Notorious I have some work to do....

[PowerDubs]

Received my truck in January. Wasn't planning on changing much yet....other than the T-bone front and rear bumper I installed already.

Well.

Crashed it a few times, broke several pieces, and reading the forum for suggestions.... = pile of parts.

I am about to head to the garage to start the tear down.

M2c chassis and skid plates
Tekno shock ends, balls and 14 motor pinion
RPM front & rear A-arms
Rear wing mount delete (factory Arrma parts)
Voltage rear shock tower
diff fluid- 60k front, 30k rear- unable to source desired 200-500k center yet as back ordered everywhere...

Any thoughts or suggestions?

I guess I am about to rip it pretty much completely apart...

 

[PowerDubs]

Oh yea- and the sealed bearings everyone recommends- forgot the name.

Also bought new tools for the work. Both straight and ball.

 

[PowerDubs]

La la la. Apply heat....

 

[PowerDubs]

Now to decide how to proceed.

Still waiting on the voltage rear shock tower, I need to find center diff fluid.

I suppose I can work on the front and rear diffs and a-arms along with bearings.

Am I supposed remember how this all goes back together? ?

 

[PowerDubs]

Decided to start with pinion. It wanted some heat too.

 

[Notorious J]

Dude, this is hilarious! Your step by step chronology is what every newb needs. Add "newbs take notice to your thread title.

 

[PowerDubs]

Ok- first tip from a newb to any other newbs.

When removing this inner hex, the factory T wrench is hollow so you can insert your hex driver through it to turn the inner while holding the outer.

 

[PowerDubs]

Starting bearings

 

[Dutch213]

Dude, this is hilarious! Your step by step chronology is what every newb needs. Add "newbs take notice to your thread title.

hahahaha.... i was thinking the same thing!!! It reminds me of something I have posted.... love it!

 

[Jimbobjr]

Looking good! Love the smoke wrench.

 

[PowerDubs]

Not going to lie, since my truck is in 1000 parts all over my garage I look back at my choice to buy this instead of the tekno.

Tekno generously offers a nice military discount so the cost difference is not substantial but part of what sold me on the Arrma was “well I don’t want to have to put a kit together”.

And here I am basically ripping it completely apart and putting it all together anyway.

But I am learning about the raid and having a lot of fun and beer in the process.

My long angled needle nose work great for holding these two spacer clips while I slide the bolt back in.

 

[Dutch213]

i never even knew a hex went through that wrench... lol

 

[Dutch213]

you gotta be careful cause i did the same thing on my notorious... i took it apart to every screw like 3 times and all the screws that tapped into plastic got weaker each time.. They all eventually stripped..

 

[PowerDubs]

About to swap to the tekno shock end and balls I read about.

Going to have to hit the grinder.... didn’t read about that....

 

[PowerDubs]

Upon closer inspection, probably not going to grind.

The stock piece bottoms internally and supports on the sleeve.

The Tekno has a lip that prevents it from sliding all the way in- leaves about a 2mm gap before the sleeve contacts the base.

But the lip itself on the Tekno appears pretty sturdy and contacts 180 degree of the base casing.

This moves the forces from the inside to the outside but the plastic appears thick enough by my uneducated eyes.

I could shave and make it fit like stock, but that would take time doing fiddly work for probably no appreciable gain whatsoever. If I ever notice an issue later, the parts are cheap to do something different at that time.

 

[PowerDubs]

It is really hard to appreciate the difference in material here until you have it in front of you. Not only is the center ball metal where the factory one is plastic but the ring casing is substantially beefier.

Even though I have not had the truck long enough to break one this looks like a no brainer upgrade to me.

And yes I am typing – the Eddie bearings spins much nicer than the factory bearings even though I have only ran the truck three or four times on the stock bearings.

 

[PowerDubs]

I am my own worst enemy because I am a noob.

Just went upstairs to play with my new puppy for a little bit and while she was running around I watched a YouTube video.

Apparently there are different Tekno rod ends and the ones I read about and purchased are different than the ones in the video I saw.

The ones in the video were a direct swap and the ones I have come with different lower shock caps.

I just assumed those were extra parts that I would not need ( and honestly it would still work fine without them as I mentioned above ) but they are the same as our factory spring diameter so will swap on the shock ends perfectly - and the benefit is these ends to have screw holes as does the new lower shock caps and and these come with screws so you physically secure the shock and to the end so that there is zero possibility of it bouncing loose on some sort of a hard bash.

The more I see of the Tekno stuff the more impressed I am.

 

[PowerDubs]

Another noob helpful hint, for getting the rod end started.

 

[PowerDubs]

RPM has 2 different shock mount spots- what are you guys using?

 

[PowerDubs]

Finished the one side with the rpm A-arm swap, Eddie bearing upgrade, techno shock end.

Before I start the other side I am going to remove the front diff and see what’s what with that.