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vonBraun wrote: ↑Tue Jan 03, 2023 4:39 pm Not sure what the deal with the engine is. The case is huge for a .15! But it somehow is very light?!
Can’t even tell what brand it is. Maybe a Force?
Took a pic with an O.S. 15CV-X for size comparison. They don’t do it justice…

That's definitely Force's logo on the case. Not sure what model engine that is though, even the bolt pattern looks bigger.

Also if TBG does end up making that body I'd be tempted to get one to put on a different truck, it's just so nice looking.

Took me a while to figure out why there where additional holes drilled and the right side of the chassis was cut and bent outwards. But then it dawned on me.
This thing was at some point converted to electric!!!
You can still see the trace of a motor mount if you look really close!
The cutout on the site was for sliding in a battery and out. You can see the typical wear marks in the anodizing.
The two holes were for a battery strap.

Do you see it too?

vonBraun wrote: ↑Tue Jan 03, 2023 5:13 pm Took me a while to figure out why there where additional holes drilled and the right side of the chassis was cut and bent outwards. But then it dawned on me.
This thing was at some point converted to electric!!!
You can still see the trace of a motor mount if you look really close!
The cutout on the site was for sliding in a battery and out. You can see the typical wear marks in the anodizing.
The two holes were for a battery strap.

Do you see it too?

Haha, I think you're on to something there!

Good news is parts are cheap as not many people build these. I have a great condition, not perfect runner chassis if you’re interested pm me we’ll talk details.

If you aren’t dead set on running the stock body. The Losi NXT body is a great fit, even using the NXT mounting holes it’s almost perfect. TBG already sells them.


Also, as long as you stick to a side exhaust engine a good exhaust clears pretty easily. The truck below has a non ps manifold, just what came on the truck when it was purchased.

romulus22 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 03, 2023 5:29 pm Good news is parts are cheap as not many people build these. I have a great condition, not perfect runner chassis if you’re interested pm me we’ll talk details.

If you aren’t dead set on running the stock body. The Losi NXT body is a great fit, even using the NXT mounting holes it’s almost perfect. TBG already sells them.

Also, as long as you stick to a side exhaust engine a good exhaust clears pretty easily. The truck below has a non ps manifold, just what came on the truck when it was purchased.

Parts are cheap when you are in the US. The market here in Europe is very thin. Even the cheapest part costs me around 30 bucks until I‘ve got them in my hands

I‘d love to find a manifold like that!
Is this the original Kyosho 39511? Looks like it would even clear a Pullstart.

The manifold on that truck is an Associated GT to clear the pull start. Most all of the gas trucks and touring cars of that era are all very similar and compatible. They’re also very thin and can be tweaked with care to pull them in closer to the engine or change the angle of the outlet if really need be. But easy to kink if pulled too far.

Good to know!
Sadly I don’t have a parts bin that I can take parts from to try out.

For the damage report/parts list

Already found
- Chassis XR51
- Gearbox housing SST31-H
- break shoe
- pilot shaft no.96314

Still looking for
- Clutch shoe (part no. 96312)
- rear frp shock tower XR54-H
- O.S. CZ Engine (is there a .15?)
- front bulk head XR03

I am going to try to save the other damaged parts like the flywheel and clutch bell by resurfacing them. Also trying to cobble together some things from the parts bin.
Some of the things I am missing are optional to make it run and drive…

I didn’t do a great job with taking pictures, to be honest

All the white plastics went into a jar of Hydrogenperoxyde. The jar is not the ideal container to do this. You would get more even uv-coverage in more shallow one.
This is the only pic I‘ve got that shows how yellow the arms were.

vonBraun wrote: ↑Wed Jan 04, 2023 6:09 am I didn’t do a great job with taking pictures, to be honest

All the white plastics went into a jar of Hydrogenperoxyde. The jar is not the ideal container to do this. You would get more even uv-coverage in more shallow one.
This is the only pic I‘ve got that shows how yellow the arms were.

I soaked all my yellowed Pro-XRT white parts in 3% hydrogen peroxide under a UV light for two days, it did little to nothing. I then set them outside in direct sunlight for a whole day and that made a noticeable difference.

R6cowboy wrote: ↑Wed Jan 04, 2023 4:13 pm I soaked all my yellowed Pro-XRT white parts in 3% hydrogen peroxide under a UV light for two days, it did little to nothing. I then set them outside in direct sunlight for a whole day and that made a noticeable difference.

It’s a science in itself
The composition of the material changes through the production run. I had two sets of arms in H2O2 at the same time and one set whitened, while the other one didn’t.
This time I made the mistake of leaving them in there for too long, because they refused to whiten.
Some blisters formed on the surface. They still feel strong enough though.

Here is a little taste of how things are cleaning up…

Shocks came out looking like new!
No signs of wear on the Teflon coating. Didn’t even replace the o-rings. Just drained the old oil and put in some 35WT.
They are still not leaking after jamming them to my favorite tunes for ten minutes straight, so I guess they are good enough
30wt might have been the better choice, but the only 30 I had was the original AE synthetic oil that came with my 10T. I‘ll have to see how it handles…
The balls on the shock ends show a lot of wear, so the car has got to have a lot of miles on it I guess…
By the way: I really like the design of the shocks. The dust boots did a great job keeping away the dirt from the o-rings and bushings. And they are very easy to build and fill!

Next up was the "feared“ SST-Transmission
It was quite notchy along with the diff when I tried it before disassembly.
After opening it, I discovered it to be bone dry and the teeth clogged with plastic dust from abrasion.
All the parts went into the ultrasonic cleaner. Had to chase all the teeth with a hobby knife afterwards to get them clean 100% though.

What particularly impressed me was the thrust bearing of the diff.
It is built a bit different than any other I‘ve seen before. Tried to take a pic, but my camera just refused to focus. So I can just describe it to you.
There is a brass sleeve, that sits on the main diff screw, which has two grooved washers on it, that hold the balls in between them. There are around ten tiny balls. I didn’t count them. The brass sleeve is squeezed together so that the ends sit flush wit the washers, so the washers and balls are captured and therefore can‘t fall apart. You don’t have to do all of that yourself. It comes pre assembled.
It can easily be flushed and regreased without having to worry about loosing some of the balls.
Let me know if that makes any sense, please

I did not replace a single part in the whole transmission. Just put it together in the new housing (that came from Portugal of all places) using the right grease. Silicone for the diff, graphite for the thrust bearing and ceramic gear grease for, well, the gears
It now spins smoothly like you wouldn’t believe!

Also just noticed that the flywheel was drilled out to fit the SG-style crank of the Force engine. Bummer