Another positive result was adding chassis posts in the forward most holes. My car had a bit of a loose out of the corner/under power condition. I remember I had tried the posts before at the Memphis race, and it tightened the car up a little after turn in. So I added the posts, hoping it would help. They actually did tighten the car up a bit where I needed it, coming off the corner. Memphis was pretty high bite, so the posts were not needed there, but the local track facility's beautiful euro style road course is literally 20 feet from their off road track. This does tend to throw some dust on the road course unless there is a ton of cars on the track and a lot of sugar water.
Overall, progress was good. I would have also liked to have tried increasing the center shocks angle, as it usually stabilizes the car, but it wasn't super important since I have tried that adjustment several times before.
Side damper oil was also increased to 10000 wt diff oil to aid in stability as well, but that is a pretty well sorted adjustment.
One other thing was that straight Simple Green to clean the tires seemed to have the longest "run" on the track before the tires got dirtied.
A couple quick things that stood out to me:
One thing that I had used in the past on the F103 was the shorter kingpin setup that traps the spring between the top of the steering knuckle and the upper arm on the standard front end. Usually, the spring rides under the lower arm. I can't remember the Tamiya part # or the name, but it's very close to how an Associated "old school" front end is set up. The main point is, it seemed to produce a bit of preload on the spring, and I even added shims at times to increase the preload. The car has a more stable feel, especially entering the corner. This was helpful with the 103 on foams.
I was trying some "sag" or droop on the front end of the 104 by removing a .5mm spacer. That did add some on power steering, but it came with a less than predictable steering feel. Going to a extra .5mm spacer over standard (.5mm preload) gave a very confident steering feel. The relationship of the steering wheel to how the car turned was very proportional, very linear.
I also changed the steering links to the forward hole in the steering arm. This does two things, changes the ackerman relationship, and also speeds up the steering. Mostly I wanted to change ackerman, but I didn't want to move the servo. It was easier to have an extra set of links. I think that it helped the car get through the turn a little better because of less wheel scrub. Now, what I'd really like to do is set the servo to have straighter steering links (mine are currently very angled) and also go back to the rear holes in the steering arm.
Another positive result was adding chassis posts in the forward most holes. My car had a bit of a loose out of the corner/under power condition. I remember I had tried the posts before at the Memphis race, and it tightened the car up a little after turn in. So I added the posts, hoping it would help. They actually did tighten the car up a bit where I needed it, coming off the corner. Memphis was pretty high bite, so the posts were not needed there, but the local track facility's beautiful euro style road course is literally 20 feet from their off road track. This does tend to throw some dust on the road course unless there is a ton of cars on the track and a lot of sugar water.
Overall, progress was good. I would have also liked to have tried increasing the center shocks angle, as it usually stabilizes the car, but it wasn't super important since I have tried that adjustment several times before.
Side damper oil was also increased to 10000 wt diff oil to aid in stability as well, but that is a pretty well sorted adjustment.
One other thing was that straight Simple Green to clean the tires seemed to have the longest "run" on the track before the tires got dirtied.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
F104X1 front end thoughts...
Due to a couple big events this weekend, there was no place to run my car. The only on road race was at a hobby expo, and they didn't offer F1. Luckily, the shopping center where one of the local hobby shops is located just had the lot repaved, so I was able to fool around with a few things. I was trying out different ways of tire prep, but I did have a chance to play with the front end a bit.
My car did oversteer generally. The first move I tried was to set the camber to minimum by going to the 1.0 setting on the camber plate, but keeping camber gain in the car by raising the arm up at the kingpin. This was a pretty good compromise, but I was still not there.
My car was a little loose on corner exit. One way to cure this is to raise the front end. I raised the front end to the maximum, removing all washers from under the knuckle. This definitely helps to settle the rear end down, but in effect you are raising the front roll center. That, coupled with the rear end being as low as possible, creates a situation where the car turns in, but now is prone to pushing more mid corner and exit. Obviously, I want to keep the positive aspect of a more stable corner exit, but I want to get some of the push out. The problem was that it began to rain a bit so I had to cut my session short. I would have liked to lower the shock to a more horizontal positon to get a little more on power steering. One other possibility would have been going to the gold front spring from the black to let the car roll a little more, but I'm not sure if it would be too much.
