Notorious Front bumpers are Notoriously easy to demolish

[SrC]

60k in the Front. I usually keep the rear identical to the front when closer to stock Thin oils. But for hard bashing in wide open fields, doubling up the Front CST compared to the Rr, works out nicely. The rig will liven up for sure. Bringing the Center CST up considerably over stock, also keeps power to ground much better. Less diff bleeding at the rear results. Dramatic difference over stock with 60kFr/500k/ 20-30k Rr. This is commonly done. Tires will also last longer.
Use your temp gun to check the center diff temps and the Fr. and Rear Output cups. Center will get hottest normally. Why I recommend the Arrma Metal diff. option part. Or the Center Plastic stocker can literally melt into a molten lump of Metal/ plastic, Oil will turn to a Tar. Been there, when Center diff reaches as high as 250F. If your Fr or Rr Cups are getting Very hot, the diffs are underfilled and/or oil is just too thin. The Shimming may be too tight, or you have an impending failure of the diff sat and sun gears or Diff Pins. (Bent)
The Diff pins dimensions are listed as 2.25 x 9.8mm, But if you use your Caliper, they actually are slightly different. Both Length and diameter.
So use your actual caliper measurement when sourcing HS Drill bits or Blank ones. Chamfer the ends smooth. If left sharp and square, will also ruin the Sun gear quickly.
FWIW, I use only Mugen Seiki gear shims as replacements. ( E02026) Sometimes right out the box when going over the new diffs with the thicker oils. Or the stockers will wear out quickly, then the gears get all jacked up quick. They are too thin and bend and cone out fast. Gear alignment suffers. I like my diffs setup tighter when new. They break-in and loosen up within a few packs. The Oil will turn a silvery color as they wear in. Normal for these Arrma cast metals. Use fresh automotive grease on the Main and Input gears after verifying the shimming on the main gear side of the diff within the Bulkhead.
Like I mentioned above make sure to use some grease on the 2 Output cup shafts before inserting them into the diff's carrier. There is a notched Groove on the output shafts, this is where you concentrate a thin film of grease before inserting them. The notch holds/retains the grease there.

https://www.amainhobbies.com/mugen-seiki-differential-washer-set-muge0206/p3241.

https://www.arrma-rc.com/en/product/metal-diff-case/ARA220050.html

https://www.arrma-rc.com/en/product/aluminum-center-diff-set-50t-200k/ARA311118.html ( Complete Center diff with Spur gear)

>>>>>> This is where most of us get Arrma parts cheapest.
Complete Center Metal diff below:

https://jennysrc.com/collections/fi...blx-center-differential-50t-spur-gear-ara7618
This is a take off part from a FT, which comes with a Center metal diff out the box. Stock oil in it is 300k according to Arrma. But I bet it will also be low on oil. Arrma is cheap with their oil. Like my FT and all 6s rigs were.

But I will completely disassemble this and use Mugen Shims and 500k cst right out the gate running.

I've been planning to make a set that are just about 2mm longer than stock, so the axles have less tendency to pop out when the suspension is at full compression. Making a set of drive cups looks like a doable project. I've got a vacation coming up.

I never thought to check the temps on anything. I should poke around with a temperature gun and see how hot things are getting.

Popping rear dog bones is a result of Poor Shock Droop and/or Shock Preload settings. And just driver error for the most part. Good to setup the Arms so they are all Level to the chassis, with body and lipo in place. At Full running weight.

Checking the ESC, Motor and lipo temps are the priority.
Just that also checking drivetrain temps in other key areas can also reveal impending failures. Even worn, dirty or Unlubed BB's can cause diff failures FWIW.

Good luck.

 

[SrC]

I ordered the high wing mount, and two of the bumper springs. Does everybody feel better now, or do I have to watch my back to check for torches and pitch forks?

We wouldn't steer you wrong. Much advice here is tried and proven. Your mileage may vary slightly. This the Arrma Forum after all. Not BF.

 

[arborvitian]

the rear results. Dramatic difference over stock with 60kFr/500k/ 20-30k Rr. This is commonly done. Tires will also last longer.

As far as all that goes, after about 20 packs, the center oil was approaching black, but it didn't smell burnt, and there was no heat damage to the plastic housing. I ran it about as hard as I'm ever going to run it. Nowhere I run involves more than a few seconds of full throttle.

I did use NLGI-2 grease when reassembling everything.

Popping rear dog bones is a result of Poor Shock Droop and/or Shock Preload settings.

