nTC3 electric/brushless rally conversion- DONE!

[mk-Zero]

I dug my old nTC3 out today to finally start converting it, as we were discussing here
http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=34040

First thing I did was mess with the rear suspension to make sure I could get some ground clearance out of it. I had to move the camber links to their lowest position to keep them from binding. I know the camber is all crazy, I think there is enough adjustment there to set it appropriately. I am also going to need to modify the upper or lower shock mounts to get the lift I'm looking for. Seems like good ground clearance for rally. This thing is built like a tank, so I think it will hold up well to some abuse. I still need to mess with the front suspension to make sure I can dial in more ground clearance.


Next I yanked out the engine and fuel tank to see is a battery would fit. Looks perfect!


I'm going to mount a brushless motor where The receiver battery pack and throttle servo were. Just need to shorten the top plate, piece of cake.

I need to figure out what to do with the 2-speed to make it a single speed and eliminate the clutch and one-way so I have reverse. Any ideas would be appreciated.

[mk-Zero]

Made a little more progress. I yanked out all the electronics and shortened up the top tray. Cleaned up the chassis a bit while I was at it. Looks like there will be plenty of room for the motor, ESC, and receiver.


I also started trying to figure out what to do with the 2 speed clutch and one-way. I think I figured out a way to turn the 2-speed into a slipper. Hard to say how well it will work. I could also just lock it, but that would be hard on all the gears. Hopefully I will be able to find pinion gears that match the pitch of the existing gears.

[mk-Zero]

I did some research on the TC3 Rally conversions, looks like I can just run .56" stroke shock shafts to get the extra length I need, rather than making shock mounts to get more ground clearance. That'll be much cleaner. I need to find a suitable battery strap now and come up with some sort of motor mount. I already have FT shocks on it. I also decided to just get the single speed conversion part for it and forget about trying to make the 2-speed clutch into a slipper, I just couldn't get it to have a consistant feel to it. I can dial back the agressiveness of power application on the ESC to help the gears survive.

I had to flip the drive shaft bearing support around, it's not symmetric and the side I wanted to mount the motor on it was in the way. So I drilled a couple new holes in the chassis and then trimmed the mount a little. The motor will hug right up against the support, but with a bigger pinion or spur I'll have more room.


For the body, I'm thinking Porsche 911, which of course have a great history of rally racing. Here's a couple pics I got of Porsche rally cars when I visited the Porsche Museum in Germany


I'm going to run these tires and probably some wheels something like these

[mk-Zero]

I know you guys are dying for an update, so here you go...
Bought and made some parts last night. First thing was a motor mount. I did a lot of searching on the net and couldn't find anything I could use, so I made my own. Started with a piece of 1.5 x 1.5 x .125 aluminum angle and went to town with my saws-all, drill, dremmel, and some files. I'm pretty happy with how it came out. I still need to add some holes to the base of the mount and the chassis.




I also had to remove a strut from the right rear chassis brace to clear the pinion. I tried to make it look like it came that way...


I picked up a cf chassis brace off a traxxis that I'm going to modify a little to use as a battery strap


I also got theses HPI wheels with 3mm offset, which puts the width right at about 200mm front and rear.

[klavy69]

looking good and liking your project. For the 2 speed you can convert it back to single speed easily with parts available. I myself have several sets of 2 speed parts that came with a lot recently that the guy converted over to single speed since his track he raced at was so small that a 2 speed didn't work out for him. Liking your whole outlook on it. There are tons of part out there for these left and make for a tank when finished. Work great at oval for sure

Todd

[mk-Zero]

Thanks for your kind words and encouragement, I'm glad someone is interested, lol.

Yeah, I ordered the single speed adapter already, along with some other things like the longer shock shafts, tires, and some other odds and ends.

I'm really impressed with how these cars are built, they really are tanks. And the amount of adjustability is incredible. The chassis is very stiff in torsion but not so much front to back. I'm looking into making a carbon fiber brace that will tie the front and rear ends together and fix that. For a motor, I'm thinking about a 5700 kV Sidewinder. Should be a fast and fun car that will be somewhat unique.

[Minisforever]

I'm watching this build. I been thinking about doing something like this some day. I live in the country and that the only tc3 I could drive out here.

[mk-Zero]

Glad to hear. I think its going to be great for bashing, both on and off road. I may even take it to my local off road track and see how it does. But I'm guessing it won't do good over really big jumps where the b4.2 excels. We'll see.

[PlastiZapCA+]

This is a great project you have. I've thought about doing a similar conversion and will be watching. I'd go with the older 911 myself but either will look great.

[mk-Zero]

Thanks. Yeah, I'd like to use a '73 and down (long nose) 911 body if possible, maybe the 2.7 RSR

[mk-Zero]

Custom chassis brace I designed, made by Jake (Seabass)
This should stiffen it up a lot. Will post pics after I get it and install it.

[j-sou]

Hpi makes some Fuchs that would look good with the 911 body. Getting a rally tread in that rim might be a trick though...

[mk-Zero]

I saw those, they are an odd diameter though unfortunately, the rally tires all seem to fit 1.9" wheels.

[j-sou]

The way the tire seats on the wheel is totally different too, which pretty much limits you to the tires in the Vintage series
I've got a couple sets on cars and they look great though.

[klavy69]

just dropped you a pm. Here's the pdf for the single speed setup.

About the wheels/tires. If you are dead set on those tires I can't help much but if you decide to make it a lil more rally-ish try looking up these HPI tires. Looks like they might be outta stock atm but it gives you a part number to search for if you can't wait...

If you wanna expand on your tire size to fit the body more try these wheels and tires.

I've had a couple sets of the HPI super nitro wheels and tires on an ntc3 and loved them. Took some trimming to get them to fit in the nitro version but was well worth it. Been wanting to convert one of these to electric for awhile now but just never got around to it myself. Got all of the parts but like many of my projects I couldn't find any ambition to finish it...so far thats been the hardest part to find for this

Todd
Todd