Worth the wait,just released Fibrelyte JRX-Pro carbon chassis

[cas22]

I got this old chassis with a box of odd cars 5years ago now and have been slowly chipping away at rebuilding them.
I had a new JRX-Pro and always liked it; this one had seen better days so I contacted Stephen at FibreLyte to look into Moulding a replacement kick up chassis.
I sent him the old chassis and towers said I was in no rush and forgot about it.
For a year, then covid, then he was making parts for Olympic cycling teams, then another year, until my chassis arrived yesterday.
after it popped up on Facebook and i thought ... that old chassis looks familiar? a lot like mine... because it was.
I'm stoked, typical immaculate quality, and the towers in 2.5mm Carbon as well.

[cas22]

Spent some time slowly collecting bits as finances allow, rpm ball ends, lundsford turnbuckles, and 3D Printed front bulkhead, wing buttons and battery clip.
I replaced all the hardware with stainless cap screws and could only find metric nylon nuts, so will tap these out to suit 4:40 etc.
Collector here helped me with spur gears and slipper, (thanks Matt) and also the shock bodies in silver, as mine had a mix of black and silver.
Also found the shock collars and rebuild kits are still available, and traxxas driveshafts will fit(?)
The 2" proline rims popped up here in NZ , and i have a JR's choice motor that needs a new decal prior to fitting.
Heaps to do,

[cas22]

Heres some as found pictures, not sure why the saddle pack holes were cut in the chassis, pretty sure its not factory.
Would of been a lot of work for minimal performance gain compared to standard stick pack

[Johanp]

It´s going to be sweet!
Need some initial cleaning though.

[cas22]

Cheers Johanp,
Well, Kicked off today, been sitting in my cupboard for couple of years now waiting for that pretty Chassis, must say im stocked.
Typical Fibre Lyte quality, Stephen nailed it.
Rediscovered the Stainless UNC screws i had forgotten i had ordered, Also since i initiated the build an ex racer mate sold me a T4 with a huge amount of spares.
Being mostly Japanese and Metric, Stuarts's selection of shiny titanium came in handy.

[cas22]

Unearthed a 3D printed front bulkhead i got way back from Shapeways before they went belly up, and also some wing buttons and shock collars

[cas22]

Assembled up the front 3D printed bulkhead, perfect fit.
Much easier using the Stainless cap screws rather than the aluminum Philips drive screws they used to have.
Try to run a tap through initially but didn't have this one on hand, sacrificed a screw instead.

[cas22]

As I was pulling out the parts again I had to clean the rust off most of the hinge pins, found a really easy was to run them in the drill, and use a scotch brite Dremel bit, running the counter way.
Came up a lot better than using wet and dry sandpaper alone.
The wing tubes were seriously bent, warmed them up with hot water and carefully straightened them out again.
I was paranoid that I was going to snap one, No way to find spares of those easily hers.
As it was i couldn't remove all the vice jaw marks from pervious owners attempts.

[cas22]

It seems amazing to me that this car could have had a dozen owners prior to my receiving it in a banana box of bits and pieces.
Gone full circle from state of the art, to club racer, to run down entry car, to backyard basher, and now collectable again
Pulled apart and rebuilt a couple of dozen times in 30 years, yet the gearbox was mint, and wasn't missing any of the parts, the bevel washers, thrust washer assembly. All there.
Had a new set of A-3013 molded driveshafts, and a new set of internal gears, so in they went, And that T4 Truck gave up more imperial goodies for the cause so I flipped the diff rings and put in new 3/32" carbide balls.
I never realized the mix of metric and imperial ball bearings in the gearbox, Weird tooling?
Replaced the 4-40 black screws with stainless, and gave the motor guard a good clean, and going over with 2000 grit wet and dry.
Its well used and grooved from its racing / bashing duties, and im not finding those parts easily, it can go back in and keep up the good work.

