Hirobo Zerda: from wreck to runner

[threesheds]

Well the new bearings arrived, and 'wheel wobble' a bit reduced. I found that a couple of hubs could take slivver of foil between the drive shaft and bearing and also a couple of bearings seemed loose in their housings so got a bit of foil around them as a shim. Reducing wobble reminded me of my dad looking for almost imaginary rattles in the old Vauxhall.
Saw a utube video of someone fitting shocks and his wheel wobble was about 10 times worse than mine so shouldn't worry or bother.

Theory: wonder if theres a way to get 3 spur gears to replace and fit between the motor pulley, tension pulley and 50t pulley. I think I've got too much time on my hands !!!

[Dadio]

Replacing the first belt with gears ? If you go there then just go the whole hog and go mid motor ? It's probably easier than finding the right gears and ratio to fit exactly in place without being able to move the motor to adjust the mesh ! A mid conversion just needs an alloy plate as a motor mount ,a spur gear and to flip the lay shaft to come out the other side of the gearbox , swap the red plastic pulley off the lay shaft and fit the spur gear , there's a few pictures around of the mod if you surf hard enough , if I wanted to replace the first belt it's what I'd do ,it would also fit with the other racer more on your car .

[threesheds]

92t belts fell thru...surrendered and got 18t pulley. Probably cheaper that way. 92t Belts rarer than hens teeth and cost more than weight in gold. So now belts Dadio sent me and worn spares fit fine and its plenty fast enough for me. Ali top plate will be OK and look like a bodge mod to go with the rest of it. Ali too soft really.

[Dadio]

The stock top deck is really flexible and adds little or no structural rigidity , it's more of a mount for the mechanical speed control and servo in the stock car and to mount the driver on , your alloy one is very likely going to add more strength to the structure .

[threesheds]

I saw your comment about hard/soft alloy on another thread, my sheet's obviously soft, nearly as soft as lead. I was going to drill holes as per the genuine part but will weaken the already bendy sheet. Thinking about making one with 'skirts' as you pondered with plastic sheet. lots of modding options I guess. I might be able to do a belt cover with the alloy. the steering servo is a bit chunky as its mounted vertically and going to try a smaller one but aware the torque can be an issue. Never mind, I've got a boat project unfinished for the last 50 years which can use the servo.....

[threesheds]

More senior moments...thought I'd ordered some 92t belts and as didn't arrive or couldn't find paypal payment shrugged it off. now they've arrived so got 10 92t mxl's counted the teeth to check, they look a tad narrower maybe 5mm nominal but dont appear to be that much narrower than 6.5mm. Anyway some available if anyone wants some.

Anyone got an idea what these are off.... or got a use for them. Wheels: 2 wheels and one tyre 75mm with 45mm hubs probably fit 12mm hex but havent' checked. 2 hubs 45mm look like zerda's as just round axle hole , been painted gold on white plastic, come apart in three pieces

[threesheds]

and here's the roughly fixed top plate, good deal of tidying up to do.

[Dadio]

Those tyres look like the old Tamiya rally car tyres , not sure about the wheels .
A good start on the top deck .

[threesheds]

Cheers, I'll see if anyone dibs for the wheels here, otherwise ebay sometime.
Now I'm thinking a top deck that incorporates something over the belt.....too ambitious probably

[threesheds]

Hi Dadio, question re zerda shocks. What length are yours? Couldn't see sizes in the manual. On mine they are 85mm front and 90 rear at fixing centres but not necessarily correct. Also is your chasis ground clearance the same front and back. I can get mine level with some shock adjusters on the front but suspension arms would be pushed to lower limit. Otherwise it's a bit nose down. Tku for any info. If I get replacements I don't want to get wrong ones. Manual says ct13 and ct14 so I assume they shud be different lengths.

[Dadio]

Measured to eye centres , front 82 mm ,rear 92 mm , I'm not running stock shocks but even with the ones I have fitted I have less clearance at the front by maybe 5 mm .

[threesheds]

I've been reading some setup guides such as keep wishbones level, but even the zerda illustrations show the chasis riding high. Got any thoughts on the matter?

[Dadio]

Mines not been on a track so I can't say really what's best , a little droop in the suspension is always needed though for it to work properly . To get mine level I'd need softer springs though as the shocks already have the spring coller at min compression .

[threesheds]

Same here, ive got softer springs on the bed. Pity I think I've got the original shocks in the spares box but they're knackered, worn, bent shafts, seals gone but much lighter build that these yellow ones

[Dadio]

It was a bit of a pity with my stock shocks as 3 were serviceable but the 4th had a siezed cap and it was so tight that it split around the thread rather than undo so I had to replace at least 2 .