My car did oversteer generally. The first move I tried was to set the camber to minimum by going to the 1.0 setting on the camber plate, but keeping camber gain in the car by raising the arm up at the kingpin. This was a pretty good compromise, but I was still not there.
My car was a little loose on corner exit. One way to cure this is to raise the front end. I raised the front end to the maximum, removing all washers from under the knuckle. This definitely helps to settle the rear end down, but in effect you are raising the front roll center. That, coupled with the rear end being as low as possible, creates a situation where the car turns in, but now is prone to pushing more mid corner and exit. Obviously, I want to keep the positive aspect of a more stable corner exit, but I want to get some of the push out. The problem was that it began to rain a bit so I had to cut my session short. I would have liked to lower the shock to a more horizontal positon to get a little more on power steering. One other possibility would have been going to the gold front spring from the black to let the car roll a little more, but I'm not sure if it would be too much.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Sunday, July 31, 2011
F104X1 First day on asphalt
I got a chance to run my car on asphalt for the first time today. My initial thought was that it actually understeered a bit. This may have been due to the tire treatment. I was trying to actually use an oil type additive, but after the warmers came off, I re cleaned the tire with buggy grip. This seemed to clear up a lot of the issue with the tires feeling "greasy". The car actually was fairly locked down.
I was also using 28g of weight on and around the servo. This is an idea based on the new 1/12 layouts using the battery lengthwise in the car to get more weight in the nose area to promote more on power steering and a bit less twitchyness. It's like putting a case of water in the front of a shopping cart. It doesn't change directions so fast, but it goes once you are committed.
Anyway, I started to increase the angle of the upper arm by lowering it at the inside by 1mm, and on subsequent runs, raising it at the kingpin by .5mm. I also went to 2.0 camber. This made a lot of off power steering, but it didn't turn that hard on the throttle To help this, I went the yellow spring, from the red. Again, it was helpful, but not a huge difference. Lowering the shock ballstud by 1mm did get the car steering a little more as well.
Adding 1mm to the reactive caster (placing the shims under the rear upper arm ballstud) again got the car turning more off power, but didn't help the on power much at all.
Raising the front ride height 1mm did actually seem to help a bit. I sort of think the car could roll a bit faster with the nose up. I'm not sure about this, so I'm going to have to try it a little more. It did seem promising.
One other thing I did have a chance to try was changing the damper tube. I started with 5000 diff lube, and went down to 2000. The car had quite a bit less dampening, and it also had more response. It was a bit hard to get a really good handle on this, as I had a set of tires starting to go off when I did this, and I went to a newer set on the next run. I'm tending to think it may be better off to actually run a little stiffer lube when there is less bite to the car is calmer. Obviously, this only holds true to a point, but 5K to 10K should be ok. I would say start with 5000 and go from there.
Overall, the car was a little on the push side, but I could drive it fairly hard and not have to worry about it spinning out or acting funny otherwise. I did identify an on power push, but this car may require a harder spring and or shock oil setup, since the damper disc acted in all directions, vs. the tube which only affects side to side movement.
It was a bit hard to play around with too much more, as the race was a local series race that had around 70 entries. Track times was a bit of a premium, but I'm going to try to get more practice this week and work through some of the issues.
I was also using 28g of weight on and around the servo. This is an idea based on the new 1/12 layouts using the battery lengthwise in the car to get more weight in the nose area to promote more on power steering and a bit less twitchyness. It's like putting a case of water in the front of a shopping cart. It doesn't change directions so fast, but it goes once you are committed.
Anyway, I started to increase the angle of the upper arm by lowering it at the inside by 1mm, and on subsequent runs, raising it at the kingpin by .5mm. I also went to 2.0 camber. This made a lot of off power steering, but it didn't turn that hard on the throttle To help this, I went the yellow spring, from the red. Again, it was helpful, but not a huge difference. Lowering the shock ballstud by 1mm did get the car steering a little more as well.
