BloodClod's Project Blackfoot

[longboardnj]

The steering system works very well and achieves 2 things. The first is near zero bump-steer.

thats crazy.. i remember jumping blackfoots,super blackfoots,and king blackfoots . if you jumped and got about 2 feet air sometimes the ballend would pop off cause they had so much bump steer. great job i like these old school projects

[BloodClod]

The steering system works very well and achieves 2 things. The first is near zero bump-steer.

thats crazy.. i remember jumping blackfoots,super blackfoots,and king blackfoots . if you jumped and got about 2 feet air sometimes the ballend would pop off cause they had so much bump steer. great job i like these old school projects

lol... I know *exactly* what you mean. Was pretty cool watching those front tires collapse inwards on landings... good times!

[BloodClod]

The rain still comes and goes just enough to keep the offroad track wet.

The truck has been a blast to run everywhere else though. lol!

I was checking up on the diff and took a picture to show my take on the "oldfrogshot" mod.

I started with the stock outdrives and like everyone else just carefully tapped the center shaft out of the "long" outdrive.

After machining the outdrives to fit the slider shafts, I used a 3x40mm screw (I found this in the Tamiya mini4x4 section) which fits through the stock outdrive holes without modification.

A spare thrust bearing from my Tamiya 501 spares was fitted next to the screw head and then a locknut in a plastic diff nut retainer was used to tighten up the whole assembly.

The funny thing is I found the diff nut retainer on a parts tree on my table but I have no idea whatsoever as to which kit it came from. The tree is labeled "F" and has some other plastic 3mm nuts on it but other than that has no other identifier.

Anyway, this assembly does 2 things for me - firstly with the thrust bearing in place the diff action should be smoother than simply letting the screw head spin on the outdrive during diff action; and secondly, with the locknut in place adjustments and disassembly are easier.

The bad news is that you probably can't do this on the stock outdrives dunning the Tamiya universals or stock dogbones - this is because during the suspension compression the driveshaft plunges into the outdrive quite deeply so it may interfere with the diff screw and nut. I am able to do this because only because of the slider shafts.

Here's a pic... I'm sure someone here will find a way to maybe do this to work with the stock bones.

[BigPun76]

Just stumbled upon this thread: FREAKING AWESOME!! My brother had a Blackfoot and I loved that thing! I wanted a Monster Beetle but never got around to purchasing one...

This thing is so sick; I can't even imagine what the "finished" (if there ever is such thing) product will be like!!!!

[BloodClod]

Just stumbled upon this thread: FREAKING AWESOME!! My brother had a Blackfoot and I loved that thing! I wanted a Monster Beetle but never got around to purchasing one...

This thing is so sick; I can't even imagine what the "finished" (if there ever is such thing) product will be like!!!!

Thanks - modding these cars is often just as rewarding as running them!

Monster beetle is another very cool car. I've purchased a re-re scorcher shell with the intention of doing a monster beetle sometime.

[BloodClod]

Some pictures of my blackfeet.

Not exactly identical twins...



Side profiles.



From the front.



The top view shows how I've shortened the wheelbase of the Blackfoot III to match that of the original.



In this pic you can see that the width of the trucks is almost identical. The Blackfoot III's width has been narrowed by using Stadium Blitzer wheels.



Without their shells - two chassis representing very different design philosophies.



Another picture of the cars without their shells.



Which do you guys prefer?

[markbt73]

Your diff reinforcing method looks great! I do it a similar way, with the stock outdrives, but using a piece of 2mm threaded rod with a nut on each end instead of the long bolt. I just loctite the nuts in place (using the heavy-duty red stuff), and presto, no more diff slipping. It's a little tricky to get the rod length exactly right, and get everything together, but I have 2 now done that way, and so far so good.