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WoodiE
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@BLOWN281 there used to be a couple companies that sold this type of conversion kit but most all long gone now unfortunately.
However, there is still one guy (that I know of) that still makes a brushless conversion kit for the Associated MGT and it does use a center diff and removes the need for the transmission, as you are wanting.
You can get the MGT conversion kit on ebay here. The same seller also sells a conversion kit that also includes a battery try here.
BLOWN281
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perfect, thank you
I think that's the same guy I got my traxxas jato conversion from. Was just a tray for the battery/receiver/esc and the motor mount, but it all worked really well. I had to modify the motor mount a tiny bit because my spur plate cooling fins bumped into it. Nothing 30 seconds with a dremel didn't take care of. I sent him photo's after letting him know as he wanted to see the issue to make possible adjustments to his mount. Was literally like 1mm of material to remove.
Can see where it was hitting as I pushed on it and spun it to make a mark so I knew where to grind:
Seemed like a decent grade of aluminum with nicely tapped threads for mounting. Took a few weeks to get it, but I'd definitely buy from him again.
Can see where it was hitting as I pushed on it and spun it to make a mark so I knew where to grind:
Seemed like a decent grade of aluminum with nicely tapped threads for mounting. Took a few weeks to get it, but I'd definitely buy from him again.
BLOWN281
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looks good. I'm going to start looking for the axles and stuff and see what it will cost first before i go and order the mount. looks as if some of the axles might be hard to find.I think that's the same guy I got my traxxas jato conversion from. Was just a tray for the battery/receiver/esc and the motor mount, but it all worked really well. I had to modify the motor mount a tiny bit because my spur plate cooling fins bumped into it. Nothing 30 seconds with a dremel didn't take care of. I sent him photo's after letting him know as he wanted to see the issue to make possible adjustments to his mount. Was literally like 1mm of material to remove.
Can see where it was hitting as I pushed on it and spun it to make a mark so I knew where to grind:
Seemed like a decent grade of aluminum with nicely tapped threads for mounting. Took a few weeks to get it, but I'd definitely buy from him again.
HarryJohnson
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Dragging this back up from the depths because I just fished an mgt 4.6 out of my garage for the kiddo and decided I didn't want to deal with nitro. I found one company in greece that still makes the conversion designed to work with a 1/8th center diff rather than use the existing transmission: https://www.grcworks.gr/002_en
I rolled the dice and ordered, and sure enough it showed up in the mail a week or so later. Now I'm waiting on the diff to get here to see if everything bolts up the way they claim. So far it looks good:
I rolled the dice and ordered, and sure enough it showed up in the mail a week or so later. Now I'm waiting on the diff to get here to see if everything bolts up the way they claim. So far it looks good:
Thats great! I loved the old MGTs!
HarryJohnson
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The hard part for me has been finding tires for it. I've got a cut on the inside sidewall on one of the tires. I really like the style of the 3" rims, but finding a decent monster truck tire to fit that are still 6.8" tall has been rough. Best I could come up with are these proline wheels and tires with a 3.8" rim: https://www.prolineracing.com/produ....8-mt-mounted-17mm-blk-raid-2/PRO1016610.html
Downside though is I loose that cool polished aluminum look and have to run black wheels like everybody else.
Could go with some Duratrax Six Packs with chrome wheels.
cbaker65
RCTalk VIP
You would need the matching size hexes ,Mgt has 14 mm ,you would need 17 mm!.
Did the MGT only have 14mm hexes? I didnt realize. I'm sure someone makes some hex adapters to go to 17mmYou would need the matching size hexes ,Mgt has 14 mm ,you would need 17 mm!.
cbaker65
RCTalk VIP
Did the MGT only have 14mm hexes? I didnt realize. I'm sure someone makes some hex adapters to go to 17mm
The 4.6 did ,not sure of the 8.0!..
LOL, I totally forgot there was an 8.0 MGT. A friend of mine had the 4.6 and he loved it. Seemed like a great kit. I only had the mini MGTThe 4.6 did ,not sure of the 8.0!..
HarryJohnson
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Gonna have to measure the hex and see where I'm at tire-wise. I haven't had the wheels off of this thing in like 8 years. Might just try to run the stock ones til the shred for now.
Not sure if I should start a seperate thread or what, but the build continues as parts show up. Got the center diff in the mail a few days ago, but didn't have the bearings to mount it until they showed up yesterday.
For anyone curious, the center diff I used was out of a RC8B3e V2 per GRCworks' recommendation on their website. It comes with a 46t metal spur gear. I didn't realize the gears were 1p and not 32p(not an RC genius by any means), until it showed up, so now I have to wait for a matching pinion gear to show up. The drivelines are also a GRCWorks recommendation- Kyosho dog bones #IS009 for the front one, #MA024 for the rear.
I didn't feel like buying a whole bearing kit just to get the two that I needed, so I did some searching around and found the bearing size I needed was 8x16x5mm. Got a pack on amazon for cheap.
So I got excited and bolted everything together to check fitment. I realized really fast that I needed the motor to hang out the front to leave enough room for my battery tray. Problem is, the stock receiver box/nitro server mounts/battery box is in the way. I would have pulled it except that's what the steering servo mounts to, so out came the dremel to make some room:
Now I had waaaaay more room for activities(like a battery tray).
Everything bolted down/mounted except for the battery tray:
Waiting on little stuff like battery, diff fluid for the center diff, and a pinion gear that actually is the same spacing as the spur gear. After that I just have to pick out what radio gear I want and I'm ready to rock. Oh, and I'm gonna swap the deans connector on the speed control for an IC5
Not sure if I should start a seperate thread or what, but the build continues as parts show up. Got the center diff in the mail a few days ago, but didn't have the bearings to mount it until they showed up yesterday.