Adding 1mm to the reactive caster (placing the shims under the rear upper arm ballstud) again got the car turning more off power, but didn't help the on power much at all.
Raising the front ride height 1mm did actually seem to help a bit. I sort of think the car could roll a bit faster with the nose up. I'm not sure about this, so I'm going to have to try it a little more. It did seem promising.
One other thing I did have a chance to try was changing the damper tube. I started with 5000 diff lube, and went down to 2000. The car had quite a bit less dampening, and it also had more response. It was a bit hard to get a really good handle on this, as I had a set of tires starting to go off when I did this, and I went to a newer set on the next run. I'm tending to think it may be better off to actually run a little stiffer lube when there is less bite to the car is calmer. Obviously, this only holds true to a point, but 5K to 10K should be ok. I would say start with 5000 and go from there.
Overall, the car was a little on the push side, but I could drive it fairly hard and not have to worry about it spinning out or acting funny otherwise. I did identify an on power push, but this car may require a harder spring and or shock oil setup, since the damper disc acted in all directions, vs. the tube which only affects side to side movement.
It was a bit hard to play around with too much more, as the race was a local series race that had around 70 entries. Track times was a bit of a premium, but I'm going to try to get more practice this week and work through some of the issues.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Exo104 and 104X1
The weather has been weird around here lately. Hot, crazy thunderstorms, everything changing every 15 minutes. With that being the case, it was time for a trip to the carpet track.
I wanted to shake down the 104X1, and also fool around with my Exotek car. I got a hold of some of the Pit tires last week (R-1 and F3-S), so it would be a nice time to try them out on carpet. Luckily, the layout has been down a couple months since its summer. There are at least a few guys practicing every week, so the traction was ok.
The Exotek car was pretty good to start with, but it didn't quite rotate enough, and had a bit of a mid corner push. I changed the ballstud on the rear of the upper arm from a short Tamiya to the standard Tamiya, which is about 1mm higher. That helped to get the car turning mid corner, but it picked up a traction roll if I cranked the wheel too hard in the sweeper. Reducing camber to 1.5* helped a little, but I wound up changing the 3.5 mm offset steering arms for the stock parts. This helped since I was able to take throw out of the radio, and the car transitioned side to side way better. Basically, the car had more steering with less throw, so it wasn't diving onto the outside tire so hard and traction rolling.
At this point I threw the Pit tires onto the 104X1 just to make sure it went in a straight line, steered ok, and just to see what it drove like. I was actually surprised at how good it was. It wrapped the corners a little better than the Exotek car, and had quite a bit of off power steering. At the same time, it pushed if you got on the throttle too quick, and it didn't have the overall front grip of the Exotek, nor was it as easy to drive.
I took one of the 1.5mm washers out from under the rear shock ball stud, making the shock a bit flatter. That made the car better on power, but also took away a bit of rear grip.
After all that, I looked at my Exotek car and made a few changes to get it closer to some of the things I liked on the X1. I went from 50wt in the side damper to 35wt oil, and from red CRC side springs to whites, one step down. I measured the front caster on the X1, and put the Exotek car at about 7*, or as close as I could eyeball with my camber gauge. I also lowered the front ride height 1mm.
This really helped the car wrap the corners much better. It was fast but really easy to drive. The only thing you had to be aware of was not totally sawing the wheel hard in the sweeper. Some of that may just be the nature of the beast, in that the car is so narrow. I also noticed the car was only making a few small chirps in a couple corners, so it was using the tires without sliding them. That was one thing about the X1, it was making a lot of tire noise.
