School me on the stealth #6560

[Alan_r]

"It's worth the trouble"

That's what everyone keeps telling me. Lol
I'm sure it is. Technically, the car seems awesome. It's just been little things one after another. I think I got a newer kit as well, the diff spacers fit perfectly and installing the E clips on the outdrive was easy. It was just missing parts. I didn't bother AE with it as the parts were cheap and I needed spares anyway. I'm doing up a B5M and an SC5M shortly and I hope they work out better. I'm pretty undecided on the electronics though. My LRP stuff, while not the latest and greatest, just work. I'm returning to the racing scene from a two decade break so I'm still quite impressionable at this point. Reedy didn't make esc's back then. Just damn good motors. So my very first experience here wasn't very good. It's been four days since I reached out to the vendor with no reply. We'll see how it works out. In the mean time, figuring it was going to take months to get this sorted out, I bought an LRP flow works with an LRP X20 7.5 to replace the Reedy gear. Should be here this week so hopefully, I can finally get to test my B44.3. I've got four weeks to get it tuned and learn how to drive it before I need it for a race......

[Alan_r]

OK....here is how the story ends. Well kind of.

So I get a box in the mail yesterday and it has Associated packing tape on it. Great! They sent me a built and "certified" Stealth to finally install in my old Championship car. Good thing too, because I'm getting tired of rebuilding the old 6 gear ball diff every other day. I didn't look at it to closely but I checked and it spins smoothly.

So tonight I decide to install it in the car along with a new chassis (another thread explains why) and wait....something is not right here. The spur is on the wrong side. Maybe I'm just retarded but I'm pretty sure what I'm seeing is in fact true. Yep, I just looked at my World's car, it's wrong.

I have no idea what they sent me. So far I purchased a brand new Stealth, a brand new ball differential, idler gear and slipper assembly. Throw in the certified shipping out to California. Add the fact that I originally ordered the transmission in the middle of September. I STILL do not have a working Stealth transmission.....

Are there any Associated people on this forum?

I was understanding and consider myself pretty dedicated and loyal. I got back into this hobby and the first place I turned to was Team Associated. Combine this with the issues with the B44.3, the DOA Reedy 410R, the bad steering bellcrank in the World's kit...this is starting to not be fun any more.

At this point I don't know what to do. I'm about two month's into getting back to racing and obviously, I am in the process of buying and building all the cars for all the classes I want to race in. Which is basically all of them. I'm about to (or was about to) buy a new RC10T5M and accompanying electronics. Planned a Reedy 410 with a Mach 3 7.0. But I'm starting to wonder if I should try another brand before I get to invested in all of this. I don't care if they win World Championships; I don't win anything if I can't even get on the racetrack. That matters to me. I don't consider myself a P in I the A customer. I don't bother anyone unless I have a problem that I can't handle myself. If the equipment is faulty, I just want something to replace it; like any consumer would.

This may sound like a rant or what have you, and it is. I'm a little mad. When your hobby makes you upset, something is really wrong. I'm gonna cool down before approaching this problem but I feel that I will still feel the same about it tomorrow. What would YOU do here?

P.S: I can't even rebuild the Stealth with my own parts because I sent all of it to Associated. I will have to buy ANOTHER Stealth case to do this. I don't know man. I just don't know.

[scr8p]

Flip it to the other side.

[GoMachV]

Wow. I'd be pissed!

[jwscab]

Not sure what was happening that day at associated, but someone put the top shaft in backwards. Simply pop the clutch off, open the case and swap the top shaft around and put the little cap on the other half of the trans case.

The stealth can be coverted this way.

[Alan_r]

Looking at it more carefully, yes, there is a little cap that does in fact pop off on this case. Thus allowing me to disassemble the slipper assembly and switch it around myself. It was not very obvious and was even missed by a few other people. It looks moulded as one piece. So I stand slightly corrected. I do not have to buy another case.

"Not sure what was happening that day at associated, but someone put the top shaft in backwards." My overall point still stands. Am I to assume that my transmission was "expertly assembled" when they installed the most obvious part backwards? It's the overall experience man. That's what I was getting at and what I was upset about before. Sorry, I know forums are not the best place to vent about this stuff but I'm just..well, disappointed. I probably shouldn't have bought all the new parts myself in the first place but at the time I didn't know I would be sending it back. I don't know if it was missed in the earlier posts but I bought TWO Stealth's. The first kit and then all the internals and a new case to fix the first one. I now have one, and it comes incorrectly assembled. Associated paid for someone to assemble it and the return postage. I'm sitting at about $147.00 invested in this one Stealth......the ENTIRE World's kit was $199.00.

The whole experience kinda sucked. And here I am rebuilding the same transmission I sent out to be built a few weeks ago. Maybe I'm wrong for being upset. I don't know.

Anyway, I said I would update as things progressed. The story ends. Thanks for your help along the way. Next up is to try and get my DOA 410R fixed.

[RC10th]

Build a mid motor RC10.....

I'm a bit surprised they managed to assemble it that way and send it out like that. When you flip the top shaft make sure the head of the diff bolt is on the right side of the car. If not the diff can loosen and you "could" end up needing to rebuild the diff prematurely if you run it with the head on the left side.

Also, when you reassemble the slipper clutch make sure it slips before the diff.

[Alan_r]

Rc: Thanks, I'll double check that. I was surprised as well. I've had an apparently very "non typical" experience with quite a few things over the last few weeks. I'm just happy that all my cars are now working perfectly and I'm able to race again. The cost so far has been really high. I think I'm sitting at about $410 wasted on defective equipment from various places but I guess that's the way it is.

The World's is great, the B44.3 is likely the best car I've ever driven. The ProSC 4x4 is turning out better than expected. Hopefully my old Championship car will be back on the track shortly.

[AscotConversion]

Not sure what was happening that day at associated, but someone put the top shaft in backwards. Simply pop the clutch off, open the case and swap the top shaft around and put the little cap on the other half of the trans case.

The stealth can be coverted this way.

Think of it this way, these guys have been running mid motor cars for a good while now. The correct rear motor orientation now looks "weird" when you put everything together. I would bet one American dollar bill that whoever built the trans built it just as they do all their race stuff, including the top shaft facing the wrong way!

I would not worry about the build quality, to me this shows somebody who is a racer built the trans...LOL.