RC10Talk - The Net's Largest Vintage R/C Community

I love this site! Specifically, the ingenuity when it comes to customizations, replica builds, and feats of engineering like Ten4 4wd project. Ever since I saw Jammin Jay's 4wd car in the mid '80s, I always wanted to build a four wheel drive RC10, and now's my chance.

Even though I have two builds underway, I figure Ahhhh..what's one more. While I have full intentions of building a Ten4 down the road, I wanted to make something different. My first 4wd was a Hotshot, and I have to say, I'm a fan of shaft drive. So that's what I'm going to attempt to integrate into a tub chassis.

Unfortunately, I'm not an engineer or a machinist, so this will be a conglomeration of bits and pieces from the Associated bin.

A Worlds chassis will be used as I had a spare that I had already cut down, so I figure a couple more holes in it won't hurt it. I bought the front and rear diffs from a B44.1 off of eBay for a couple of bucks to see if this was even worth attempting. I tried to find a B44.X roller, but nothing has come up yet for the price I want to pay.

As luck would have it, the rear B44 diff has two mounts that just so happen to align with the Stealth's two forward mounting holes. There is some additional material on the bottom of the tranny case that will be ground down so that it sits level, then some shims applied to the rear mounting points. Haven't decided how I'll finish the rear of the car, but chances are good the motor cover will get trimmed off.



Onto the fun part....the front!

My first impression was wow....this tranny is big, and it sits quite high! How the heck am I going to get this to fit within the confines of the tub? Two things I want to retain, 1) the iconic front nosetubes, and 2) to use original mounting for the front shock tower. To do this the transmission has to be lowered into the tub. Grinding down the rear tranny mounts helped, but it's not even close for the diff outdrives to clear the nose tubes.

WARNING!!!! For those of you who become queazy at the sight of gaping holes in aluminum, stop reading now!!!

To get the diff case low enough, a hole was cut in the front nosepiece, bevelled on the inside the get the case to the desired height. With the reduction in nosepiece material, it's imperative the nosetubes are retained for rigidity. As you can see, the outdrives, now clear the nosetubes. Am I worried about the diff case being exposed, ya, a little. I can foresee an old school JG-like bumper that may be used and extended protect the drivetrain...we'll see.







Mistakes made.....I ground off the front diff mount to get it as far forward as possible. Shouldn't have done that for two reasons. 1) the tranny rocks back and forth when pressure is applied, and 2) the shock towers will now hit the outdrives. The front arm mount will likely need to be trimmed and a 8/32 screw and lock nut will need to be used as the third mounting point, rather than just the screw into the nylon.



So I think this might actually work!



A quick test fit of a body and it will sit low enough! Ya, I'm shocked!



Some parts I'm going to start sourcing are:
- centre diff/motor mount. Any mount from any B44 models should work. A 44.3 would be best, but an earlier one will work too once I grind off the piece which protrudes into the slot of the B44 chassis
- Will likely order some 3D parts from Shapeways for the steering blocks. I looked at the B44 steering and castor blocks and it's just going to be easier to use what has already been designed for the Ten4
- The bellcranks....well, it's looking ugly....so I'm not quite sure what I'll need yet
- Sticking to black theme, I've already sourced black OEM suspension pieces. Initial build will use white parts, but then do the final assembly using black. The Shapeways pieces will get dyed to match
- A sheet of carbon fibre it on the way. I'm going to have to fabricate upper chassis decks. Should be interesting to see if I can accommodate an RC10 rear bulkhead into the design.

Please note, this is the prototype and the craftsmanship isn't to my usual standards, so yes, I will be redoing some pieces (specifically a refined nosepiece) of this build once I produce a functioning runner.

Anyways...stay tuned. This will take a while to complete (this will drive me nuts too!)

Cheers,
Adam

Nice job,

Sometimes you take two steps forward and one step back, it's just part of the game.

Cheers, Dave.

Wow mate that is a big task and I'll be watching for updates... Interesting to see what you do with batt an motor placement

Love the idea! And I love my B44 so you've definitely got my attention here. I was wondering - would a TC3 (or similar) setup be easier to adapt to something like this setup? Just thinking that the lower profile of a touring car might be easier to get into the tub. I have one that I may check out for fitment...hmmm.

bully wrote:Wow mate that is a big task and I'll be watching for updates... Interesting to see what you do with batt an motor placement

Oh trust me Bully, this has me worried. Having a roller to scavenge parts from would have been handy, but as I don't have a motor or lipo pack handy before starting construction, this could prove problematic.

Great idea on the Touring car idea RC104ever. I was thinking the same thing, that there has to be another Associated drivetrain to use, but was just not sure which model. Thanks for the suggestion!

liking This

Nice start! I liked your comment on the gaping hole in aluminum! Stay with it, Id like to see this finished.

Shapeways order placed for the front suspension blocks, as well as the list of Associated parts from the Ten4 build thread, http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=103&t=39021.

Big thanks to mk-Zero for sharing his work with us!

I'm going to stick a Reedy Sonic 17.5 in to start. We'll see how this works before throwing a modified motor into it.

Nice start. I see you didn't have to explain 'another buggy showing up at the door' to the wife

Todd

Got the bulkhead in today. Just thrilled this fit relatively easily and that the rear shock tower will be a direct bolt on.

very very nice !!!!!

I did the same thing years ago but used Traxxas E-revo front/rear gearboxes and a Redcat center diff.

This is a very interesting build. I'm excited!

Very cool, keep up the good work!
I thought about trying thus some time ago, but the Ten4 hhas kept me too busy. Glad to see someone else doing it!

As luck would have it I found a partially built B44.3 on Kijiji and have scavenged it for its drivetrain. The motor mount fit quite nicely in the re-re milled chassis, as the spur gear sits lower than the mount...phew. The driveshafts are two 81.4mm with a bit of room to spare.

I've mocked up the rear top plate and both shock towers. I need to wait for all the front suspension pieces to arrive before I built the front top plate. The placement of the front diff is still to be determined pending drive shaft clearances. Shapeways sent me an email saying the parts should be here next week.







It appears a shorty pack will be used as it fits nicely on the right hand side. Used a piece of sponge as I don't yet own a battery.



All of the carbon pieces will be made from 3mm sheet. This way I can file and router certain areas without reducing strength....in theory.

The rear hubs I will likely drill out by 2-3mm. That should give the re-re dogbones enough clearance to travel without binding.

I test fitted the body. The motor placement is going to cause me grief. Where the bulge is on the left side of the re-re Worlds car, if it were extended frontward another inch, all would be good. Any suggestions on either heating to re-shape it to gain space, cutting and glueing a piece in, or an alternative body?

Thanks