Dan's ProCat runner/racer project

[DerbyDan]

Managed to get some more time on the car over the weekend... the first thing I did was swap out my old (bent) steering pivots & screws for the new ones I scored off ebay last week...



I tried to mount the roll bar underneath as per the Phil Davies car above... but I believe he must have been using an aftermarket steering lever set (ballraced?) that stands them down a little more than the standard Schumacher parts thus giving clearace to the mounting brackets.... so for now the roll bar sits on the top of the top deck!

There's still a massive list of things to do, but the car now sits complete with the electrics connected (wires not tied up neatly yet) & its driven under its own power, albeit up & down the landing.







The wheels/tyres are for testing purposes only, it will get some more suitable race-rubber before the ProCat hits the track.

[Peakey]

Looking very good dan just a pitty you've got to pull it apart but I think I've now striped and built mine three tea and it's still not moved under it's own power yet

[CAT3K]

I have this alloy steering assembly here that I think might have been around when Phil was racing that Procat. I think it's Wasp or MMS but I can't honestly remember. It came from a Procat.



#



The posts are definitely longer than the standard Procat, and they're ballraced, although oddly the pivots are not. Hopefully it will give you some idea of what to look out for.

Paul.

[DerbyDan]

Mmm interesting! They do look a lot like the factory items at first glance (especially being black) & I assumed that the pivots on the car in the mag article were standard also, so was somewhat dissapointed when they didn't give adequate clearance for the roll bar

...However, I've got some ideas though on how I can increase the spacing on these pivots a little.

[DerbyDan]

More progress;

Fitted this NIP Bosscat 'Z' bracket... probably one of the most satisfying upgrades that I've added to this ProCat, with the old bracket, the shocktower/wingmount assembly would rock about - the Z bracket does the job of the two brackets, for fixing the aforementioned shock mount & the camber link mount lower down & provides a much more rigid mounting for both This Schumacher part effectively copies the aluminium upgrade items that were offered by various aftermarket manufacturers for the early CATs.



I then gave the car a couple of shakedown laps at my local club on the indoor track which is normally reserved for touring car racing - the front end is too soft, the old perished worn spike tyres were deff not the tyre of choice & the car is woefully undergeared (I need an 86 spur!) - but it drove round & didn't fall apart!

On Saturday I managed to grab a bit of time to assemble my BossCat 'Pro' diff - this was built out of two diffs - most of the plastic bits are from an ebay sourced diff which when opened up I realised was from a sport model... CAT3K (Paul) helped me out with a second diff which provided the ballraces, Alloy diff outputs & washers to bring it up to full comp spec.

The parts laid out ready for assembly, I was able to use one of the thrust races that I brought from Schumacher... the brass race holder must be better than the old fragile plastic item! I've also used three cone washers.. which are taken from a diff screw kit for the current schumacher ball diff design;


The assembled diff;

[LurkingCAT]

Developing into a very desirable car this one!

Here are two pictures of the wasp fully ballraced steering for reference:

[DerbyDan]

Ooooh - I'd love to find a set of those steering bell cranks!

[Peakey]

Developing into a very desirable car this one!

Here are two pictures of the wasp fully ballraced steering for reference:

That would fit nicely to my Procat let me know when it comes up for sale

[LurkingCAT]

I spent some time & £ getting these...

Totally up to my taste as well using fiberglass on this build. Gives that special Schumacher engineering feel from back then - priceless!
If you can't get any good bell cranks, what about going Luke inspired in fiberglass? Fiberlite did his design in carbon, so either same design or design your own and get them done in thick fiberglass? At least that is what I'm up to when I'm going a similar route with a XLS later on.

David

[Peakey]

I was thinking of getting some made like Luke's when I get my chassis bits made I've already found a NIP MMS centre track rod so half way there

[DerbyDan]

Geeez, these cars are not easy to work on! Over the weekend I had a spare couple of hours to spend on the car so thought i'd swap out my MMS diff (as currently fitted) for my refreshed 'Pro' Bosscat diff.

I thought it might be an easy case of slackening off the main belt at the front, removing the L/H wishbone & mount, remove the gearbox sideplate & access would be available to swap the diff out - alas one thing led to another & I ended up pretty much dissmantling the whole car!



When I had finally removed the old diff - I sat it alongside the Bosscat item & instantly realised why the BossCat eccentrics are required, the bearing sit further apart on the later diff - the white eccentrics from the later car compensate for this, luckily I had a good pair of these that I had aquired from CAT3K & Peakey (thanks guys )



I am currently rebuilding the car's original shocks... I'm going to follow the shock specs given in the RRC article on Phil Davies' car.. I think this would give a good base set-up. If I feel that the old Schumacher shocks really don't work well enough then I will try & replicate the arrangement with the Kyosho gold shocks.

[LurkingCAT]

Nice to see the progress of the build. Even though one has to go two steps backwards to get one step ahead

[Peakey]

Looks good dan and I'm happy to help I'm just waiting on two more parts and then I've got to pull mine apart again but hopefully that will be it for a while

[Groomi]

Keep up the good work.

So what are the Phil Davies shock settings?

[DerbyDan]

Keep up the good work.

So what are the Phil Davies shock settings?

http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=3990&hilit=Phil+Davies