Northern Mike

So I have replaced most of the front and rear components on my Rustler while waiting on the new motor to arrive.
The list is pretty long of parts from ceramic bearings, RPM everything, and all new screws and pins.
Now I need to set the camber and toe.
I have mount a set of 1/10 on road tires to help with the alignment, but am wondering what camber and toe I should consider and dial in from there?

I was thinking negative 3 to 5 on the fronts and 0 on the back. Any thoughts?

EXT2Rob

My Feedback: (1)

Toe on the rear is usually fixed. And as you may see, there's quite a bit. But Camber you can adjust. 1.0-1.5' Neg would be a good place to start if you're going to run off-road. A little less perhaps if on-road? For front toe, you may find that if you don't dial in a little toe-IN, the car may tend to wander or not hold a straight line well. A modest amount of toe in will help with straight line stability. About the same 1 - 1.5Neg camber on the front. Check your tire wear to see if the contact patch average is about where you want it.

Northern Mike

I set it at about 2' all around. The toe in is about 1' but I'm still having too much play in bearing holders up front to matter. Brand new everything except camber links and its still sloppy. Shimmed everything and still no luck

EXT2Rob

My Feedback: (1)

Play in the bearing holders? You mean the bearings are wobbling around in the hub? Wait, we're talking about a Rustler.....the front bearings are in the front wheels. I'm confused.

If the steering linkage in the Rustler is anything like in the Evader, there will be some play no matter what you do. Just is. You could try replacing some of the bits, might help some. Have you driven it yet? How does it drive and track?

Northern Mike

The bearings are in the steering hub (don't know its exact name). The play appears to be either this piece flexing or it moving on the pin going through the suspension arm. The pins, suspension arms and steering hub are all brand new and never been driven yet.
The bearings appear to be tight in the hub, so I'm thinking the hole through the hub where the pin goes through is a bit loose.
Its hard to see, but the hub with the bearings is behind the c-block in this picture.


I'm kind of disappointed at how sloppy this car is without dropping huge money on aftermarket parts. My old Kyosho Turbo Optima was very precise when I was done with it, and that was bought back in 1987 and used parts that where 25+ years old nib parts.

phmaximus

Hummm....

First thing where are u driving it?
say on I high traction clay track u will be running more camber.... But say if u were to go bashing with that setup u will just scrub out the inner edge of ur tyre.

or if u run little to no camber on a high traction track it won't have the holding power on high speed tight turns.

RPM everything.... Ok...
well I would recommend starting with 0deg toe on the front and 1deg toe in on the rear. Then experiment if u need more steering u could experiment with the front toe.
as for camber if u are just bashing try 1deg in on all 4 corners and adjust the rear by looking at tyre wear.

if u are after a stronger setup. Check out my thread. I've fitted a thicker and pin for the steering knuckle
post 35
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-e...t-slash-2.html

As for the slop, u don't have to drop much money at all.... Say for the suspension and stub axles all u need is a few shims. Dare say all u need to do is shim the stub axles and that will fix up the wheel slop.
one thing I've noticed the RPM stuff is a lot more flexible so u do get some slop there.
next thing.... Generally the traxxas ball ends are very good and don't suffer from as much slop as other brands. So generally the slop is in the stock POS servo saver...there is 2 options there...
1. Replace the bellcranks with a proline or slash 4x4 bellcrank with incorporated servo saver and fit a normal servo horn
2. Replace hervohorn/servo saver with a kimbrough servo saver. And replace the stock bellcrank bush(pn2545) with ball bearings.

Northern Mike

Currently I'm snow bashing, getting use to this car and its feel. The camber and toe was all over the place when I got car. When I put the sand paws on, you could really see them wobble at slow speeds. Even with the current slop, its 100 times better then it was before and should track straight a lot better when doing high speed straight stretches.
I'm just one of those people that have a hard time living with something not being perfect, even though the current slop will probably have zero impact with the current running conditions (4ft or so of snow in the yard to run on).

