Build Thread JTORC turns a pile of crap into a crawler!

[Doom!]

Work has been sucking the soul out of me this week but I was finally able to spend some time on the truck this evening. Finally got around to the rusted/blown bearings in the axles.

Completely tore down the rear axle
View attachment 242366

Cleaned the crusty peanut butter out of the pumpkin
View attachment 242367

Replaced the bearings and lubed up with some red n tacky
View attachment 242368

Guess I was having too much fun with the reassembly…oops
View attachment 242369

Rear is refreshed and ready to rip. We’ll have to tackle the front tomorrow.
View attachment 242370

I don't know if that's right, You took out the peanut butter, before you put the jelly in.

 

[WickedFog]

 

[xjtorc]

I couldn’t stand knowing I could have done so much better on the battery I printed to mount on the rock sliders the other day.

V2 is here! Printed in 2 colors and with actual copper wires.

 

[xjtorc]

While pulling the front axle off the truck, I noticed some binding when spinning the pinion. I take everything apart and find the culprit is one of the inner knuckle bearings. It seems to have blown out, then spun in the knuckle and welded itself to the Amazonian aluminum

I used everything from heat, to a bearing puller, to a hammer and flat head and could not get the outer race of the bearing out. They’re friends for life.

New knuckles will be here tomorrow

 

[Doom!]

"Knuckles" sounds like a good name for your rig. Kinda has that tough guy, mafia thing going for it, perfect for a crawler.

 

[ZaneC]

"Knuckles" sounds like a good name for your rig. Kinda has that tough guy, mafia thing going for it, perfect for a crawler.

That actually is a brilliant idea!
Knuckles is a character in Sonic the Hedgehog games. He's and echidna, and can crawl up walls! (And glide, but that's a whole other thing...)

 

[xjtorc]

Guess I’ll have to hurry up and ruin this body so I can paint the next one red.

 

[xjtorc]

The title wasn't lying when I said I'm using a pile of crap...

My Amazon knuckles showed up. The tolerance of the hole for the smaller hub-facing bearing is too tight by .10 mm. Go freaking figure.

I'm not in the mood for the Amazon return shuffle...Luckily, there's no job too big or too small for the Dremel and a pair of Channellocks. I was able to take them down just enough to force the bearings into their homes. We may have issues down the road, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Everything is straight and rolls smooth at this time. Now to reassemble and hope the steering links line up the way they're supposed to lol.

After I put the front end back together, the only thing I have left to address is the center transmission. It's LOUD AF because of the .8-Mod gears. I think the binding in the front axle probably wasn't helping the noise, either. So we'll see if it's any better. If it's not, I'll stuff some red & tacky in there and that's just how she's going to live.

 

[WickedFog]

That actually is a brilliant idea!
Knuckles is a character in Sonic the Hedgehog games. He's and echidna, and can crawl up walls! (And glide, but that's a whole other thing...)
View attachment 242969

Funny how different generations associate words with different things

 

[WickedFog]

The title wasn't lying when I said I'm using a pile of crap...

My Amazon knuckles showed up. The tolerance of the hole for the smaller hub-facing bearing is too tight by .10 mm. Go freaking figure.

I'm not in the mood for the Amazon return shuffle...Luckily, there's no job too big or too small for the Dremel and a pair of Channellocks. I was able to take them down just enough to force the bearings into their homes. We may have issues down the road, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Everything is straight and rolls smooth at this time. Now to reassemble and hope the steering links line up the way they're supposed to lol.

After I put the front end back together, the only thing I have left to address is the center transmission. It's LOUD AF because of the .8-Mod gears. I think the binding in the front axle probably wasn't helping the noise, either. So we'll see if it's any better. If it's not, I'll stuff some red & tacky in there and that's just how she's going to live.

View attachment 243114

I sure hope you left a review on those spindles. You got a link to them?

 

[CertifiedMike]

The title wasn't lying when I said I'm using a pile of crap...

My Amazon knuckles showed up. The tolerance of the hole for the smaller hub-facing bearing is too tight by .10 mm. Go freaking figure.

I'm not in the mood for the Amazon return shuffle...Luckily, there's no job too big or too small for the Dremel and a pair of Channellocks. I was able to take them down just enough to force the bearings into their homes. We may have issues down the road, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Everything is straight and rolls smooth at this time. Now to reassemble and hope the steering links line up the way they're supposed to lol.

After I put the front end back together, the only thing I have left to address is the center transmission. It's LOUD AF because of the .8-Mod gears. I think the binding in the front axle probably wasn't helping the noise, either. So we'll see if it's any better. If it's not, I'll stuff some red & tacky in there and that's just how she's going to live.

