Build Thread A Newbie's First Ever Build: Tekno NB48 2.2

[Chadinator]

Hello everyone,

I am on the cusp of ordering my first ever RC kit to one day become another 1/8 nitro buggy racing dude. Below are some points/questions I have after having read through all 12 pages of Littlemotor's thread. Please feel free to comment any helpful points, things I shouldn't spend my money on (lol), or things I've absolutely missed out that I'll need - like good tools people use to build kits, things like that.

@Littlemotor ,your build thread has been invaluable to go through and given me reference points I could never have dreamt of + a bit of ‘maybe I could try this’. I don’t have a ton of cash right now, but I’ve enough for a few extra parts alongside the kit and below is a list I have whittled it down to.

• The kit (duh)
• TKR5122 Steering rack bushing (aluminum of course!)
• J & T Tekno Alloy centre diff top plate
• TKR6143 & 6144 front & rear shock boots (are these right?)
• TKR1115 Pivot ball and shock multi-tool (I thought they were lobster crackers until I read on)
• Nut drivers & whatever other tools specified in the kit box
• CMD – is this extreme pressure lube?
• TA green slime
• Loctite 248

Feel free to tell me about parts I don’t need to upgrade immediately. I’m no seasoned pro/racer, so if some of these upgrade parts are overkill, please let me know. I want to increase durability as I will be threatening it at every step, but the parts mentioned above were bits that stuck out for me in your build.

As far as the motor and electronics go, that’ll take some time as I refrain from using the credit card for a bit of sustainability for several ‘family’ reasons. In terms of building, it looks like I should be getting the two servos, then the receiver/transmitter, then the motor + pipe for simpler assembly purposes?

I assure you, this thread will be nothing like Littlemotor's thread - yes same kit, probably very different results, but I hope to provide some comic value possibly as an absolute novice tries his hand at building a kit. I'm just after a little push and advice to click the order button - no photos yet of course.

Thank you everyone in advance!

 

[Tunedfrog]

Looking forward to pics of your build.
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• WoodiE
• Replies: 1
• Forum: RC Builds and Projects

• 

 

[RustyUs]

I can't wait to see powerplant installation as I never paid any attention to any nitro builds before... until this past month. I highly doubt I'll ever own a nitro RC. There is only one situation/circumstance that will ultimately make me run out and try my hand at fumigating my backyard with the smell of nitro. Until that happens, I'll just sit back and watch you nitro guys/freaks inspire me.

 

[ahr43]

Great you are beginning a build thread. Good too you are taking time to do some research in advance of beginning a build. Like Rusty, above, anxious to follow progress on your build. For me, I liken 1/8 nitro bug to my high school girl friend. Long gone out of my life, but never forgotten.

If I can offer any useful advice, it would be to wait-list upgrades for now and build the Tekno straight out of the box. That will give you a baseline by which to compare any future upgrades as you develop a driving style on your selected track. Regarding tires, find out what tire works well at whichever track you choose as a home track. Talk with the guys and gals running there.

Select an entry-level engine with a companion pipe that offers a wide power band and drive, drive, drive. Best upgrade you can buy when just beginning 1/8 nitro bug is track time. Turn a lot of laps and tweak the stock config until your driving preferences and style begin to emerge. Then you can pile on the upgrades.

Good luck. Certain you will do well, mate. Australia embraces 1/8 nitro off-road, so you'll be in good company both there and here. -AC

 

[Doom!]

Good luck, and enjoy the process, the guys here will keep you on track.

 

[CertifiedMike]

Welcome to RCTALK.COM!!!
Excellent choice for a first build!

 

[Chadinator]

Great you are beginning a build thread. Good too you are taking time to do some research in advance of beginning a build. Like Rusty, above, anxious to follow progress on your build. For me, I liken 1/8 nitro bug to my high school girl friend. Long gone out of my life, but never forgotten.

If I can offer any useful advice, it would be to wait-list upgrades for now and build the Tekno straight out of the box. That will give you a baseline by which to compare any future upgrades as you develop a driving style on your selected track. Regarding tires, find out what tire works well at whichever track you choose as a home track. Talk with the guys and gals running there.

Select an entry-level engine with a companion pipe that offers a wide power band and drive, drive, drive. Best upgrade you can buy when just beginning 1/8 nitro bug is track time. Turn a lot of laps and tweak the stock config until your driving preferences and style begin to emerge. Then you can pile on the upgrades.

Good luck. Certain you will do well, mate. Australia embraces 1/8 nitro off-road, so you'll be in good company both there and here. -AC

Thank you for the sound advice. Will keep this in mind as I begin my build. Common sense did tell me to just build and drive it as much as I can - thank you again.

