RC12L3 Resto: '87 Buick GNX Build: Finished

[GoMachV]

Phin's talking about the balance issue tho- the tweak makes the car semi-drivable. Unless you are using a saddle pack of some sort, it won't balance well and will be hard to drive. I'd just put an old nicad saddle on it myself.

[RC10th]

For what it's worth the L3 was the last of the 6 cell cars.

[Coelacanth]

Go figure...half of the 8 tiny shims used above the steering blocks were missing on the donor car. I don't recall the manual specifying the specs on these shims...I'd like to pick something up at the LHS to avoid paying shipping on such tiny parts. Is there anything you guys suggest as replacement or substitute parts?

[Phin]

There's only supposed to be 4 shims....2 for each suspension side.

[RC10th]

You can still buy the shims for the L4. The pins are different but the shims are the same

[Coelacanth]

There's only supposed to be 4 shims....2 for each suspension side.

According to the manual, there's 8. 1 beneath the steering blocks and 3 on top, for each side: Bag A, part #8425, kingpin shim, qty 8; step 3...

http://www.teamassociated.com/pdf/cars_and_trucks/RC12L3/Team/12l3_manual.pdf

I'll see if the local hobby store has those particular shims on my way home from work.

[Phin]

My mistake...I thought you were talking about the caster shims that go between the upper arm and the caster block.

The shims for the steering kingpin are common 1/8" shims and are still used in pan cars so you should have no problem finding them. If you can't find an Associated pack you can also use CRC.

[RC10th]

They too are cheap and readily available, #8425 kingpin shims (10).

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LX3143&P=ML

[Coelacanth]

Unfortunately, the LHS didn't have the shims, but there's another one I'll check tonight. I won't buy from Tower because they'll probably charge me $15 shipping. Shopping from Tower is only cost-effective for large purchases, at least with regards to shipping to Canada. They won't ship USPS First Class.

Made a little progress; I disassembled the badly modded/broken parts from the good chassis plate. Although the plate is in much better condition on the bottom than the donor car plate, it had one minor corner chink that I'll try to fix...either JB Weld or even just building it up a bit with CA cement, as there's very little to repair; I just don't want fibers hanging out or the plate to delaminate.

The donor car's tires are in great condition, but the wheels were a tad gunky...I sprayed a bit of WD-40 on a toothbrush and they cleaned up pretty well. There's a bit of curb rash on the rims but they'll be just fine for a runner. Are these wheels nylon? I assume they are.

[RC10th]

Odd how tower charges you that much. It's usually $7 -$15 to ship largish packages to Australia.

[Coelacanth]

I wanted to buy 3 or 4 items a couple years ago, all small stuff like ball ends, bearings, a set of steering blocks...it would fit in one palm with room leftover. The shipping however was outrageous at $20 or more because they ONLY ship (to Canada) with Priority Post, no matter how illogical that is for such inexpensive, small items. Thus, I am not a Tower customer. My last purchase from Tower was probably a 480 Gold motor I bought in the 80's.

[Coelacanth]

The better of the 2 chassis plates, in addition to having that front corner chink, also had some CA glue residue. I tried taking a picture of it after filing the battery slot edges, but the glue didn't turn up too well in the pics. It's evident around both center holes, the servo mount holes and the area where the ESC would be mounted. At least I think it's CA glue, as it's rock-hard and a quick rub with acetone didn't do anything...so I'm giving it an acetone "fume-bath" for 24 hours before I try repairing the chink with CA.

I disassembled the diff and cleaned it all up with the WD-40 & toothbrush method, then reassembled it with diff lube. I noticed an issue however, the spur gear has a bit of play and I can wobble it a bit, even when the axle nuts are fully tightened up. The gear seems to fit tight on the axle, it just seems to have some play between the 2 diff rings. When I wobble the gear, the diff rings don't move; the gear moves a bit inside the rings. It occurred to me that maybe it was originally assembled with 3mm diff balls instead of the correct 1/8" balls, as the 3mm balls would be slightly smaller than the 1/8" balls (= 3.175mm) and maybe that's why there's a bit of play between the rings. Maybe I'm wrong...but it seemed wrong that it wasn't tight and could be allowed to spin with a slight wobble. What do you guys think?

[Coelacanth]

I'm pretty much done restoring the car, but I have some upgrade goodies coming from AsiaTees to help make this car pop.

I got the front end setup but on the rear, I'm having an issue with the left side tire rubbing the pod plate. This is with a set of black wheels I got from a fellow forum member that look like they should work; they're made for either 2-hole or 3-hole hubs. I put 4 or 5 shims on the left side of the axle before spinning on the left hub, but the tire still rubs just a bit. Something looked a bit odd (maybe it's normal) when I compared the nylon axle nuts on both sides; on the diff side of the axle, with the nylon nut tightened snug, there's a good 1/4" or more of extra axle threads exposed through the nut, but on the left side with the nylon nut snugged down, there's no exposed threads...the axle threads don't even fully extend flush with the outer surface of the nut.

It seems if I was able to get 1/8" of the axle moved from the right to the left side, I'd have no rubbing issues. Is this possible or will I need to pick up more shims for the left side? Is there a way to move the blue alloy ring that's installed on the axle over a bit?

[teman]

I'm pretty sure you need to add the axle washers to avoid rubbing, I don't believe you can move the fixed ring attached to the hub.

[Coelacanth]

I'll take a picture tonight to show the left side hub assembly, but I can think of only two ways to move out the left rear wheel a bit: by shimming the axle before installing the left side hub, or by using some kind of triangular 3-hole spacer that would fit on the outside of the hub after it's installed, before screwing on the wheel. You'd need 3 longer 4-40 screws for the wheel if you did that method.

I think by "axle washers", you're referring to the shims...problem is, they're so thin you need a bunch of them to get an 1/8" of space. 4 or 5 wasn't enough and I ran out.