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So I picked up a Yokomo 870c recently as a project car. A big headache with these (among several) appears to be finding a way to fit modern rims on it, since it uses proprietary square wheel hubs. I happen to have a Tamiya DB01 lying around, and I got curious...would the DB01 drive shafts fit? So I tried it out. For the rear, the fit seems pretty good, although the drive pin for the rear wheels is offset to the outside a bit (but this is compensated by the DB01 rear wheels being offset toward the inside...so it may be a wash). For the front, so long as the c-hub is mounted on the outer hole in the front arms (my YZ10 came with alloy front arms, so not sure if the stock front arms also have two holes here), then the DB01 units also fit pretty well, with the drive pin close enough to the outer bearing that you shouldn't need to add extra shims.

I plan on ordering a set of DB01 universals just for this, but I figured I'd post my finding here in case anybody else wants to give it a try. What is particularly good about this is that Tamiya makes pink rims for the DB01, which are similar in shade to the old pink Yokomo wheels. They have "tamiya" molded on them, but so what...they're pink rims!

Update: it also appears you can use the rear DB01 universals for both the front and rear of the YZ10 (if the front c-hub is on the inside hole in the suspension arm), as the driveshaft length is pretty much bang on. The rear wheel axle is on the long side, though, so you may want to actually combine the front wheel axle with the rear drive shaft. Anyway...there are options here...

Pics! This would be welcomed for Yokomo owners!

This will take a few posts, so I'll start with the rear end...

I have dogbones front and rear here, so I'm assuming that the DB01 universals have the same exact dimensions (no reason why they shouldn't).

continued...

Now to the front...

I should note that the front wheel hexes on the DB01 are a bit of a pain, at least with the pink wheels. You really have to press to get them to fit. With the stock black wheels, though, I don't really have a problem. Anyway, I put the pink wheels in these pictures just so you can see what it looks like. An alternative would be to use the standard Tamiya 12mm wheel hexes and something like DF03 rims. Or...since 12mm wheel hexes are pretty common now, you may be able to use a different brand for this part (so long as they fit metric axles, such as Losi or Kyosho).

This is great information, thanks for sharing! The rear axle being long is excellent, because as long as it's a little 'short' in the outdrive all the way extended, you can mix-n-match shims to space the wheel and bone ideally. It looks like you can pick them up pretty inexpensively(cvd's that is) on ebay, approx $20.00 US, which is half the cost of kyosho universals.

great job!

You said in place of KYOSHO axles.? Is that kind of std substitute for the REALLY pricey Yoke originals? OR were you thinking what I am and wondering if they could be sub'd on Kyosho Vehicles too?

Well, I don't know if they can be used in Kyosho vehicles. Depends on the chassis and dimensions, but it might be worth a shot. I was referring specifically to using them on the 870c.

you can use kyosho universals in yokomos to run a pin/hex axle, the only problem is that they are expensive, at least, comparatively speaking. Using a tamiya axle that is cheaper is an excellent alternative!

I remember doing something similar with the works 91 arms and a tamiya CVD... seen there length I think your alu arms are wider than the original front arms of the 870C. (It was quite common to use the wider rear arms in the front too in those days = with a longer universal released just for this purpose).

I did a little looking into this mod, and the DB01 universals are stamped 64 (I guess as in mm) right on the shaft. I think the shortest K car universal was 60.5, but the SP1 and 2s got some longer ones. I feel inclined to believe that the 3mm could be shimmed to work in the Kyoshos. I'll repost to this thread when I get around to trying it out. (I'll also throw a thread in the Kyosho forum then too...)

Good point about the front arms being longer here. That is probably a pre-requisite for this approach...

As for the Kyoshos, if the DB01 universals are 3.5mm longer, then they may bind up in the drive cup coming out of the diff housing. Depends on how much space is left in there with the stock units.

stickboy007 wrote:Good point about the front arms being longer here. That is probably a pre-requisite for this approach...

As for the Kyoshos, if the DB01 universals are 3.5mm longer, then they may bind up in the drive cup coming out of the diff housing. Depends on how much space is left in there with the stock units.

Yeah, they no doubt would with the stock arms and carriers, I was thinking of using a different hubcarrier that would move the axle out a little bit. Maybe an Optima hub for instance. You could also source a slightly longer arm with the same carrier. If there's one thing (and there's a lot more actually ) that I've learned on 10talk its that there's always a way.....well almost always.

Sure there is a way: use the stealth gearbox. The stealth outdrives are much closer together