 

[Chadinator]

Disclaimer: I have never assembled an RC kit. I've assembled Ikea furniture, Lego, other furniture, toys, and installed baby car seats. I can live with the fact that I may not build this kit up to its full stock potential with my untrained and uninitiated hands, but I say money well spent if it means I can take away some knowledge and experience doing this. I am also writing some teaching curriculum documents for use at high school level, so posting on here will have them in mind - lots of basic questions will be asked and hopefully answered. I have to start somewhere and this is it.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My tools have arrived and I also managed to find some time when I wasn't so shattered. With much anticipation and fear, I unbox my kit and put Ifti's build video on Youtube and watch the Bags A & B video twice before cutting open my own.

I open the bag and find a whole bunch of stuff, thank god for the video as I am having some issues determining the exact order of parts going in. Even though it seems pretty straight forward and I understand, I am overcautious and want to determine where everything goes and in what order in my head before touching anything. I watch Ifti's video again and follow the order there while confirming with the manual. I am thinking like one of my students would, and I can just imagine them asking me whether they follow it left to right, or right to left, top to bottom, or bottom to top. These are the types of questions I am asking myself too, as being a newbie, I need things a little bit more literal. People on here can laugh at me all they want, but I need to guide impatient adolescents through this, so I put myself in their shoes and the manual doesn't make it 100% clear at least in my opinion. I am feeling good as I am finding some teaching and learning points on page 1 already.

I feel in awe of all the parts here, I imagine myself in 10 years or so, laughing at my current self at how pleasantly confused and insecure I am feeling. I even look up why you need diff oil and have another 'ooo ah' moment where it makes perfect sense to put a liquid of some viscosity in there to offer resistance to the power being delivered to the differentials, affecting power distribution and wheel spin speed to aid traction. I also find out that there are different weighted diff oils, as I am instructed by the manual to add #5000 to the centre and the rear, and #7000 oil to the front differential. I make a note of this as this seems like a good point to go over with my students and have some discussions over power, resistance, traction, and some maths & physics discussions.

My first ever part built is the centre differential, and I struggle with the flat head screws at the last step. I find out that it wasn't aligned to the actual screw hole and was wondering in some other hole - I feel like a dummy but tell myself its much less painful than the Little Tikes Cozy Coupe I did last year - that thing sucked big time. I managed to realign and screw them in until they don't turn anymore - snug and not overdone.

I keep watching Ifti's video to see if he repeats instructions for the rear and front differential - he just says to repeat the same process from the centre diff which I do. I do the rear diff as it requires the same #5000 oil, feeling much more comfortable than when I did the centre diff. I am wondering whether I should take apart the centre diff and do it again with this new found confidence and my hands getting used to inserting the pins, o-rings, and the hex driver. I decide otherwise as it feels like I'd be performing open heart surgery at this point and decide not to add to the 'workload'. I finish off the rear and front diff, making sure to put the #7000 oil in the front as per the manual. Some oil seeps out when I screw the flat heads in, maybe I filled it up too much, but I swear I did it like the picture in the manual...

As Ifti's video recommended, I mark my diffs with pencil, I am glad to have come through this without much drama, just some sweats and a lot of time spent for these three parts. I feel pretty good and start packing up, until I find one of the small differential shims that should've been used up.

F***.

I remember checking on the rear diff, but may have been a bit cocky when doing the front diff. The open heart surgery I contemplated before has now become a reality and after spending a split second mulling over just ignoring the problem and throwing the shim away, I decide to open the front diff back up and find the place for the unused shim. I forget to take a photo here due to the disappointment, panic, utter shame, and oily fingers.

The missus walks by and says, "I thought you were finished?", I glare at her when she also guesses right that I made a mistake and forgot to add a part somewhere. Everything is now where it should be, and I scan my mat and floor for more 'spare' parts. I find none - this is different to Lego where I always have spare bits left. At least my diffs aren't leaking oil, and I managed to not break any parts before assembling them. I imagine the build quality is not the best, but I tell myself that if I'm in this for the long haul and want to eventually build and maintain a 1/8 nitro and go racing, I need to learn one way or another, and my wallet will hurt until I do - I can buy more parts but I can't buy experience.

Thanks for reading.

----------------------------

Question: How easily or not easily should my differentials be turning at its current form? (I grab the bottom bit and turn)

Question: If I hadn't inserted that one shim, would it have mattered?

 

[WickedFog]

Disclaimer: I have never assembled an RC kit. I've assembled Ikea furniture, Lego, other furniture, toys, and installed baby car seats. I can live with the fact that I may not build this kit up to its full stock potential with my untrained and uninitiated hands, but I say money well spent if it means I can take away some knowledge and experience doing this. I am also writing some teaching curriculum documents for use at high school level, so posting on here will have them in mind - lots of basic questions will be asked and hopefully answered. I have to start somewhere and this is it.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My tools have arrived and I also managed to find some time when I wasn't so shattered. With much anticipation and fear, I unbox my kit and put Ifti's build video on Youtube and watch the Bags A & B video twice before cutting open my own.

