Re: Academy Wyvern, 23 Mar 2013, suspension update

Post by **JK Racing** » Sat Sep 15, 2012 6:29 pm

the mixed shocks look great....you gonna revise the build and mix the shocks up?

Post by **Mr. ED** » Sun Sep 16, 2012 4:27 am

That's the plan yes. I have to change the oil and pistons, shafts anyway; to get the front as I want them. So, I'll just put the little extra time in and see what a pink and black mix will look like.

Post by **Mr. ED** » Sun Sep 30, 2012 12:54 pm

I know how much you all like the original body, but it's hard to find another one.
Now this is not my favourite body by far but it fits the high front and clears the spur in the rear.
Unfortunately that losi model was a tub design, so no belly-pan is available. But it meets the chassis outline perfectly, and has simple straight lines. So it should be easy enough to make a strong folt-together undertray.

I trimmed the windows different and added a rear window to give it a look I like better

This was the hard side: you just can't do any nice lines inthe areas with all those bulges, so I tried to hide them as good as I could

Post by **JK Racing** » Sun Sep 30, 2012 2:04 pm

Looks good, there is a guy on RCTECH that made his own body for "that" model of losi, moving the cab a bit forward and re-doing the windows. I personally liked his version (not an exaggerated cab forward design).

If I find a link, I will post it up for you to view.

Linky: http://www.rctech.net/forum/11097039-post3390.html

Post by **Mr. ED** » Sun Sep 30, 2012 2:22 pm

Thanks for the link Joey.
I've been eyeballing some nicer looking bodies which I think will fit and are available as re-pro, along with their fitting undertrays.
Cat 2000, or 2000EC are on the top for looks, followed by the topcat. But I'd like to see some in the flesh to make sure they'll work before I order more lexan.
Got a big bag full of bodies under the stairs, half of which isn't painted and cut yet. So I try to source from these first and only buy more if nothing fits.

Post by **Mr. ED** » Sat Dec 01, 2012 3:08 pm

Still need to make pics , but the car is basically ready for its first race: in 2 weeks. 2 weeks? yep, that's right I like to get evereything ready in advance

Ok, kidding aside: I got it ready a couple weeks back: all electronics installed, home-made undertray fitted and li-po strapped in: the night before the race as usual. And it was late at night since some parts gave me more trouble than expected: tight space, li-po saddle not fitting under the plastic top deck, steering parts interfering with eachother etc...
But when the alarm went off at 5:30 I just felt too miserable, and had to stay in bed to get over my flue. Bummer.
I did get out to a soccer field late in the afternoon and gave the car a short test-run to see if all was ok and working. It felt GOOD to me, even with the original dampers and oil still on (I only swapped the springs for yet another set).

The undertray is also working well and kept most of the dirt out of the car: something I was worried for as the race will take place in a horse-rink and there's no spur gear cover, no belt cover and no way to mount either of those

Post by **Mr. ED** » Mon Dec 17, 2012 4:53 am

The good news: I made the A-finale, be it in the last position (8th out of the 15 drivers)
The bad news: the only breakdown took place in the second of the 2 finales: rear shock doesn't re-bound anymore and steering throw seems to have gone very limited. I need to dig into this still.

Overall the car was pretty good for it's first time out; though that's hard to judge on this quite unique track.
One thing is worrying : either the spur/slipper or ball diffs are screaming under acceleration. I'll have to make sure to take a good look at them and see if I can improve that.

Pictures courtesy of skinny winny racing team

After the 2nd run I replaced the wire-mount for the wing with some trf parts and put ta blue wing on to match the blue wheels (both kit items)

Post by **Mr. ED** » Mon Dec 24, 2012 9:42 am

Troubles solved: the binding in the rear damper was caused by a badly bent shockshaft. I'm looking at trying to move the shocks in front of the rear tower: so They're not that exposed to other cars banging the car up in the hiny

The reduced steering throw was caused by the steering saver tension adjuster. I had modified it for easier adjustment, but will need to use some thread lock to keep it set... or just take a spare original from the many sets I still got left.

Some pics of the mounted electronics, cell mount and custom undertray:
before it's first run:

And after:

Note how clean everything still is inside compared to the load of horse-pee sand mixture on the outside

The original top tray , which I never liked anyway, did not allow mounting the saddle packs. So I cut it after the steering uprights and added an M4 threaded steel rod with re-threaded rod ends.
This still left a lot of flex around the central axis of the car: too much for a belt drive I think. So I added side walls to the chassis; doubling as body mounts with the velcro attached

You can spot the steering tensioner in the left.

Since there's no more real topdeck, everything had to fit on the chassis= real tight. I had to make a little deck to mount the ESC capacitors between the cells: just above the belt.

The receiver and AMB found spot behind the batterycell on the opposite side of the moter. A bit hard to adjust the moter position when changing pinions, but I didn't have many alternatives left.

Post by **Mr. ED** » Tue Jan 08, 2013 5:12 pm

Still need to work on the screamer and fix the rear uspension, but I did find something special for this car at PK Model Racing tonight: ZC-108 in pink!
(That's a yokomo works spoiler)

Post by **Mr. ED** » Tue Mar 26, 2013 6:44 pm

I probably just should have gone for smaller holes in my shocks pistons, but hey whre's the fun in that ?
So here's what I did instead:

In the front I used a shaved rear shocktower to lean the tops closer together.

In the back I shaved the outer positions of the tower and mounted the shocks further inward at the top. In the bottom I use a tmiya part ( for the hornet among others) to move the mount point outward on the arm. At the same time I've moved the shocks in front of the tower to prevent them from getting hit when I get lapped

Added benefit to me is the improved overall look of the car

Under the body, I added some posts and self-made battery straps to replace the tape. Just because the tape didn't last throughout a race day.

Post by **Hcp22** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 6:12 am

Have you had a chance to test you new changes on the track?

Post by **Mr. ED** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 4:48 pm

The modification on the front was based on something I did on the original front shocktower in the previous race.
The rear has not been tested yet: the race last sunday required 30 pre-registrations and was called off on friday.
That's how I ended up having some free time to do the battery straps

Post by **Mr. ED** » Thu Mar 19, 2020 6:56 pm

Post by **JK Racing** » Thu Mar 19, 2020 10:16 pm

I picked up a couple Q-Tee coupes, been thinking about converting one 'back' to a Wyvern, but finding the parts is nearly impossible.

Post by **Mr. ED** » Fri Mar 20, 2020 4:03 am

JK Racing wrote: ↑Thu Mar 19, 2020 10:16 pm I picked up a couple Q-Tee coupes, been thinking about converting one 'back' to a Wyvern, but finding the parts is nearly impossible.

Joey, check the part nr's you need in the links above and send me a pm

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