Magnus_CA
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Hi Folks,
I just wanted to compile a checklist of things to inspect on your Arrma Outcast before letting loose with the throttle for those that may be new to the hobby like myself. I'm not including any information about hop-ups or upgrades or overcoming any of this truck's few design flaws. This post is all about performing your own QC on your truck, in its stock form, with a minimum assortment of tools.
Prerequisite Materials: (1) Arrma Outcast, the manual, a ruler (optional), charged LiPos, and the supplied tools.
(Captain Obvious: Review the manual and confirm all parts were included.)
Critical Out-of-the-Box Checks
If there's a high potential for damage to persons or property if an out-of-the-box condition were ignored or if there is a known issue that affects a high percentage of owners you'll find it here. There is no YMMV content here...you don't want to ignore these items!
None of these items have a high incident rate out of the box but it wouldn't hurt to check them anyway:
I just wanted to compile a checklist of things to inspect on your Arrma Outcast before letting loose with the throttle for those that may be new to the hobby like myself. I'm not including any information about hop-ups or upgrades or overcoming any of this truck's few design flaws. This post is all about performing your own QC on your truck, in its stock form, with a minimum assortment of tools.
Prerequisite Materials: (1) Arrma Outcast, the manual, a ruler (optional), charged LiPos, and the supplied tools.
(Captain Obvious: Review the manual and confirm all parts were included.)
Critical Out-of-the-Box Checks
If there's a high potential for damage to persons or property if an out-of-the-box condition were ignored or if there is a known issue that affects a high percentage of owners you'll find it here. There is no YMMV content here...you don't want to ignore these items!
- Check for protruding screws in the battery tray - Remove the body and feel around the bottom of your battery tray towards the front of the truck for screws that are not flush with the plastic. Arrma is apparently installing 8mm screws where they should be installing 5mm. Fixes mentioned here include taping over them, backing them out, grinding them down, or replacing them with shorter screws. Thanks to @NITROMAN2000 for alerting the forum about this issue.
- Confirm you have no leaky diffs or shocks - If you find goo in the box it probably came from one or the other. If you listen close you can actually hear the lubricant churning in your front, rear, and center diffs by rotating the tires. If you find a leak there's plenty of info on the web on how to fill them and fluid recommendations.
- Confirm all screws are tight - Basically, go around and make sure everything is tight. You don't want parts falling off because you have a loose screw. Don't forget the tires!
- Install your batteries and check your ESC settings - See the table on page 28 of the manual for factory defaults. Some are reporting the Motor Rotation setting is Reverse out of the box. Yikes! (Note: One long beep equals five short beeps.)
- Perform the procedure on page 27 for Throttle Setup. The throttle and brake on mine was dead the first time I powered on my Outcast until I configured this (the car even took off on its own once). I suspect the factory resets the transmitter to factory default prior to shipping or they skip configuring the transmitter all together.
- Set your steering trim ('ST. TRIM') on your transmitter. I removed the body and flipped the truck over with the front end facing me and powered on the transmitter and then the truck. I looked down at screws at each end of the steering rack (AKA bellcrank) and adjusted the steering trim until the screws were the same distance from the edge of the chassis. I'll paste a photo to better explain this later but if you flip your truck over and rotate the steering trim you'll see why I used those screws as my point of reference.
- Perform the 'End Point Adjustment' (EPA) procedure on page 24 of the manual - SET YOUR DUAL RATE TRIM (ST. D/R) ON YOUR TRANSMITTER TO MAX AND THE THROTTLE TRIM TO ZERO BEFORE DOING THIS! Part 1 of the procedure will map the extreme CW and CCW positions on your steering wheel to the extreme left and right positions of your front tires. I also like doing this adjustment with the body off and the truck on its back. You can then use the dual rate trim to adjust the steering sensitivity on the fly from the transmitter as needed. Part 2 of the procedure sets your throttle end points. If anyone knows how to set your throttle end point correctly please reply. How to properly adjust your throttle end points and why you need to do it is still a mystery to me.
- Time to scare the cat with an indoor run! - Listen for any strange noises as you operate the truck and consult the forum if you're not sure if it's normal. It's also a great time to fine tune your steering trim.
None of these items have a high incident rate out of the box but it wouldn't hurt to check them anyway:
- Check pinion/spur gear mesh - The paper method is by far the most popular. Tons of detail on doing this on youtube, arrmaforum.com, and elsewhere. Google is your friend.
- Check the glue line between the hubs and tires - Pick a tire and give it a squeeze across the tread. Check for a gap between the tire and the inside rim of the hub on both sides the tire. Rotate and continue checking around the entire circumference of the tire. Check the remaining 3 tires in the same fashion. You may find it helpful to place something under the chassis to elevate all 4 tires for this step.
- Check your spring pre-load and ride height with the batteries and body installed. The factory springs are soft and short and if you have stuck with this guide to this point I'll bet you'll be inclined to upgrade your springs like most of us. In the meanwhile the best you can do is confirm the spring collars are threaded down far enough to compress the factory springs and that the ride height is level, front to back. This is where a having a ruler or caliper comes in handy. Make sure you apply some weight to the truck and cycle the suspension a few times prior to taking measurements.
- Check your Toe and Camber. The turnbuckles in the rear affect rear wheel camber and the turnbuckles in front affect front wheel toe. You can use a ruler to compare the length of the turnbuckles on the left and right sides but equal length is unlikely to yield equal toe and camber on opposite wheels. You can use string or buy special gauges but I just eyed mine.
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