Another quarantine inspired XXT

[kzeppelin2]

I stumbled across this forum several months ago and was pleased to see and read many of the forum contributor's stories and build updates. My son had recently gotten into the hobby so I dusted off my own XXT, dropped a modern battery into it and was suddenly returned to the days of my youth. Until of course he crashed into me breaking a ball screw. Lots of the google got me here. I consumed all of the artful, meticulous and down right impressive rebuilds by many of the forum contributors. I recognized that continuing to run the XXT as a daily runner was going to be problematic and expensive. To stay active with my son and to recommit to a hobby that brought me so much joy when I was younger I purchased the new TLR 22T 4.0. That certainly satisfies the need for speed and the convenience of modern parts. So what becomes of the XXT? I can't commit to a showroom quality rebuild because I just don't have the time or the patience to source the parts and I'm going to want to run the car from time to time. So instead I thought it would be fun to document my tear down and rebuild. Not planning to do anything exotic. Just want to see how well she cleans up.

This is what we're starting with.

[kzeppelin2]

A few pictures during the tear down. Everything came apart just fine.

Note the broken corner on the front shock tower. This is the graphite front shock tower which I purchased 20+ years ago when the original cracked in the same exact spot. Probably going to reinstall as is.

At some point many years ago I must have replaced the turnbuckles as the ones on the car were not original. I believe they were from my RC10T. Found the originals in a box and it became clear why they were no longer on the car. Along with a broken ball stud, so far these are the only parts I've committed to replacing. I found some Lunsford titanium turnbuckles available from Ampdraw.com and worldOfRCParts.com.

I am 99% certain that this is the first time I've rebuilt this diff.

[RC10resto]

Welcome aboard!
And way to go, jumping in with a coherent thread including nice pics
Rare these days.
Good luck with the cleanup.

[kzeppelin2]

Thanks Brian. Continuing the story...the clean up has begun. The plastic parts were cleaned using Simple Green. The pins and shock shafts were polished with Brasso metal polish and an electric drill. I did observe some rust on some of the other hardware so I soaked them in apple cider vinegar. That was very effective on the rust but I do believe it also removed the black oxide coating on many of the fasteners. I'll have to see if rust formation is accelerated as a result. For the dog bones I polished by hand with 2000 grit sand paper.

I was pleased to see the Hydra Drive still had fluid in it.

I also found that I had two different types of steering linkages. I was wondering if anyone knew the timing of the different types. The one I removed from the car had 3 holes on the servo saver bottom and the steering idler arm. I had two other sets that only had 2 holes (one shown in black and a second unopened A-1601). The manual that I was working from shows the part with two holes. Picture below shows what it looks like if you use the parts with the 3 holes which is different from the manual I am using. I wonder if the design was changed at some point along the way. Just curious if anyone knew.

[RC10resto]

As far as the Hardware goes, you can grab a screw with a needle nose pliers heat it up in a flame and then drop it - quench it in some oil.
Will bring it back to black and harden it, but it may also make it more brittle. So maybe don't get the screws red hot

[mcdze]

on the differing parts, losi had several 'parts runs' during the life of the xxt, about 4 if im not mistaken .. every run had slightly different looks and characteristics on some parts like shock bodies and pieces, spur gears, etc, but im pretty sure the aged white nylon look steering was an earlier run or original batch .. the black is from the later or last run ...

[kzeppelin2]

Thanks for the information and the tips! Here it is fully torn down and cleaned up. Now ready for the reassembly.

[kzeppelin2]

The build happened pretty quickly. Still waiting on one set of titanium turnbuckles so I had to use the originals in the rear. I had a very lightly used set of Losi mini-pins that I put on the rear. The rear wheels are pretty beat up. If anyone has thoughts on where I might find pin-driven wheels that would fit this car I'd love some recommendations.

I'll be turning my attention to the electronics and the shell next. For motors I've got a Green Machine 2 and a Trinity P4 11T-2. I may eventually move over to brushless but we'll build it up with some period electronics first. When I bought the kit new, the shell arrived with a small wrinkle in the rear. I remember writing a letter to Losi and they sent me a new shell. I wound up saving that new shell and I still keep it in the plastic it came in. I'm a bit reluctant to paint it so I may try removing the paint from my original shell. I read that Tamiya's poly cleaner can be effective for removing paint and is obviously safe on polycarbonate. We'll see how much elbow grease is needed to remove the paint from the original shell.