[cas22]

So ran out of daylight and patience trying to get the rear drive hubs fitted with the internal e clips.
I have one of the 4 required plastic clips to center it in the h arm.
Think ill need to use some alloy spacers and drill them to 1/8" from 3mm.
Rediscovered a Ball raced steering kit id put aside ages ago, was going great until i realized it was for the later chassis model, and the spacing wasn't correct for this older model.
So had a rethink on the bearing sizes and ran the original posts with a 2mm space washer, and a tube spacer under the e-clip.
Easy enough, but the steering plate had different center measurements as well!!
Dug out a part from an X-Ray steering parts throw out, shortened, sanded it flush and re drilled it.
Added some brass inserts, and were back on task again. Also missing the top cap from the Antenna tube, mounted a matt black alloy unit in its place.
Frustratingly also missing two of the four shock mounting ball parts. and one of the remaining two is cracked, Need to suss out a solution there too.
The original bumper was quite smashed around, so i made one out of some Kydex.
Its all right for a first attempt, but im not very satisfied, ill have another crack at it.

[RogueIV]

So ran out of daylight and patience trying to get the rear drive hubs fitted with the internal e clips.
I have one of the 4 required plastic clips to center it in the h arm.
Think ill need to use some alloy spacers and drill them to 1/8" from 3mm.
Rediscovered a Ball raced steering kit id put aside ages ago, was going great until i realized it was for the later chassis model, and the spacing wasn't correct for this older model.
So had a rethink on the bearing sizes and ran the original posts with a 2mm space washer, and a tube spacer under the e-clip.
Easy enough, but the steering plate had different center measurements as well!!
Dug out a part from an X-Ray steering parts throw out, shortened, sanded it flush and re drilled it.
Added some brass inserts, and were back on task again. Also missing the top cap from the Antenna tube, mounted a matt black alloy unit in its place.
Frustratingly also missing two of the four shock mounting ball parts. and one of the remaining two is cracked, Need to suss out a solution there too.
The original bumper was quite smashed around, so i made one out of some Kydex.
Its all right for a first attempt, but im not very satisfied, ill have another crack at it.

Hate to point it out to you but that steering plate you made isn't going to work properly. the left crank is longer than the right crank on these cars meaning that left hole needs to be offset like on the original.

edit: Nevermind I see that you have a different set of belcranks.

[Lavigna]

Edit. - I just noticed your carbon plate is offset. If it weren't, would the below thinking be accurate?

Regarding the straight carbon steering plate - wouldn't the 2 steering holes in the chassis need to be centered for a straight plate and equal length steering rack arms to work correctly?

This is something I've thought about before, and I assumed to change the steering to a equal length, traditional setup, the rack, arms, and chassis holes would all need to be changed?

Is this correct thinking?

[GoMachV]

Regarding the straight carbon steering plate - wouldn't the 2 steering holes in the chassis need to be centered for a straight plate and equal length steering rack arms to work correctly?

On our steering kits we have the offset hole for people that don't want to modify things and a centered hole for those that prefer symmetry. Mocking them up side by side they operate identically. The parallelogram doesn't change just because of the symmetry of the location of the pivots if that makes sense. As far as the long and short arms of the stock crank, somewhere I saw Junior had said they thought it would work better but never really dove into it that deep, sounds like it was just a theory and they ran with it. I don't like the arc it creates personally

[cas22]

Hi Gents,
Thanks for your input, Great to bounce ideas around
appreciate its not exact with swing etc, but I think I will run out of travel on the steering knuckles before it becomes apparent on the bellcranks?
Measred 19.4mm on one throw, and 23.5 mm on the other so there is some discrepancy.
And i was a bit limited in what i had to hand.
And a more appropriate solution is in the que now also.
Thanks for your help.

[cas22]

Found this reply from GOMACHV a few years back, he is in the thread and a quote from MYTIMAC who had a comment from Gil Losi Jr regarding the bell cranks.
https://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?t=43012