The front right dogbone is known to pop on these things from factory, and such was the case with mine. I added bump stops that cured the problem in the short term, but slightly longer drive cups would solve the problem more elegantly. Plus it would be an interesting machining challenge.

 

[SrC]

At the Front with the CVD's, if you remove the shims and lower metal spacer washer on the Upper and lower arms at the Pivot balls,, the inner bones will also stay inside the cups. Bump stops along with Good droop helps. I used 5mm external bump stops on my FT. And also removed the Washers. My Kraton and Noto. as well. Proper shock droop will prevent broken Shock ends by preventing over extended shocks.

 

[arborvitian]

Okay, just to summarize, I ordered 60k for the front, 500k for the center (couldn't find 600k), and 30k for the rear. I also ordered metal diffs across the board. May as well. I just took out a huge salvation or bankruptcy consolidation loan (it's crazy how much rope they will give you to tie around your neck when you have an 800+ credit score, even though you're mired in debt and totally broke), and I have bagoodles of money at my disposal right now. If I don't use it to pay off stuff, I will be sccccccccrrrrrrewwwwwed, but another $200 in random toy stuff one way or the other won't really be noticed by my Recession Survival Strategy. (Are they calling this a recession yet? Because this is worse than 2008. The economy is sssssccccccrrrrrrewwwwweeeddddddd d d d d d.)

Should be good. More oil, more resistance, lower speed on the gears, lower wear on gears, lower road speed. I don't care about road speed. If I wanted road speed, I would buy a dragster or a drift car. My main use for the Notorious is making my dog exercise at this place:

 

[SrC]

Why 600k for the center? It's an odd CST , probably wont find that one. 500k is fine. You can always thicken up 500k with some 1 mil. CST oil. How I did my FT. I mixed some 1 mil with mostly 500K. Tried to end up with aprox. 700k, give or take. These CST oils are Very Thick, , so they barely even pour out. And you need to use a putty knife or similar to fill the Diff. I never seen any CST between 500k and 1 Mil myself. Try not to waste what you don't need. It is easy to lose some to waste with thick oil. Also take you time filling/ packing the diff, The oil needs to settle, and it does very slowly, or you will end up underfilling the diff. A fail.
Food for thought.
Thicker oil makes it liven up. More efficient power delivery from the drivetrain. Faster in so far as you won't get diff bleeding and loss of traction. That just wastes your lipo voltage and run time.

 

[arborvitian]

Why 600k for the center?

I have no idea where I came up with that number. I've been busy the last few days, lots of irons in lots of fires. My brain probably just short circuited briefly.

So I got a new body on order too, and the next thing I'm going to try is putting the vinyl graphics on the inside, then shooting color. Then I decide whether to leave the vinyl in place or peel it and shoot another color. I'm leaning toward just leaving it in place if it looks okay. The end result won't be my take on the "real steel" paint job, but it should wear well, and the graphics won't scrape off. Hopefully the next one won't crack in a dozen places like a dropped egg the first time I wheelie it. It's disappointing and a pain in the butt to have to do all this again, but most of the work in the graphics was producing the SVG files. Cutting and weeding and applying won't be that bad, and I can create an exact copy of the graphics I had on the first version of the body.

The oils, I'm going to go 60/500/30, and I'm going to leave everything else alone for now. The bump stop I put on the side that wanted to pop out works fine. Maybe I can fine tune things further next week while I'm on vacation. Assuming I can keep the truck running more than two minutes next time I have it up and running.

 

[arborvitian]

I got the metal diffs, filled them with R 30, C 500, F 60, and got stuck on reassembly when I realized I had lost one of the shock bushings. Figures.

While the truck is down, I went ahead and did the new body. I applied the graphics to the inside this time. Two coats of pink, peel vinyl, a coat of black. I didn't Gorilla tape the snot out of it, since that didn't actually prevent the body from shattering like an egg last time. All in all, this iteration has too much black in the pink, but the underlying concept is solid. Next time, I will use black vinyl, so any lingering bits are less obvious. I will do another coat or two of the pink before topping with black. Still, it turned out pretty well. It's a lot more sophisticated looking than my last iteration.

I'm looking forward to destroying this, so I have an excuse to do iteration 3.0, and also, the colors on this one are better, because I used Tamiya instead of Horizon paints. Not really a fan of the Horizon paints.

 

[Slava1987]

Cheers. Great rig you have there and excellent involvement into the hobby. Sorry if my expression is too clumsy. Broke stock bumper on the first ride. I've used EXB version, but it always looks not from this car for me. Due to these frustrations I've made my own version from HDPE and poliamide.