For anyone curious, the center diff I used was out of a RC8B3e V2 per GRCworks' recommendation on their website. It comes with a 46t metal spur gear. I didn't realize the gears were 1p and not 32p(not an RC genius by any means), until it showed up, so now I have to wait for a matching pinion gear to show up. The drivelines are also a GRCWorks recommendation- Kyosho dog bones #IS009 for the front one, #MA024 for the rear.
I didn't feel like buying a whole bearing kit just to get the two that I needed, so I did some searching around and found the bearing size I needed was 8x16x5mm. Got a pack on amazon for cheap.
So I got excited and bolted everything together to check fitment. I realized really fast that I needed the motor to hang out the front to leave enough room for my battery tray. Problem is, the stock receiver box/nitro server mounts/battery box is in the way. I would have pulled it except that's what the steering servo mounts to, so out came the dremel to make some room:
Now I had waaaaay more room for activities(like a battery tray).
Everything bolted down/mounted except for the battery tray:
Waiting on little stuff like battery, diff fluid for the center diff, and a pinion gear that actually is the same spacing as the spur gear. After that I just have to pick out what radio gear I want and I'm ready to rock. Oh, and I'm gonna swap the deans connector on the speed control for an IC5
cbaker65
RCTalk VIP
Awesome job ,you wont be disappointed on how this truck performs ,the diffs can handle it ,they are bullet
from the factory ,only weak spot is the diff housing where the hinge pin goes in at for the A-arm ,they
will snap on an awkward hit or crash!
This conversion has been done with success before 10 years ago with extreme power!..
Sense the hinge pin captures are in cooperated with the diff housing ,it is a weak point to snap
the hinge pin ears off ,I modded a plate to reinforce & protect those hinge pin ears!
HarryJohnson
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I dig it! Aluminum? Might have to make a few for mine since at least 50% of the time this will be piloted by a 5 year old.Awesome job ,you wont be disappointed on how this truck performs ,the diffs can handle it ,they are bullet
from the factory ,only weak spot is the diff housing where the hinge pin goes in at for the A-arm ,they
will snap on an awkward hit or crash!
This conversion has been done with success before 10 years ago with extreme power!..
Sense the hinge pin captures are in cooperated with the diff housing ,it is a weak point to snap
the hinge pin ears off ,I modded a plate to reinforce & protect those hinge pin ears!
View attachment 155042
View attachment 155043
cbaker65
RCTalk VIP
This truck was made by two company's ,Team Associated & Thunder Tiger ,They made the electric versions
of this truck ,I dont know why they dont repop these out ,they where awesome trucks back in the day!..
HarryJohnson
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Welp, I thought the old tires and wheels looked soooo cool, but they don't stand up to the new motor and battery.
Can't find anything monster trucky with a 3" inner diameter, and definitely not a 3" inner diameter and a 6.8" outer diameter.
I found these bad boys on amazon for a decent price, so we're gonna try them out. In the meantime, my kid still wanted to drive the thing so I raided my parts drawer and... well, I'm not proud of it, but it made him happy enough:
But an interesting thing happened- I realized I had a different problem. With the large tires, this thing couldn't get out of its own way on the low end. If it rolled to a stop in thick enough grass, it would sometimes glitch out and not have enough low end to get going again. I've got a 2000kv motor in there with a 4s, so I was suspecting gearing. This confirmed it. It ripped with small wheels. I currently have a 15t gear on the motor and a 46t(largest this conversion will fit without hitting the chassis) gear on the center diff. The motor gear (pinion?) is 5mm 1p and it was difficult to find anything smaller than 15t available, but I think I managed to find a 11t, so I was going to try that. Would that make much of a difference? I have a lot of experience with the 1:1 4x4 world and normally we would go lower gears in the diff. Is that a thing on RCs? Will I be hard pressed to find lower gears for such old diffs or are they pretty much universal?
Can't find anything monster trucky with a 3" inner diameter, and definitely not a 3" inner diameter and a 6.8" outer diameter.
I found these bad boys on amazon for a decent price, so we're gonna try them out. In the meantime, my kid still wanted to drive the thing so I raided my parts drawer and... well, I'm not proud of it, but it made him happy enough:
But an interesting thing happened- I realized I had a different problem. With the large tires, this thing couldn't get out of its own way on the low end. If it rolled to a stop in thick enough grass, it would sometimes glitch out and not have enough low end to get going again. I've got a 2000kv motor in there with a 4s, so I was suspecting gearing. This confirmed it. It ripped with small wheels. I currently have a 15t gear on the motor and a 46t(largest this conversion will fit without hitting the chassis) gear on the center diff. The motor gear (pinion?) is 5mm 1p and it was difficult to find anything smaller than 15t available, but I think I managed to find a 11t, so I was going to try that. Would that make much of a difference? I have a lot of experience with the 1:1 4x4 world and normally we would go lower gears in the diff. Is that a thing on RCs? Will I be hard pressed to find lower gears for such old diffs or are they pretty much universal?
Could try a range of pinions if 11T ends up too small:
https://www.amazon.com/AMOGOT-Metal-Steel-Pinion-Brushless/dp/B0934FH1XZ/
https://www.amazon.com/AMOGOT-Metal-Steel-Pinion-Brushless/dp/B0934FH1XZ/
HarryJohnson
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I've never messed around with RC gearing before. Is the difference between a 15t and an 11t pretty dramatic? I'm more after acceleration since I want to use this thing for wheelies and jumps
