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Re: New to me T4.2 Factory Team Kit

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2017 12:41 pm
by Basher67
The whole reason for buying this truck was to get back into racing. I don't feel comfortable racing a truck that I don't have a spare parts stockpile for. First time I raced nitro sedans bitd, I "rubbed" the wall a little too hard and ripped the a-arm off the front of my car during warm up/practice. The hobby shop that put on the event was an HPI dealer and I drove a CEN car. I had brought no spare parts with me and ended up being a spectator at my first race. :roll: I learned my lesson and never repeated that mistake. So I'm trying to get bodies to paint in "my race colors" and stock up on a few of the usually broken parts, like arms and steering knuckles. I just looked for arms and came up with nothing! WTF?! I found 4.2 arms but the 4.2 factory team arms are different. There's no way I can race a truck that I can't even get arms for. This is beyond disappointing. I'm heading to a lhs in a nearby town that's an AE dealer this afternoon. Hoping he has some left over stock parts.

Re: New to me T4.2 Factory Team Kit

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2017 12:53 pm
by Basher67
I did find parts at A Main hobbies including the proper front arms and carbon rears. I guess I should look places other than ebay for parts. :roll:

Re: New to me T4.2 Factory Team Kit

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2017 2:23 pm
by GoMachV
I know a place you can get some really cool shock towers :mrgreen:

Re: New to me T4.2 Factory Team Kit

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2017 2:32 pm
by Basher67
So, it looks like the reason no bodies fit this truck is because the factory team version uses this wide short front shock tower from the sc10. I could swap out the shock tower for a standard 4.2 tower, but then I would also have to change the front "gullwing" arms over to the regular flat ones or the shocks would be too short. That seems like going backwards. I really don't want to turn a factory team truck into a standard 4.2. Ideally, I would like to find the JConcepts body for this truck (also discontinued) but so far I'm coming up dry. I ordered up some spare arms and the body that's on it is new (just don't like the paint), so as soon as my motor shows up in the mailbox, I can start running some practice laps. The funny part to this whole thing is that I decided to set up a 10T as a backup practice truck. I dug through some parts bins in my hobby room, ordered some gears and small misc. parts online and rebuilt the whole truck from scratch. It took me About 4 hours total, with the biggest issue being a lack of pinion gears for the 5mm shaft of the brushless motor I installed, to build a 25 year old truck of the same type and brand as the 4.2. I knew AE wasn't what they used to be, but I never experienced it until now.

Re: New to me T4.2 Factory Team Kit

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2017 3:49 pm
by RCveteran
The answer is obvious, race the 10T, back up arms and breakables are all over ebay.

Re: New to me T4.2 Factory Team Kit

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2017 6:58 pm
by RC10th
No body is going to fit the T4.2's front shock tower except the hideous cab forward bodies. Sorry to picture bomb your thread but it's to show how the bodies fit. I just tape up the inside where it rests on the front shock tower and where the rear rubs. Admittedly the fit isn't perfect but it works for me and I'm happy with the result.

Re: New to me T4.2 Factory Team Kit

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2017 8:11 pm
by Basher67
Your truck looks great! I was down at my lhs/racetrack today. The guy there seems very knowledgeable about the associated trucks. He pointed out the the front arms for our trucks are the exact same as the ones for the SC10B. He had them for $6. I bought them, brought them home to check for myself and sure enough, they are identical. He was running normal type bodies on his and he made room for the shock towers by cutting reliefs in the hood. Didn't look bad at all.

Re: New to me T4.2 Factory Team Kit

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2017 9:33 pm
by RCveteran
GoMachV wrote: Wed Oct 11, 2017 12:07 pm Don’t feel bad, people with brand new B6’s can’t get parts either. It comes in waves. Literally...on a slow boat from China

Associated isn’t what it used to be
I'm building a B6 right now and would be happy if the instruction manual was worth anything. Wrong size screws, screws mixed in random bags, all sorts of inconsistencies, for a 1st time builder it would be enough to turn them off on the hobby. AE, please do better on the B7. But I digress.

If you are going to race the body it will get hammered anyways, so a couple relief cuts is no big deal, go for it.