Winter bashing is going to be mostly on snow with minimal hard pack (the sand paws don't grip well on hard pack). Probably a lot of deep snow running in there.

Summer will be my backyard track (currently grass and hard pack once the grass is gone) and some heavy mud dirt bashing when I'm out building trails for the local trail association. We don't have a club near here, so there are no tracks for me to tune for or actually race anyone.

poncharello420

Mike - where do you live? I'm in Chicago and the thought of trying to run a car outside in this cold is unbearable.

Northern Mike

I'm in French River Ontario Canada.
If it doesn't warm up here when my new motor comes in, I'll be going stir crazy. I don't mind the cold, but I broke a rear suspension arm on the smallest bump the last time it was -30'C out.
Its been either above freezing and rain or cooler then -20'C the last month or so. The cold helps the electronics but not the plastic parts. I'm hoping its mild next weekend as I'm going to try to brake 50mph on the lake in front of my parent's place.
It was -38'C this morning.

poncharello420

Dang, that makes the -18C it is here sound balmy! Biggest problem here is that it's difficult to drive to work downtown because traffic is so heavy, so many people take mass transit (including me). I have a 3 km walk from the train station to the office and I wear a suit everyday. This is the worst winter I've been through.

Northern Mike

Damn, that is just short of 2 miles. Being down to one vehicle during the winter, my longest walk is to the dollar store and liquor store which is under a mile from the house. We live in a small farming/tourist town so everything is close when you live in town.

Today is looking to be a warmer day. I'm hoping my motor shows up so my middle son (my RC buddy) and I can go out and try it. Currently is about -21'C (-5.8'F). Unfortunately I don't have tall enough gears to push this motor in the cold weather. The tallest gearing I have on hand is 19/76, which will have more torque ten I know what to do with with the new 4pole motor on 3s. I'll have to talk the wife into picking me up a couple pinions on her way home tonight.

phmaximus

Nothing wrong with making things perfect, I just suspect that u are going about it the wrong way.
say the wheel wobble. u could replace every part but if the wheel is out of balance or there is excessive movement in the stub axles replacing those parts wont fix that problem. And from personal experance the RPM bearing carriers and steering knuckles are not the most ridged ones out.

U really need to check the wheel balance and shim those axles.
I happy to offer advice on how to do it if u need?

Check out this video I made showing how bad a out of balance wheel can get, all I did was spin it by hand and start filming
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmRrq6E-ZNw For the rigid setup u are seeking the Proline suspension might of been better suited, or at least alloy castor blocks and alloy rear bearing carriers

Northern Mike

I'm definitely interested in what you know.
The slop I'm looking at is at the suspension arm and bearing hold. I haven't driven the car yet since doing the work (still waiting on my motor to arrive).
I'm noticing the slop simply by wiggling the wheel (or even the hub without the wheel attached) front to back. The steering/servo has some slop as well, but I haven't gotten to it yet.
I have shimmed the front (and rear) axles and removed most of the play in the axles. Still could use another 0.1 or 0.2mm shim, but I don't have any on hand. Its actually pretty disappointing that these cars require so many shims. My Turbo Optima required less shims after 25yrs worth of racing and bashing.

I should have some play money shortly as I'm closing a couple small deals on RC parts and cars. Being unemployed sucks.

phmaximus

Something that might help are the STRC hinge pin kits....
http://www.teamstrc.com/index.php?ro...product_id=346

I recommend those regardless. but i suspect the stock pins could be excessive worn
so pull the pins out and check them.
while u are at it, its also worth checking all the holes for the pins. The front bulkhead and gearbox holes can get damages from hard crashes

Northern Mike

The thing pins are brand new Traxxas pins. I suspect they may not be perfect as a lot of traxxas parts appear to have some play in them. I'll look into getting a set of those pins.
The bulkhead and gearbox are original OEM, so there might be a bit of play there. I know the rear has some for sure as the rear end was really rough when I got the car. The driveshafts where beyond shot and that moved a lot of abuse to the other parts.