And thunder has crashed out! Several other versions was produced. Some of them are copy from T-bone bumpers, but there are several fresh solutions. TPU repulsors, custom wheely and so on. So, it is a good experience where some issue push your creativity forward.)))

 

[arborvitian]

Cheers. Great rig you have there and excellent involvement into the hobby. Sorry if my expression is too clumsy. Broke stock bumper on the first ride. I've used EXB version, but it always looks not from this car for me. Due to these frustrations I've made my own version from HDPE and poliamide.

3D printing? I can see some of the design iteration there. I was going to say more, but Daphne is all up in my face, and she isn't going to let me sit here. Puppy wants to play!

 

[Slava1987]

3D printing? I can see some of the design iteration there. I was going to say more, but Daphne is all up in my face, and she isn't going to let me sit here. Puppy wants to play!

Sure T-bone has it's influence for amateur creator mind))) There is only one red part made via 3-d printing. All other parts cnc machined and bent after heating.
There can't be any excuses! True friends deserve true love!)))

 

[arborvitian]

Sure T-bone has it's influence for amateur creator mind))) There is only one red part made via 3-d printing. All other parts cnc machined and bent after heating.
There can't be any excuses! True friends deserve true love!)))

That makes sense. I was trying to figure out how you made that stuff,and 3D printing didn't seem quite right. I wish I had a CNC setup. Manual all the way here, and no 3D printer.

I finally got the truck back up running, and put the body on. I didn't want to run it through the grass after two days of rain, so I ran it around on asphalt in an empty parking lot at 4:00 am in my pajamas while I was three sheets to the wind. It got scuffed a little, and I'm fine with that. My last body was already in 16 pieces by this stage of testing, so I'm very pleased with this now. This technique worked out very well, and I'm probably going to do more custom bodies in the future.

My girl's truck collection definitely looks worthy of a pretty princess puppy. The 4S Outcast is more comfortable to drive in my yard. The Notorious is kind of a dog when it comes to turning radius, and my yard is mostly landscaping, with little grass.

 

[Dan B.]

I got the metal diffs, filled them with R 30, C 500, F 60, and got stuck on reassembly when I realized I had lost one of the shock bushings. Figures.

While the truck is down, I went ahead and did the new body. I applied the graphics to the inside this time. Two coats of pink, peel vinyl, a coat of black. I didn't Gorilla tape the snot out of it, since that didn't actually prevent the body from shattering like an egg last time. All in all, this iteration has too much black in the pink, but the underlying concept is solid. Next time, I will use black vinyl, so any lingering bits are less obvious. I will do another coat or two of the pink before topping with black. Still, it turned out pretty well. It's a lot more sophisticated looking than my last iteration.

I'm looking forward to destroying this, so I have an excuse to do iteration 3.0, and also, the colors on this one are better, because I used Tamiya instead of Horizon paints. Not really a fan of the Horizon paints.

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Awesome, dude. I love the vision for your trucks!

 

[SrC]

Cheers. Great rig you have there and excellent involvement into the hobby. Sorry if my expression is too clumsy. Broke stock bumper on the first ride. I've used EXB version, but it always looks not from this car for me. Due to these frustrations I've made my own version from HDPE and poliamide.

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And thunder has crashed out! Several other versions was produced. Some of them are copy from T-bone bumpers, but there are several fresh solutions. TPU repulsors, custom wheely and so on. So, it is a good experience where some issue push your creativity forward.)))

View attachment 299856

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I just love your bumper there, looks stout. I still have a few T -Bone bumpers hanging on.
Since the advent of Arrma's EXB K6s "Basher bumper", I run them now.

 

[arborvitian]

Awesome, dude. I love the vision for your trucks!

Now if I could only use up an entire pack before something breaks. It started with the front diff. Blew up. Fixed it. Blew up again. Got that sorted. First time out, the entire front end flies apart. My mistake during reassembly. Got that sorted, took it out to the woods with a big bag full of lipos ready to go, and I'm watching in mid-air as one of the rear axles shoots out.

Lost a screw going into the shock tower. None of the 800 screws I carry in my pit toolbox were long enough, and now I'm waaaaaaaiting on specialty parts again.

Coming back to add... I remembered these screws I bought for the covers on my motor fans. Right length. Various work holding problems, several dropped washers or screws or driveshafts later, it finally dawned on me that the M2.5 screws are 0.5mm too small for the nuts I have. So I'm still waiting on specialty parts, but I just wasted even more time.