I open the bag and find a whole bunch of stuff, thank god for the video as I am having some issues determining the exact order of parts going in. Even though it seems pretty straight forward and I understand, I am overcautious and want to determine where everything goes and in what order in my head before touching anything. I watch Ifti's video again and follow the order there while confirming with the manual. I am thinking like one of my students would, and I can just imagine them asking me whether they follow it left to right, or right to left, top to bottom, or bottom to top. These are the types of questions I am asking myself too, as being a newbie, I need things a little bit more literal. People on here can laugh at me all they want, but I need to guide impatient adolescents through this, so I put myself in their shoes and the manual doesn't make it 100% clear at least in my opinion. I am feeling good as I am finding some teaching and learning points on page 1 already.

View attachment 219857

I feel in awe of all the parts here, I imagine myself in 10 years or so, laughing at my current self at how pleasantly confused and insecure I am feeling. I even look up why you need diff oil and have another 'ooo ah' moment where it makes perfect sense to put a liquid of some viscosity in there to offer resistance to the power being delivered to the differentials, affecting power distribution and wheel spin speed to aid traction. I also find out that there are different weighted diff oils, as I am instructed by the manual to add #5000 to the centre and the rear, and #7000 oil to the front differential. I make a note of this as this seems like a good point to go over with my students and have some discussions over power, resistance, traction, and some maths & physics discussions.

My first ever part built is the centre differential, and I struggle with the flat head screws at the last step. I find out that it wasn't aligned to the actual screw hole and was wondering in some other hole - I feel like a dummy but tell myself its much less painful than the Little Tikes Cozy Coupe I did last year - that thing sucked big time. I managed to realign and screw them in until they don't turn anymore - snug and not overdone.

I keep watching Ifti's video to see if he repeats instructions for the rear and front differential - he just says to repeat the same process from the centre diff which I do. I do the rear diff as it requires the same #5000 oil, feeling much more comfortable than when I did the centre diff. I am wondering whether I should take apart the centre diff and do it again with this new found confidence and my hands getting used to inserting the pins, o-rings, and the hex driver. I decide otherwise as it feels like I'd be performing open heart surgery at this point and decide not to add to the 'workload'. I finish off the rear and front diff, making sure to put the #7000 oil in the front as per the manual. Some oil seeps out when I screw the flat heads in, maybe I filled it up too much, but I swear I did it like the picture in the manual...

View attachment 219858

As Ifti's video recommended, I mark my diffs with pencil, I am glad to have come through this without much drama, just some sweats and a lot of time spent for these three parts. I feel pretty good and start packing up, until I find one of the small differential shims that should've been used up.

F***.

I remember checking on the rear diff, but may have been a bit cocky when doing the front diff. The open heart surgery I contemplated before has now become a reality and after spending a split second mulling over just ignoring the problem and throwing the shim away, I decide to open the front diff back up and find the place for the unused shim. I forget to take a photo here due to the disappointment, panic, utter shame, and oily fingers.

The missus walks by and says, "I thought you were finished?", I glare at her when she also guesses right that I made a mistake and forgot to add a part somewhere. Everything is now where it should be, and I scan my mat and floor for more 'spare' parts. I find none - this is different to Lego where I always have spare bits left. At least my diffs aren't leaking oil, and I managed to not break any parts before assembling them. I imagine the build quality is not the best, but I tell myself that if I'm in this for the long haul and want to eventually build and maintain a 1/8 nitro and go racing, I need to learn one way or another, and my wallet will hurt until I do - I can buy more parts but I can't buy experience.

Thanks for reading.

----------------------------

Question: How easily or not easily should my differentials be turning at its current form? (I grab the bottom bit and turn)

Question: If I hadn't inserted that one shim, would it have mattered?

The reason for the shims in the differential is to achieve the proper gear mesh. You're dealing with a lot of machined components inside the differential housing, as well as the housing itself. Each of these items have their own +/- tolerances during the manufacting process for not only the molds, but the finished components. The shims are there to allow you to get the mesh just right.

I have not built a Tekno, but have heard @Littlemotor and others brag about how well the Tekno kits are, and how well the manual is. So I would imagine building according to the manual is perfectly fine for a beginner.

And don't feel at all ashamed for making mistakes and sharing them here. We have ALL been in your shoes, and uou learn more from your mistakes than you do your successes.

 

[Doom!]

I enjoyed your post, we all have those oh poop moments. I hate taking stuff apart because i forgot to do something. Just remember, it's always faster the second time.