hankd3

Today I hit a mailbox...hard. Didn't have foam battery spacers in, so the battery slammed through the lateral chassis support just behind the servo (I might just repair this?), then snapped the servo off. List of broken parts:

Front Hinge Pin Brace (pn 9564) - snapped in half. ST Racing aluminum replacement is $8. Worth doing along with a bumper upgrade or not necessary with a bumper upgrade?

Front Bulkhead (9563) - one of the "****" broke off where the pin brace screws screw into it. Could probably leave it as is? Or just upgrade to aluminum while I'm tearing things apart?

Front Bumper (9562) - not broken, but I'm upgrading it to either aluminum or to the wide version (nylon) from RPM.

Servo - mounting tabs snapped off both sides. $17 for a new OEMservo, but it seems that most recommend upgrading the servo anyway. Suggestions? Traxxas 2075? ($21 shipped)

ESC (SC200) - it was as seen in the picture below when I opened the car up. I snapped it back together, but it's a no go. New one on Ebay is $45 shipped. Is there an upgrade that I should go with instead?

Chassis - I'd really like to repair it instead of tearing the car down, since it's just the lateral piece fwd of the battery that broke. Thoughts?

I've checked out rcplanet.com for some new parts, and cross checked their prices vs Ebay (cheaper in some cases).

If anybody has a used ESC or servo for cheap I might buy them from you.

Any advice would be much appreciated...I'm pretty new at this. Not a racer...just messing around with this thing with my son. I'm not looking to build anything ridiculous.

Thanks!
Hank

ThunderbirdJunkie

My Feedback: (3)

WOW. Looks like ya found out what battery foams are for[&:]

You can get Sidewinders all day long for ~50-75, so go with that. Check fleabay.

The chassis needs to be replaced.
For a budget servo, ThunderbirdJunkie recommends a Spektrum S6040. Yes, at $80, it's budget. You can get a LOT pricier :P
For the front end, replace the bulkhead and hingepin brace with the AE Factory Team aluminum pieces. The STRC ones develop slop really quickly.

hankd3

Yep, learned the hard way about battery foams. Bought the truck as "barely used" and complete...complete aside from battery foams apparently. When I started looking at schematics to figure out what all I broke, I saw the foams and figured out where I went wrong (aside from center punching the corner of a brick mailbox). Oh well, time to upgrade. Thanks for the suggestions! I'll start digging around...

acexxxoasis

My Feedback: (4)

Not sure if it will cross over I have a few pieces (chassis included from my ft t4)

hankd3

What do you have specifically? It probably won't hurt to have some spare parts around...

ThunderbirdJunkie

My Feedback: (3)

Pretty much everything is interchangeable, the only difference is on the T4 vs the .1 is the trans case is different allowing a brushless motor to be centered weight-wise and fitment of a gear diff, and there are a few geometry revisions. It was a bunch of tiny refinements that added up to a big difference in performance on the track, but nothing really notable to your average basher.

acexxxoasis

My Feedback: (4)

My t4 has been apart for years I have to look ill look for it I've moved a few times but I'm 99% sure I have a chassis with rear towers or front? Cvds a shock or 2 maybe some arms cases a spare diff

cummins driver

My Feedback: (31)

A traxxas 2075 would be good. A hitec 625 or something like that would work great as well if you want to spend a little more. Definately go with the aluminum hinge pin brace. I really like the RPM wide bumper on my T4 and T4.1 so id reccomend those as well. They help protect the arms and body too. I think an aluminum bumper would just get scratched and bent quickly. Im really surprised the battery slammed through like it did. Id say if you dont want to put a new chassis on it that you could easily epoxy that piece back in. May even be stronger than before. An aluminum bulk would be nice, but a new stock one is also only about $2, so either way would be fine.

Heck, just go ahead with a brushless system for $70-80 if you are going to spend $50 on an ESC. More reliable and longer lasting in the long run. You can program them to suit the skill level of whoever is driving the truck as well. [8D]

hankd3

Great info...thanks! Iwent ahead and ordered the Traxxas 2075 for $20.

Can you link me to a brushless system that you'd recommend in that price range?

controlliner

Speed kills[:@]

cummins driver

My Feedback: (31)

Some will disagree, but I have owned 2 of these ESC's with a slightly stronger motor than what this kit has and they are great IMO. This motor is on the small side for bigger vehicles, but will power a T4 to 32mph or better with no issues. I think you'd really like it. Its $70 with free shipping. The only thing you would probably want to do is swap a traxxas or deans plug onto the ESC leads.

Here is the combo that is all plug and play. Everything pre-soldered:

http://www.hobbypartz.com/ezrun-35a-9t-3650-motor.html


And here is the exact setup i run in my T4 that i pieced together:

ESC (same as whats in the combo above):

http://www.hobbypartz.com/hobbywing-...hless-esc.html

Motor. I have the 3930kv which is out of stock. This is the same thing, just in 3500kv which is just as good(owned one of these too). Its a little better motor than they provide in the kit above:

http://www.hobbypartz.com/96m24-car-3650-3500.html

Program card:

http://www.hobbypartz.com/07e-hobbyw...ogramcard.html

The only downside for some is that if you buy it seperately with the better motor, you'll have to solder the connectors that come with the motor to the ESC. The price is about the same either way. You would be happy going either route, but if you can solder you may be better off buying it seperately with the better motor.

Here is a video review on the kit i posted above(its just the lower kv version):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjlGFadQz-o[/youtube]

Hope I didnt make that too confusing [&:].

hankd3

Awesome info! I'll check it out.

The more I looked at motors / ESC / kits the more overwhelming it seemed. Thanks for the suggestions.

cummins driver

My Feedback: (31)

It can be overwhelming at first, but once you get into it you realize its not that bad

Thats one reason i liked you the kit. There is NO prep work required and the motor and ESC will last a long time and work great with each other. You arent required to piece anything together since it comes as a package.

hankd3

The car is back together (kept the stock motor and ESC for now), but still having issues. I actually think the old ESC was fine, even though it split in half. After the crash, there was a high pitched beep coming from the motor (not from the ESC) when I gave it throttle. I assumed the ESC was toast, since it broke in half. I bought another and have it all connected and it's still doing the same thing. From what I've found online it sounds like there is a bad connection to the motor, but the factory solder on the 2 wires to the motor appear perfect. I can't see anything that looks suspect. So I'm stumped on that one...