 

[Dan B.]

Now if I could only use up an entire pack before something breaks. It started with the front diff. Blew up. Fixed it. Blew up again. Got that sorted. First time out, the entire front end flies apart. My mistake during reassembly. Got that sorted, took it out to the woods with a big bag full of lipos ready to go, and I'm watching in mid-air as one of the rear axles shoots out.

Lost a screw going into the shock tower. None of the 800 screws I carry in my pit toolbox were long enough, and now I'm waaaaaaaiting on specialty parts again.

Coming back to add... I remembered these screws I bought for the covers on my motor fans. Right length. Various work holding problems, several dropped washers or screws or driveshafts later, it finally dawned on me that the M2.5 screws are 0.5mm too small for the nuts I have. So I'm still waiting on specialty parts, but I just wasted even more time.

Sometimes it seems as though we’re losing the war, but you’ll be a master tech before you know it!

 

[arborvitian]

Sometimes it seems as though we’re losing the war, but you’ll be a master tech before you know it!

I'm not above engineering a better solution, too, if I can think of one. The way these turnbuckles attach is kind of spindly, and when one pops off, there goes the driveshaft, and that whole corner of the suspension. It's not very robust. Can I come up with better? I don't know yet. Maybe. I'm mulling that one over.

 

[arborvitian]

So I kept it stock for now. Got the parts in. Fixed the turnbuckle. Driving around in the yard, doing a few wheelies and a couple of backflips, first one and then both diffs completely blew up. Kaboom. So much for the EXB or whatever upgrade. (These are the diffs with the metal housings and square shims.) Have not done a disassembly and diagnoses yet, but I'm about fed up with this truck at this point.

Seriously, it performed splendidly through much extreme bashing, and everything went sideways when I simply followed the instructions in the manual and changed the diff oil. I haven't used an entire pack without something blowing since that fateful day. Three front diffs blown. One rear diff blown.

I have a home machine shop that I've used to make parts for real vehicles for crying out loud, but these stupid little toy differentials are kicking my teeth in.

 

[joshludden]

So I kept it stock for now. Got the parts in. Fixed the turnbuckle. Driving around in the yard, doing a few wheelies and a couple of backflips, first one and then both diffs completely blew up. Kaboom. So much for the EXB or whatever upgrade. (These are the diffs with the metal housings and square shims.) Have not done a disassembly and diagnoses yet, but I'm about fed up with this truck at this point.

Seriously, it performed splendidly through much extreme bashing, and everything went sideways when I simply followed the instructions in the manual and changed the diff oil. I haven't used an entire pack without something blowing since that fateful day. Three front diffs blown. One rear diff blown.

I have a home machine shop that I've used to make parts for real vehicles for crying out loud, but these stupid little toy differentials are kicking my teeth in.

Are you on the throttle when you're landing?

 

[arborvitian]

Are you on the throttle when you're landing?

Sometimes I probably am a little, but my driving technique hasn't changed. With stock diffs, stock oils, and stock shims, it blasted through stack after stack of batteries. I broke bumper- and wing-related things, had the right front axle pop out a few times. I got the axle sorted well enough, and everything was fine.

Then I took apart all the diffs, and changed the oil to the ones listed in the manual. Blew the front diff immediately. I just blew the front diff again. The EXB diff is full of gear chunks. I was running 60 cst oil in there. The diff lasted maybe 15 minutes of throttle time. I haven't looked at the rear yet, but I expect the same. It blew second. I hadn't figured out that the front diff was blown yet. One sun gear went first, sending all the power to the remaining side, and making it pull. While I was trying to figure out what was going on, the rear blew, and it's totally freewheeling.

On the bright side, I didn't shear any of the out-drive pins this time.

My hypothesis is that I messed up the shims in the diff case. I'm leaning that way, because the shim in the case on the front diff was bent and not seated properly.

I'm pretty much out of money at this point though, so I'm going to shelve this for now. I've got a new diff case coming, because extensive damage to the front bumper area has blown out the screw holes for the screws that hold the lower A-arms in place. I will reassemble the diff inside that case on the bench, and maybe with everything more accessible, it will be more apparent what I'm doing wrong on the shims. I have rebuild kits for the stock diffs, and I'm just going to rebuild those and go back to those, and I'm going to consign these fancy new diffs to baggies full of the parts that aren't junked, and maybe get replacement parts later.