The topshaft came in. While not great it's serviceable and for $15 I can't complain too much. Gear mesh is good it's slightly too big on the flats section so the hydra drive is tough to get onto it. Nothing a little filing and sanding didn't fix.
A little comparo to the different top shafts, single slipper from the DS (you), dual slipper from the kit, and Hydradrive (the one she told you not to worry about)
Hydra dry fitted for now till I get the new seals in.
Also manned up and did the rear worlds bend. this one is kinda fun and a little weird. During the Mains Brian was running with a button head screw in the original right hand hole which puts a bit of tension on the back of the chassis. I'm not sure why he chose to do this as it negates quite a bit of the modification. I can make a wild guess that maybe he stripped or got a screw stuck in the middle hole of the motor plate, the hole wasn't where he wanted it, or he didn't really like the modification. After the Worlds, the car got a new rear motor plate installed with the screw in the middle location and a nut on the inside of the motor plate and raced the Reedy race with that.
Anyway, I did the bend by clamping the chassis and a piece of aluminum stock to the chassis with the edge just past the rear mounting screws. I then bent the rear guard up till it was were I wanted it. I unfortunately didn't take a pic of this process, but might be doing it again soon to my RC10T so if I do I'll show it here. I then drilled the middle hole first in the chassis with a smaller hole then mounted the trans to the chassis and drilled through the new hole into the motorplate. This ensures that the screw holes line up without having to put the chassis under tension/compression. Even with the chassis stock the rear motorplate never really lines up well. Why go through all this trouble when that isn't the hole Brian even used? Well, like I said I plan on driving this car and will run that middle screw when doing so.
Here's the rear bend with the screw in the new center hole
This is it with the screw in the original right side. Note how much of the bend is pushed down just by moving this screw.
Backside of the motor plate
When installing the new topshaft I also took the internals out of my RC10T and installed them into this case. Fitment is thankfully good on the rere DS case and the original diff and internals, no binding or excessive end play. The new hydra topshaft from amazon seems to mesh well aside from my issues with the slipper flats. Outdrives are now the proper color.
I have installed CVDs, these aren't the proper ones but the tiny ridge bothers me less than the new MIP CVDs having lettering lasered onto them. They're also 3/16" axles instead of 1/4". I'll change these later on when i either get some OG CVDs or figure out a nice way to delete the lettering on the new MIP CVDs. Also I'd need to source different rear wheels when i goto 1/4" axles.
I also ran the countersinks through the chassis holes on the underside to get the screws to fit more flush as they were slightly proud of the surface before.
That's about it for now. still need to carve up the rear bulkhead so i can get it to roller status, hopefully I get to that later this week.
