Tips, Tricks and Mods:
Front Brace;
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The front brace is made from the original pivot ball holder ends threaded on to a 4mm steel rod. The shock tower pivot ball is held in place by two copper wheel bushings sandwiched between 2 metal brackets. An M4 bolt and nut secures the whole lot together. The bracket then bolts to the shock tower by two M4 nuts bolts through the tower plate and body mount (the original top two mounting holes).
Wheelie bars;
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It is made from two steel shelf brackets bent and cut into shape with a whole cut in the end for the 1 3/4" plane wheel to be mounted. The wheel is secured by a pin that goes through the end of the two steel brackets. The door hinge was ideal to mount it on, as i could adjust where i wanted the wheel to touch the ground. The hinge fits under the rear tranmission housing. The top bracket bolts to the shock tower.
Front skid plate;
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The front skid plate is made front Stainless Steel 2mm thick sheet. I cut out a suitable size, marked up the holes and drilled and countersunk them. I then bent the skid into the 70 degree angle shown in the pic. (Bent in the vice with alot of heaving!) It has survived alot of crashes and is still in the same shape from when i made it.
Shimming the Differential;
It is called this because you add metal shims behind the differential outputs to increase the pressure between the two gears. You will only need to do this when your front/rear differential starts to click under heavy braking or undr acceleration. I will explain how to do this step-by-step below. This tip will apply to any vehicle that uses the ring and pinion gear system but maybe different to disassemble.
I have based this tutorial on shimming the rear section but it will also apply to the front.
You will need suitable tools and some suitable Metal Washer Shims. You can buy packs of them with all the different sizes you may need from a modelshop, or you can make your own from a metal washer, filed down/ground to fit. You must use Metal shims in either case as plastic will simply wear away and it will be pointless.
Step 1:
Remove the wheels. Remove the Front or Rear Section by un-doing the 4 screws that secure it to the chasis.
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Step 2:
Lever the Center Brace from thom the center pivot ball. Remove the entire section, leaving the dog bone.
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Step 3:
Unscrew the 4 screws that secure the shock tower to the bulks. Then unscrew 1 of the sides of the top pin brace and loosen the other.
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Step 4:
Unscrew the two retaining screws that secure the bulks to the differential housing.
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And pull apart the bulks and lift the differential casing out. Slide the dog bones/cvas out from the drive cups as you lift the casing out.
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You should now have the differential casing out of the rear bulks and looks like this:
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Step 5:
Unscrew the 4 screws securing the upper top case of the differntial casing.
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Pull out the differential from the casing and inspect it for wear on the ring teeth and pinion teeth. You do not need to remove the pinion gear from the casing as we are not shimming this one, unless you want to closer inspect it for wear.
Step 6; Shimming the diff.
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Remove the drive cup from the opposite side to the teeth of the ring gear. You may need a screw-driver to pull the cup away from the bearing. Try not to damage the bearing by doing this.
The part we are going to shim is the ring gear (just to clarify; the big gear that surrounds the differential). You need to add shims to the opposite side to the teeth of the ring gear.
You will need to add them beneath the bearing between the diff output.
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The size of the shim to add is the tricky part. You will need to add a shim, so that when the gears are meshed together and are back into the casing and screws done up, the gears feel slightly "firm". This indicates a good strong mesh. The gears should not be tight to turn, as it means the mesh is too close. It might take you a couple of tries to get this right if it means grinding the shim down to fit.
Re-install the drive cup to the diff output.
It is also a good idea at this time to loctite the two screws that hold the ring gear to the differential. As these commonly work their way loose and will destroy the gears. Use Red Loctite as its stronger than the blue.
When your happy with the mesh, take the diff out one last time and grease the ring and pinion gears with high temperature grease.
Re-assemble your transmission and shock tower following a reverse order of the procedure above.
Test the transmission out! See if it clicks under braking or accelerating. If so, then shim it again and get the gears closer.
Shimming the Clutch Bell;
You will need to shim the clutch bell to prevent it from wobbling or moving when under load.
Take off the clutch beel from the engine and make sure there are two very this shims under the bearings already. Then you will need to add shims on the outside bearing of the bell. The shim will need to ride only on the inner part of the bearing or the outer, but not both as it will bind. Find a suitable shim in a shim pack from a modelshop and add it. Tighten down the securing screw and little washer and check that the clutch does not bind when you spin it.