View attachment 243114

Don't kid yourself btw, we will ALL have issues down the road.

Are you sure all that noise isn't just from the VERY well pressed in 'bearings'? Were those races square when you started this job?

I hope you can service these bearings when needed. Seems like a reasonable alternative to returning the stuff and waiting for a new and different issue to come next week.

Now that its too late, any chance a smaller bearing would have fit the knuckles without the extra labor?

 

[xjtorc]

I sure hope you left a review on those spindles. You got a link to them?

Haven't gotten around to it but definitely will be leaving a review.
These guys right here

Don't kid yourself btw, we will ALL have issues down the road.

Are you sure all that noise isn't just from the VERY well pressed in 'bearings'? Were those races square when you started this job?

I hope you can service these bearings when needed. Seems like a reasonable alternative to returning the stuff and waiting for a new and different issue to come next week.

Now that its too late, any chance a smaller bearing would have fit the knuckles without the extra labor?

lol the noise was definitely the trans gears. It sounds like a 1:8 with mod-1 gearing. Too noisy for a little truck lol. All the bearings throughout the truck are now brand new so it should help relieve some of the stress from the drivetrain and maybe quite it down some.

I didn't have a bearing in my pile-o-bearings that fit the hole. It was .10 mm smaller than it needed to be for the bearing that fits that location in stock form. But I have a whole pile of the bearing it should have been. It was definitely a machining, maybe a finishing error.

 

[WickedFog]

Haven't gotten around to it but definitely will be leaving a review.
These guys right here


lol the noise was definitely the trans gears. It sounds like a 1:8 with mod-1 gearing. Too noisy for a little truck lol. All the bearings throughout the truck are now brand new so it should help relieve some of the stress from the drivetrain and maybe quite it down some.

I didn't have a bearing in my pile-o-bearings that fit the hole. It was .10 mm smaller than it needed to be for the bearing that fits that location in stock form. But I have a whole pile of the bearing it should have been. It was definitely a machining, maybe a finishing error.

Yeah, I am going to say that's not anodize on there. Especially since they missed a spot

If they machined them for a slip fit and painted them, a bearing ain't going in. Clearly they don't believe in quality control, or hiring decent engineers.

 

[CertifiedMike]

Yeah, I am going to say that's not anodize on there. Especially since they missed a spot

If they machined them for a slip fit and painted them, a bearing ain't going in. Clearly they don't believe in quality control, or hiring decent engineers.
View attachment 243154

Thats a pre-hammered finish!!! Custom!!!

 

[xjtorc]

Thats a pre-hammered finish!!! Custom!!!

It’s pretty bad that the picture on Amazon looks just as bad as the front where my shakey hands kissed it with the dremel.

 

[xjtorc]

We’re a month in on this build and I still haven’t driven it anywhere beyond my garage floor (life…sheesh). But I do have an update!

I 3D printed a cage, dash, and seat for the Cliffhanger body. The 5-point harness consists of ribbon meticulously woven through 3D printed buckles which were meticulously hand painted by me and my gorilla fingers. (Ignore the spaghetti on the bottom right of the cage…IDK what happened. I’m so grateful I didn’t stop the print because 99% of it turned out perfect.)

Tomorrow I’ll be getting it installed and possibly going for a test drive on some rocks!

 

[CertifiedMike]

We’re a month in on this build and I still haven’t driven it anywhere beyond my garage floor (life…sheesh). But I do have an update!

View attachment 245558
I 3D printed a cage, dash, and seat for the Cliffhanger body. The 5-point harness consists of ribbon meticulously woven through 3D printed buckles which were meticulously hand painted by me and my gorilla fingers. (Ignore the spaghetti on the bottom right of the cage…IDK what happened. I’m so grateful I didn’t stop the print because 99% of it turned out perfect.)

Tomorrow I’ll be getting it installed and possibly going for a test drive on some rocks!

I had to put CBD on my hands after reading this post!!! OMG!!!! The detail is awesome!!! Too tiny for my monster hands!

That seat looks PERFECT!!!

 

[Doom!]

Looks killer! It's driving me nuts, haven't been able to work on anything this last week or two, so it's good to see others making progress.

 

[xjtorc]

It was difficult to photograph so you'll have to excuse the weird pics, but I got the interior mounted to the body and it turned out awesome!

Mounting the cage where it needed to be caused there to be a gap between where the paint ends on the lower portion of the windshield and the dash. It looked like crap...so I dug out my big bag o decals to look for something I could cover the gap with. I used what appears to be a long strip of trim for the side of a truck bed from one of my previous JConcepts bodies. It is now a "wiper cowl"? lol

 

[TeknoJ]

This has turned out very well mang