Time for an overhual

With this being the first week in a long time the E-Revo didn’t need to race, and due to the broken chassis and rear-end, I am doing a major cleanup on the truck. I was planning on dying my chassis black for some time, but taking everything apart just to put it on again seemed like a pain. Fortunately, in a sick way, fate stepped in and I broke the chassis last week in the fun race. So this week I ordered a new chassis for the truck, along with the front/rear mounts. I picked them up Friday along with a nice plastic container to dye it in. For anyone looking to do this, the chassis itself it 17 inches long, and just under 6 inches wide. I 5 gallon bucket is almost as tall as the chassis is, so it’s not a good fit for the job. I found some storage containers, these ones have lids with two handles that snap the lid down, the measurements were good, 19.5 inches long, 15 inches wide, and 4 inches deep. So I came home boiled 2 pots of water, and poured the dye into the container. I put in the chassis, and all the rocker arms for the truck. I went a little overboard, probably a 3rd of the bottle of dye went in, and I let it sit in the container for about 3 hours.

New chassis dyed black

Right now the truck is in a million pieces, or at least how ever many it breaks down to. Everything is apart and cleaned. I wanted to give it a good tear down and cleaning, and it turned out to be a very good idea. While doing all this I found the rear part of the center drive shaft was bent, and one of the bearings in the rear axle carriers was bad. The rubber seal dried out completely and fell, so the bearing was mostly just dirt. I’ve also found most of the bearing barely even move. The worst ones are the rear end, probably for two reasons. First the rear end of the truck catches the majority of the mud, from the front obviously. Second, the rear end is using the RPM Tru-Tracks. I’ve heard before from others that the bearings RPM supplies are not too great, and considering one of them lost it’s seal entirely, I will have to agree. I also accidentally lost a bearing down the bathroom sink, my stupidity.

So now I need to order some more replacement parts, and I am torn on going with stock replacements, or upgrades. I’ve been saying I will switch to ceramic bearings for a while, but if they will pick up dirt and become bound up as easily as the stocks, it would be cheaper to stick with stock and plan on replacing them more often. I also don’t know if I really need ceramics. I am not a world class racer, and the benefit they would offer would most likely be negligible at best, most likely not worth the cost of the bearings. I’m also thinking about replacing the center drive shaft with the Traxxas Steel CVDs. However its a lot like the bearings. A stock driveshaft is $6, the steel CVDs are $22. Breaking a stock one isn’t too bad, breaking the steel one would be more annoying to my wallet. I think I might just bite the bullet, and go with the steel CVDs, and stick with stock bearings for now. My list of other upgrades in the off season is long, and what’s on there is more important to me, and probably offers a bigger benefit, than the ceramics.

So this week will be rebuilding everything, with some more dying to get everything a uniform color. I’m hoping to have it rebuilt by the end of the week, depending on parts. I also asked Dave to put my name on one of the new Slash 4x4s coming in next month, so that is now a definite second class for me next season. I’m still working out whether or not I want to get the 1/8 Buggy, and what the final list of upgrades to the E-Revo will be. I’m pretty sure the Tekno Sway Bar Kit will be part of the list. I’m also thinking of getting the Traxxas red push rods, and turnbuckles, and I found red aluminum skid plates at ST Racing Concepts. Those are more for looks than anything, but not having to deal with rear skid plate wearing down and breaking is nice. I have yet to find a whole lot of info on fitting the Losi Smart Differentials into the E-Revo, but I am sure it’s possible. That sounds like it could be a nice upgrade if it works out. Hopefully I find a way to pull that off.

So that’s it for today, nothing special, just wanted to ramble and post the pic of the chassis.