Re: New to me T4.2 Factory Team Kit

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2017 9:39 pm
by GoMachV
I was not impressed with my b6d kit. It doesn’t feel like it used to, opening that kit and pulling back the tissue paper. It was just blah. Everything was a sloppy loose fit and the manual was a little unclear in a few steps. All in all, it just didn’t feel like I wanted it to.

Re: New to me T4.2 Factory Team Kit

Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2017 10:15 pm
by Basher67
I am working on it right now. I have a few old 10T bodies laying around and Im doing some cutting to see what it will look like. I know racing is more function than fashion, but it doesn't hurt to look cool. 8)

Re: New to me T4.2 Factory Team Kit

Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2017 7:11 pm
by Tamlok
You can use Associated's website to cross reference part numbers. Check the page for your front arms:
https://www.teamassociated.com/parts/details/91201-ASC91201-sc10b_front_arms/
Click on the "Specifications" tab and it will list the vehicles it is used on.

Re: New to me T4.2 Factory Team Kit

Posted: Sat Oct 14, 2017 11:57 pm
by Basher67
Well, I definitely got the body figured out. A small cutout for the tip of the shock tower on each side of the hood is all that's necessary to run 10T bodies all the way down to a perfect fit with the stock front body mounts. The old body I used for trial and error is shredded so when I get the new body in, I'll post some pics of the relief cutouts before I paint it.
I got the motor today and did some test runs. The motor is an "El Cheapo" ebay special that was less than $20. 4 pole, 3650, 5200kv. Now I don't know about durability, and it cogs like an s.o.b. off the line, but for the money it's hard to beat and it halls ass! My 10t is currently running my Goolrc brushless combo in it (3660, 3800kv) and has a similar ridiculous amount of power. On asphalt, the 10T can hardly keep its front end down, while the T4.2 squats its rearend and takes off like its been fired out of a cannon. I didn't know a 2wd could take off so fast and with so much control and stability. I will be posting some before and after pics that compare the two trucks now and after I try to setup the 10T as close to the same as the T4.2 as I can. I'm not going to get crazy with it and start putting big bores on the 10T. I'm just going to see how close to the same setup I can get and compare performance. I'm going to start with shock oil wt., spring stiffness, and ride height.

Re: New to me T4.2 Factory Team Kit

Posted: Sun Oct 15, 2017 10:44 am
by Basher67
As you can see in these "before" pics, there are a few obvious differences. the ride height is higher on the 10T with a tail high rake. The 4.2 has more rear toe-in and less front toe-in than the 10T. Then of course there is the front end which is where these two trucks separate completely into different worlds. The tires on both of these trucks are my street bashing tires, but since they are the same rear tires on both, I figured they are pretty even in traction and dimensions. The 4.2 has a static sag to 37mm. When compressed, the suspension pushes back up to a ride height of 34 mm. The 10T has no rear sag and sits at 47 mm off the ground out back, while the front sags just a bit and settles to 42 mm off the ground. When compressed, it returns fully to its ride height unassisted.
All of this gives me a starting point to make some changes on my 10T setup. I'll keep you posted on my progress and performance gains.

Re: New to me T4.2 Factory Team Kit

Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 2:05 am
by Basher67
I did an internal cleaning of the 10T's shocks and filled them with 30wt. Dropped the preload on the springs to get the ride height and static sag similar to the measurements on the 4.2. Front end still seems a little "springy". I'm going to pick up some 50wt to see how it feels in the fronts. I didn't have 3 degree rear mounts in my parts stash so I'll order some up. I was doing some more testing today and realized that the brushless combo in the 10T just seems alot more powerful. I checked in the 4.2 manual for gearing selections and it showed that I should be running an 18t pinion and 84t spur with the motor I'm running. I'm currently running a 75T spur which explains why a 25t pinion was the smallest one that I could get to reach the spur :roll: So I'm thinking this is partly why the 4.2 isn't pulling out of control wheelies at all speeds like the 10T is doing. So tomorrow I'm going to do something that goes against my core beliefs---I'm going to dial back the power on the 10T. Hoping that by trying some different levels of "punch", I can tame the beast enough to actually be usable on a track. Sometimes less power = faster. Also ordered the proper 84t spur for the 4.2. Motor temps with the too tall gearing were getting up around 160.

Re: New to me T4.2 Factory Team Kit

Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 1:18 pm
by RCveteran
What pistons do you have in the shocks? 30wt should not be to springy and is a good general weight.