Kraton Kraton 6S Rebuild - Questions

[mariog7]

Hello, All!

Long time RC guy, newbie to Arrma. Just rebuilt my (new) Kraton to put in some upgrades and change out the diff fluids. Please let me ask you:

1) Are there any better build manuals than the horrible exploded views that come in the manual? Guess I like the big ol’ diagrams that show the entire assembly process and actual size of the screws. When you have the entire thing apart, it’s impossible not to mix up screws...

2) Is it just me, or are these diff covers a pain in the rear to align and re-assemble? It’s like they don’t pop on - you need to find a way to get all 4 screws pre-aligned which is not easy at all

3) The v4 seems to have shims in all the right places and there is so little slop - nice! However, the alignment of the spur gear with the main gear (even with the included shim to bring them closer) is not perfect. On both the front and rear diffs, they are smooth with one exception - at a certain point on the gear there is a hot spot where it is extremely tight. Anyone else see this?

Thanks, guys!

 

[Jerry-rigged]

Howdy and Welcome!

1 - The V1 manuals were decent, see if you can download them from the arrma site. Still not full assembly manuals, but they were decent.

2 - they can seem fiddely the first time or three you take them apart. The way the cover slides in at an angle is a bit hard to see at first. once you get the hang of it, they are very quick and easy...

3 - yeah, sometimes the gears are not prefect. One of the sins of Sintered gears. maybe clean it up and see if there are burrs on a tooth or two that can be filed down.

 

[mariog7]

Howdy and Welcome!

1 - The V1 manuals were decent, see if you can download them from the arrma site. Still not full assembly manuals, but they were decent.

2 - they can seem fiddely the first time or three you take them apart. The way the cover slides in at an angle is a bit hard to see at first. once you get the hang of it, they are very quick and easy...

3 - yeah, sometimes the gears are not prefect. One of the sins of Sintered gears. maybe clean it up and see if there are burrs on a tooth or two that can be filed down.

Much appreciated, Jerry!

 

[mariog7]

Hello, All!

Long time RC guy, newbie to Arrma. Just rebuilt my (new) Kraton to put in some upgrades and change out the diff fluids. Please let me ask you:

1) Are there any better build manuals than the horrible exploded views that come in the manual? Guess I like the big ol’ diagrams that show the entire assembly process and actual size of the screws. When you have the entire thing apart, it’s impossible not to mix up screws...

2) Is it just me, or are these diff covers a pain in the rear to align and re-assemble? It’s like they don’t pop on - you need to find a way to get all 4 screws pre-aligned which is not easy at all

3) The v4 seems to have shims in all the right places and there is so little slop - nice! However, the alignment of the spur gear with the main gear (even with the included shim to bring them closer) is not perfect. On both the front and rear diffs, they are smooth with one exception - at a certain point on the gear there is a hot spot where it is extremely tight. Anyone else see this?

Thanks, guys!

Regarding #3, on the v4, the factory inserts this shim to push the spur gear closer to the main gear. However, I found that by removing it (and placing on the other side of the diff) took away this “grinding”. My diffs were too tight in this respect from the factory. Anyone else?

 

[jondilly1974]

Regarding #3, on the v4, the factory inserts this shim to push the spur gear closer to the main gear. However, I found that by removing it (and placing on the other side of the diff) took away this “grinding”. My diffs were too tight in this respect from the factory. Anyone else?

Mine had zero external shims. None on the outputs or the inputs.

 

[Elzie870]

I am currently in the middle of rebuilding my Kraton and one piece of advice that I read on here said to look at the Tekno ET48.3 manual because, while not the same rig, they are very similar. The ET48.3 manual blows the Arrma one out of the water. I found it useful multiple times.

Direct PDF download - https://www.teknoforums.com/misc/manuals/tekno-rc-et48.3-manual.pdf

Post by @WoodiE on the Tekno forum - https://www.teknoforums.com/threads/tekno-rc-et48-3-manual-setup-sheet.7/

 

[mariog7]

I am currently in the middle of rebuilding my Kraton and one piece of advice that I read on here said to look at the Tekno ET48.3 manual because, while not the same rig, they are very similar. The ET48.3 manual blows the Arrma one out of the water. I found it useful multiple times.

Direct PDF download - https://www.teknoforums.com/misc/manuals/tekno-rc-et48.3-manual.pdf

Post by @WoodiE on the Tekno forum - https://www.teknoforums.com/threads/tekno-rc-et48-3-manual-setup-sheet.7/

Very cool, thanks for sharing!

 

[Elzie870]

Very cool, thanks for sharing!

another thing I did was find a little measuring tape or a ruler with mm on it and measure my screws to make sure they were the right size. It’s easy enough to figure out the terminology of the part numbers and how they correlate to specific kinds of screws/lengths.

I made the mistake of completely disassembling my Kraton for its first rebuild and deep cleaning after 11 months of owning it. I had all the parts and pieces in about 20 different pieces of Tupperware. It was a touch overwhelming when I started putting it all back together..but, just choose somewhere and start there. I started with the rear differential/shock tower assembly, then did the front and so on! It gets easier

 

[BillCranford]

I got a question about diff bearing shims / spacers / seals? I replaced my rear diff today. Built it with fast eddy bearings on the out drives. Once I had it all back together, I noticed on the old original diff there is small shims/ spacers on the outdrives against the outer side of the bearings. Should I have installed these with the fast eddy bearings or are these just like stock bearing seals ?‍

there’s nothing showing them in the manual. I marked where the were on the stock diff.

 

[Jerry-rigged]

Those are optional, as needed Generally, I will assemble the diff without that shim (for a new diff) and check the backlash. If there is noticable backlash, I will add the shim and check backlash again. With the older V1 V2 diffs, sometime 2 or 3 shims were needed. The last diff I bought was a V4, and it didn't really need any shims.

 

[BillCranford]

Thanks for the reply. To be more clear I have an actual picture. It appears they are used to hold the bearing from going out over the out drives. But once in the housing they don’t seem to be needed. This is on V4.

 

[Jerry-rigged]

Interesting. I've never seen that before.

 

[fpvmiller]

I did some small testing on this when I noticed no shim on the external outdrive of my limitless. It exists on my v4 kraton6s.

The shim on the external outdrive where the bearing sits is not a bad thing IMO.

It helps the shimming overall. If you shim the external outdrive with one shim you can then use less thicker shims OR more thinner shims (your choice) to take up the slack inside the diff cup.

I will try to explain as best I can.

With the diff disassembled and dry when you insert the outdrive into the diff cup without the external shim you still need to shim underneath the outdrive pin to keep the outdrive from shifting. If the outdrive shifts in or out this will cause the mesh of the diff gears to vary while operating.

What I prefer to do is shim the outdrive with one shim on the outside and then use the two shims (I haven't measured the thickness) from the arrma aluminum diff cups. When doing this once the pin is inserted the outdrive does not shift in either direction.

This means my internal gear mesh should not vary (if at all) during running and should stay consistent more/longer.

Without the external shim you would have to shim the outdrive internally but that pushes the sun gear closer (tighter mesh) to the planetary gears.

 

[BillCranford]

Ok got it. Thanks this makes sense. I’m going to pull the diff back out and put these back in then check gear mesh. I did add sun gear shims as well as planetary shims two shims on each of one pair and one shim each on the other pair