[kzeppelin2]

Installed the electronics. The motor needed new brushes and I also filed and polished the commutator. I installed a Novak Dually ESC and a Novak XXL AM receiver. As I mentioned, the motor is a Trinity P-94 11T double. I'm certain that I bought this motor because I read in RC Car Action that one of the popular racers of the day had raced this motor. Maybe Matt Francis...I can't remember.

Next up is the shell.

[matt1ptkn]

Looking good! If you were not already aware, Team Blue Groove makes a XXT reproduction body: https://www.ebay.com/c/1400474135. I understand not wanting to use the clear shell you already have, and I know the PITA-ness of stripping old bodies. So I just wanted to throw that out there. Keep up the good work!

[kzeppelin2]

Wow!!! You're not kidding. What a pain. Managed to get it done but it's not perfect. Some specs were just too stubborn and it looks like it fogged up. Probably my fault because I started using a Magic Eraser there towards the end. Probably looking a micro scratches in the surface. It's excellent to know that Blue Groove still makes shells. Thanks for the tip.

I'd like to avoid destroying the only wheels I have for the XXT so I'm looking at ways to convert the pin-drive rear axles to 12 mm hex drive. There seems to be options available for this. The more challenging bit is converting the front axles to hex. I'm only able to find hex front axles on Losi's more modern vehicles (22 series) but those have much bigger spindle carriers. I found that Proline used to make a conversion (PN6069) for the Losi XXX-SCT and XXX-SCB vehicles that may have worked on the XXT but it's no longer available. I also checked Associated models and found that the T4 had hex front axles. It's tough to tell but the spindle assembly may fit into the XXT front arms. Right now I'm trying to see if those parts are available.

[matt1ptkn]

Great job on the body! I tried to warn you. As for the front hex conversion, I found this a while back: https://www.rctech.net/forum/electric-off-road/553947-losi-xxx-sct-scb-front-hex-conversion-traxxas-parts.html, but haven't had a chance to try it out. I know its for the XXX line, but like the Proline kit, it may work, or be adaptable, to the xx line.

[klavy69]

are you trying to run it and needing rear pin wheels or are you wanting them in better shape than yours? Just ran across some on ebay in a lot for pretty cheap is why I'm asking...

Todd

[kzeppelin2]

Thanks Matt and Todd. I chased down the Traxxas part option as I had a Slash at home. Turns out it works with minor modifications. I like this approach because these parts are available everywhere. I was able to use the Traxxas Slash caster blocks (3632), steering blocks (3736) and axles (3637) for the front end. The only modification that was necessary was removing a small amount of material from the caster blocks to make them fit into the XXT arms. For the wheel hex I used a thin ~2mm hex which allowed me enough thread on the axle to run wheels intended for the TLR 22T.

Had to remove a small amount of material from the caster block to make it fit into the arm.

For the rear, it was more of the same. The axle carriers (3752) and axles (2753) are from the Slash. I also used the metal u-joints which you get with the half-shafts (1951). Those fit right into the Losi yokes. I had to use the upper hole on the axle carrier when installing the hinge pin to carrier to allow the assembly to fit into the wheel. Again I went with the thin (~2mm) hex but on the rear I didn't get as much thread engagement with the wheel installed. It'll do for now but I may look to find an alternate option with longer axles. I could also just run Traxxas wheels which would fit just fine.

One final note, I did have to move the location of some of my ball studs at both the front and rear to accommodate the Traxxas parts. Overall it was a pretty easy conversion which will allow me to run contemporary wheels and more specifically, the same wheels that I run on my TLR 22T which for me is very convenient.

[kzeppelin2]

Finished painting the shell. Chose to match the theme of my 22T. Just need some stickers to finish the job. I didn't care much for the mid-90's colors on the original XXT stickers so I'll likely order another set but with different colors.