Another small but significant change was the servo saver. I was using a small Kimbrough, but it had a crack on the edge of one of the ballstud holes. It broke when I got into a tube, so I replaced it with a Kimbrough Medium (they are black, and come with inserts for different servos). The ball stud holes are are further apart, and a little farther away from the center of rotation. This repair was the only change before I went back out on the track, and I noticed the car had more steering without upsetting any other part of the setup. I had tested out all 3 sizes of Kimbroughs, and the big Tamiya horn last summer with the servo positioned per the manual. I hadn't gone through that test again once I started to run the servo with the output shaft facing up. Last summer the Kimbrough Medium had the most steering, and also produced better lap times (I had a hard time believing there was a difference, but there it was). Once again, the Kimbrough Medium was an improvement.
I ran the X1 one more time, just to compare the two cars. The X1 was definitely fast, but a little more on edge. As I said above, it made a lot of tire noise, and with the shock a little more level, you could tell it was sliding a bit in the sweepers. I think some of that could be remedied by playing with the o rings on the T bar, maybe running only one o ring vs. the inner and outer o rings. The car did have a very good feel, and was shockingly close on setup. With a few changes, it will be really good. I'm going to try to get it out on asphalt ASAP with the Tamiya tires to see where it really stands, but so far, so good.
I wanted to shake down the 104X1, and also fool around with my Exotek car. I got a hold of some of the Pit tires last week (R-1 and F3-S), so it would be a nice time to try them out on carpet. Luckily, the layout has been down a couple months since its summer. There are at least a few guys practicing every week, so the traction was ok.
The Exotek car was pretty good to start with, but it didn't quite rotate enough, and had a bit of a mid corner push. I changed the ballstud on the rear of the upper arm from a short Tamiya to the standard Tamiya, which is about 1mm higher. That helped to get the car turning mid corner, but it picked up a traction roll if I cranked the wheel too hard in the sweeper. Reducing camber to 1.5* helped a little, but I wound up changing the 3.5 mm offset steering arms for the stock parts. This helped since I was able to take throw out of the radio, and the car transitioned side to side way better. Basically, the car had more steering with less throw, so it wasn't diving onto the outside tire so hard and traction rolling.
At this point I threw the Pit tires onto the 104X1 just to make sure it went in a straight line, steered ok, and just to see what it drove like. I was actually surprised at how good it was. It wrapped the corners a little better than the Exotek car, and had quite a bit of off power steering. At the same time, it pushed if you got on the throttle too quick, and it didn't have the overall front grip of the Exotek, nor was it as easy to drive.
I took one of the 1.5mm washers out from under the rear shock ball stud, making the shock a bit flatter. That made the car better on power, but also took away a bit of rear grip.
After all that, I looked at my Exotek car and made a few changes to get it closer to some of the things I liked on the X1. I went from 50wt in the side damper to 35wt oil, and from red CRC side springs to whites, one step down. I measured the front caster on the X1, and put the Exotek car at about 7*, or as close as I could eyeball with my camber gauge. I also lowered the front ride height 1mm.
This really helped the car wrap the corners much better. It was fast but really easy to drive. The only thing you had to be aware of was not totally sawing the wheel hard in the sweeper. Some of that may just be the nature of the beast, in that the car is so narrow. I also noticed the car was only making a few small chirps in a couple corners, so it was using the tires without sliding them. That was one thing about the X1, it was making a lot of tire noise.
Another small but significant change was the servo saver. I was using a small Kimbrough, but it had a crack on the edge of one of the ballstud holes. It broke when I got into a tube, so I replaced it with a Kimbrough Medium (they are black, and come with inserts for different servos). The ball stud holes are are further apart, and a little farther away from the center of rotation. This repair was the only change before I went back out on the track, and I noticed the car had more steering without upsetting any other part of the setup. I had tested out all 3 sizes of Kimbroughs, and the big Tamiya horn last summer with the servo positioned per the manual. I hadn't gone through that test again once I started to run the servo with the output shaft facing up. Last summer the Kimbrough Medium had the most steering, and also produced better lap times (I had a hard time believing there was a difference, but there it was). Once again, the Kimbrough Medium was an improvement.
