My Junior 2 build

[mikecel79]

I have an old Junior 2 that I have started resurrecting. I have most of the parts and bought a donor car off Ebay (thread here) that has most of the parts I need. I have my original Junior 2 chassis and it's in excellent condition. The donor car has a short JRX2 graphite chassis. Which one is stronger? The Junior 2 chassis feels a bit heavier but I don't think it flexes as much. It's very similar to the chassis in my LXT just wider. The front end also kicks up more than the JRX2 chassis. I've included a pic of both of them next to each other.

[minreg]

I always preferred the graphite chassis. But if you use that it wont be a Junior 2 build, right.

[mikecel79]

I always preferred the graphite chassis. But if you use that it wont be a Junior 2 build, right.

Yeah I guess that is true. I'll be using all Junior 2 suspension parts though. I should probably check if the body from my 2 would even fit over this chassis.

[fredswain]

The composite chassis is far stiffer than the graphite. Keep in mind you must use the top plate with the composite. The standard JRX2 chassis has a 20 degree front kick while the rest of the JRX cars had a 30 degree. Since I don't buy into the hype of having chassis flex in some situations for handling reasons, I feel that stiffer is always better. That would mean that the composite is preferred and I myself always ran the Junior 2 chassis. I also believe however that the front kick on all 2wd cars is far too high which means I favor the stock JRX2 chassis in that regards. I like certain aspects of each but if you are intent on building a Junior 2 then you must use a Junior 2 chassis. Keep in mind that it's wheelbase and front kick were retained with the Pro-SE which was the highest performing JRX.

[mikecel79]

The composite chassis is far stiffer than the graphite. Keep in mind you must use the top plate with the composite. The standard JRX2 chassis has a 20 degree front kick while the rest of the JRX cars had a 30 degree. Since I don't buy into the hype of having chassis flex in some situations for handling reasons, I feel that stiffer is always better. That would mean that the composite is preferred and I myself always ran the Junior 2 chassis. I also believe however that the front kick on all 2wd cars is far too high which means I favor the stock JRX2 chassis in that regards. I like certain aspects of each but if you are intent on building a Junior 2 then you must use a Junior 2 chassis. Keep in mind that it's wheelbase and front kick were retained with the Pro-SE which was the highest performing JRX.

Thanks for the feedback. I ended up going with the compsoite chassis. Just about got everything back together last night. I noticed the front suspension is not rebounding on one side so I need to look into that tonight.

For the most part I am using all my old Junior 2 parts. The exception has been the rear hubs came from an LXT and ball bearings in place of the bushings. I'll mostly be bashing around in the backyard with this so I'm not worried about it being a "true" Junior 2.

I don't plan on keeping the JRX2 chassis so it'll probably end up on Ebay soon.

[FasterLouder]

I love the Junior cars and trucks.
Among my all time favorites and I don't have a clue why.
If you're going to use the graphite JRXT chassis,throw a 5 link rear end on that sucker,H arms just don't have that kooky,cool factor.
That is a JRXT chassis you have,right?
It'll be a mighty short ill handling bit#h if it's the JRX2 buggy chassis.
The Junior chassis have the provisions for the 5 link,hence why they are wider than the LXT/Pro SE chassis'.

[mikecel79]

I love the Junior cars and trucks.
Among my all time favorites and I don't have a clue why.
If you're going to use the graphite JRXT chassis,throw a 5 link rear end on that sucker,H arms just don't have that kooky,cool factor.
That is a JRXT chassis you have,right?
It'll be a mighty short ill handling bit#h if it's the JRX2 buggy chassis.
The Junior chassis have the provisions for the 5 link,hence why they are wider than the LXT/Pro SE chassis'.

I don't think there was a difference between the JRX2 and JRXT chassis. They both have the same part number.

So last night I finished assembling the car, charged the battery and took it for a spin. After about 30 seconds I noticed only one wheel was spinning. Took it apart and found the outdrive is stripped on the output gear. Not sure if it's the output gear on the LRM tranny or the outdrive yet. Since I don't have a spare I decided to get a little creative with it. I put in the xx retrofit tranny I had but since I didn't have the correct length dogbones I threw on some LXT arms I had. So right now it's sitting and an LXT rear end and Junior 2 front end but it drives.

Gonna try it out tonight and see how it does!

[FasterLouder]

The JRXT used a slightly longer chassis that wound up being the JRX Pro chassis.
It has a cutout for the servo saver,so they're easy to spot.

[Synergy]

I'm pretty sure the early JRXT and Proformance chassis didn't have the servo saver cut out, I have a couple of them and here is one on my JRXT.

[THUNDERSTRIKE1]

SYNERGY is correct ive raced most all of the cars in my lifetime and seen both version straight out the box.DON

[JK Racing]

The easiest difference (for me) to tell between a JRX2 chassis and JRXT chassis is looking at the taper going to the nose, the JRXT is straight (as seen in the pics above), the JRX2 is rounded and "swerves" of sorts. On the JR series, both buggy and truck shared the same chassis.

[Synergy]

Here is a comoarison

JRX2


JRX Pro

[highwayracer]

Graphite Splinters!!!!

Sometimes I would run my car on concrete...and get huge graphite splinters when I picked up the chassis. This alone would be a good enough reason to run the plastic chassis

I switched to the junior 2 chassis when I first saw it at a local trade show. When bolted together, it was much stiffer than the graphite chassis that I was running on my jrx2 (proformance kit).

[mikecel79]

Graphite Splinters!!!!

Sometimes I would run my car on concrete...and get huge graphite splinters when I picked up the chassis. This alone would be a good enough reason to run the plastic chassis

I switched to the junior 2 chassis when I first saw it at a local trade show. When bolted together, it was much stiffer than the graphite chassis that I was running on my jrx2 (proformance kit).

Yep I ended up going with the Junior 2 chassis instead. Sold the JRXT chassis on Ebay to fund more parts! Haven't had much time to play around with it yet. Hopefully in a few weeks I have it all back to working order though.