I ran the X1 one more time, just to compare the two cars. The X1 was definitely fast, but a little more on edge. As I said above, it made a lot of tire noise, and with the shock a little more level, you could tell it was sliding a bit in the sweepers. I think some of that could be remedied by playing with the o rings on the T bar, maybe running only one o ring vs. the inner and outer o rings. The car did have a very good feel, and was shockingly close on setup. With a few changes, it will be really good. I'm going to try to get it out on asphalt ASAP with the Tamiya tires to see where it really stands, but so far, so good.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
F104X1 assembly rundown
I got a chance to work on the X1 car today and get things pretty well finished up. I have a few spots where I did some things different from the manual based on how I like to set up my current F104 for rubber tires.
I chose to use the Heavy Pivot Post as I have been using for a while. Generally, more weight is going to be helpful for rubber tire in all but the most high traction situations. As you can see I'm also not going to run any chassis posts. I feel like the car is better on bumpy tracks, as well as making more traction. One thing I did notice was that adding posts tended to tighten the car up, which sounds the opposite of taking away traction. To make a better explanation, the car would turn in but not finish the corner well. Without the posts, this went away.
Tamiya includes carbon graphite plastic parts for the pod. The parts are very light, in fact 13g vs. 26g for the aluminum pieces from the black car. They also include an aluminum motor spacer to help cool the motor. I do like the idea of saving 1/2 an ounce of unsprung weight on the pod, but for me cooling was a bigger factor. Running a silver can motor for TCS races makes the aluminum parts more desirable, knowing the motor will be running 150-160 F if everything is right. The idea of a plastic motor mount at that temperature is less than inviting. The other problem is that with a silver can, which has a very short output shaft, the pinion will not reach with the included aluminum motor spacer. I tried to attach a long shank Spec-R pinion, which I use just because the silver can shaft is short, and it still did not line up properly. I tend to think that this setup was designed more with brushless in mind.
This shot has the diff as well as the side damper which is one of the new features on the car. The side damper is of high quality. It built easily and needed no extra cutting or modification. Sometimes, the dampers with 1/12 kits require you to cut or resize the damper, but this was super easy to deal with. I put 5000 wt diff oil on the damper to start, since it's really an unknown at this point. I have been running with no damper at all, and that has worked great lately. I'm excited to see how the car works with the damper affecting roll only, which is the standard in 1/12 and WGT these days.
There also are some other nice options with the car. The Short Black spring set comes with the car, so you have all three shock springs with the kit. The aluminum camber plate comes with the car as well, not to mention the aluminum servo saver horn, both in the sweet gunmetal finish.
The diff is also assembled to my preference. I like to use the one piece thrust bearing instead of the standard bearing included in the kit. The one piece is the same as the F103 thrust bearing, and it is a direct drop in replacement for the standard bearing from the kit. I think it makes the diff smoother, and it should also last about forever. Standard bearings are not meant to be used as thrust bearings....
For the diff itself, I always use Associated silicone grease. It may not be a huge deal, but I have had good success with it. In addition, I sand the diff rings with a medium paper like 400 or 600 to help give the rings some bite and create good diff action. I like to use a plastic diff hub to sand the rings in a figure 8 motion on glass or another flat surface. You can use an aluminum hub, but I have plastic ones laying around, and I don't dirty up the nice aluminum parts.
Here's a decent shot of the new counterweight setup. The counterweight rides on two normal bearings, but there is a shim with a small tab that goes between the counterweight and the bearing in the pod on the steel axle. I'm not sure if the shim is supposed to help get the counterweight spinning to provide a gyro effect or what exactly the deal is. Eventually, we'll find out at the track...
The 3.5mm offset front axle is a popular upgrade for rubber tires to make the car a bit easier to drive. One problem is that the axles come apart if the very small screw holding the metal to the plastic unscrews itself. I like to glue the axle into the plastic, and then add some glue to the screw's threads before fastening it. This has been a good method to secure things permanently!
The camber plate is also in the lowered position I prefer. There are several posts on the front end setup I like on the blog if you are interested, so I won't rehash that here.
As I said when I started the post, this is just an initial rundown on the car. The biggest changes seem to be the damper and the counterweight, and both are going to be big unknowns until I get the car to the track.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
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