Loverman123

I have an earthquake 3.5 and I've been told that a lot of the parts break easily. If anyone could give me some suggestion on what needs to be upgraded to aluminum first before driving I would really appreciate it.

breadmantripp

Buy something other than redcat.

Shady9503

I had an Earthquake 3.5 and loved the thing, It was durable as ever, i bashed the hell out of it and the only repairs i had to do were the occasional stripped gear (rocks got caught in the gear lol) the only aluminium upgrades id suggest would be turn buckles,
otherwise, just keep it maintained, especially with nitro you gotta take care of the engines if you want them to last.

the one time i had to do a major repair was when i landed a jump off a skateboard ramp right onto the front bumper, and i bent the chassis, everything else on it wasnt broken, just replaced the chassis and that was it

kuntri72

I still have my earthquake 3.5. Got it a few months ago and had some problems outta the box, but now I'm past the hiccups and it runs great. I had the most problems with the clutch an spur gear. I melted the spur gear right outta the gate. I went to run it with the idle tank for break in and it started revving high on me and tried to take off so I grabbed the bumper to keep it from taking off and then it started revving really high. I shut it off and looked it over and noticed my spur gear was stripped really bad. I got a new spur gear and when I got it put back on I noticed the wheels were locked up if I tried to roll it. My clutch spring was broken and my clutch shoes had no retention. So I took it back apart and pulled the clutch bell off and saw the clutch spring was completely gone and the clutch was destroyed. I replaced that and got everything back together. Fired it up and had some trouble getting the idle speed set on the throttle and such. I called Redcat they gave me the factory settings for the low speed needle and high speed needle. So I applied those specs to those needles and it still wouldn't set my idle right. I looked it over again and figured out it was the HSN or the LSN it was my throttle linkage. The barrel nut wasn't adjusted properly and would allow my slide carb to open more then what I had the gap set for on idle. Silly mistake on my part. It got overlooked when I was going through the vehicle. I adjusted that barrel nut and reset the gap on my carb to 1mm on idle and haven't had a problem with the motor since. Runs great. However I am on my third spur gear I was trying to get the tension right(loose enough so it wouldn't pop wheelies on acceleration and strip the spur gear and tight enough so it wouldn't melt the spur gear pads) I believe I have that issue worked out. As far as parts breaking I have had to replace the front bumper and the rear lower A arm pin. Both broke from the tree I ran it in to. We'll the A arms are cheap and I just went with a bolt for the lower A arm pin. That worked great. At one point my throttle servo switched on me and come to find out the transmitter was bad and Redcat replaced it. And my gas tank had a hole in it somewhere, Redcat also replaced that. Redcat has a pretty good warranty department and a good tech department, so utilize them. You can get the number and warranty info on their website. I got all that worked out and man I really like my earthquake and it can take a beating. I'm disappointed that there aren't many how to videos on repairs and such for earthquake 3.5. But it's not really that hard to figure it out. If you have anymore question feel free to hit me up. By the way not much I can find out there for aluminum upgraded parts for my earthquake.

kuntri72

Do you have any pictures of your earthquake.

Loverman123

Its

kuntri72

Not sure what means bud

Loverman123

Sorry about that, it all stock, the only thing I've put on it was a fuel filter. I'm thinking that the shocks and shock towers are more important to upgrade to aluminum now more than the steering knuckles and other stuff?? Any opinions???

Loverman123

Did you ever upgrade your spur gear to steel?

Shady9503

Don't upgrade the spur to steel, I did that and what happened was instead of stripping the spur gear, the steel spur ate the clutch bell, which was a harder repair, and more expensive, set the right gear mesh and make sure the slipper isnt too tight, if the slipper is too tight youll strip gears like crazy, i found the right setting after a few spurs and its been good since although ive sold it since then, all electric now

kuntri72

I have a steel spur gear but I haven't put it in yet. Actually I probably won't at all. If you have a plastic spur gear in place and it gets stripped. It's a pain in the butt but it's an easy fix and cheap. Metal spur gears could possibly do more damage and I didn't want to risk it. I would advise you to just pick up a few extra spur gears and maybe an extra spur gear assembly. As far as the shocks upgrades go, that is really preference. I still have the stock ones on mine and they are holding up fine. If they go out then I might replace them with aluminum, but until then I plan on running it hard until they give out. I haven't had any probs thankfully with the steering knuckles either. Oh yeah I would probably pick up some extra dog ones or cv joints. They can be fairly inexpensive as we'll and usually come in pairs. Drive shafts are dog ones and cv's go from the trams box to the wheel hubs. They could get bent or come out if something gets loose.

kuntri72

Here some pics of my rig.

Loverman123

How easy is it to strip a plastic spur gear, I hear that accelerating quickly will strip it.

kuntri72

Make sure your gear mashes sit properly. Cut a piece of printer paper about half inch wide and about 4 inches long. Take the strip of paper you cut and run it through the gear mesh with your fingers turning the spur gear when you get the paper all the way in, then reverse the process pulling the paper out. If your paper tears or rips that means your gear meshes it too tight. If your paper has light in dents in it that means your gear mesh is too loose. The paper should have identifying marks noticeably indented that will ensure that you have a perfect year mesh. So answer your question yes it can be easy to strip the spur gear whether you accelerate quickly or slowly if your gear mesh is not right.

Loverman123

This is for anyone out there, my earthquake 3.5 is still spitting fuel out of the exhaust pipe even when I leaned out the high speed needle, I know that running that rich is hard on the glow plug and the engine, the needles are already set at factory setting. WHAT DO I DO???????

Shady9503

Running TOO rich is hard on the engine, running too lean is also bad, you gotta find that middle ground where you still get a nice smoke trail coming from the exhaust all the way through the power band of the engine.

That being said, the high speed needle has no effect on fuel flow while the car is idling or from idle to about half throttle, from half to full the highspeed needle takes over. The low speed needle is what you're looking for here, lean that out in very small incriments till you have it where you want it, factory settings are set rich to help with break in, once broken in, you're supposed to lean them out, put the high speed needle back, retune.

heres a quick article to help you out

kuntri72

Go ahead and set your high speed needle back to the factory setting and also your low speed needle. If you are just breaking in the engine that is fine for you to run it with the factory settings as long as it doesn't idle high and it keeps running. Run at least on tank of fuel thru it just at idle. After that run another tank doing figure 8's barely giving it any throttle. Basically just enough to keep it rolling. 3rd tank do figure 8's using no more then 25% throttle for full tank? 4th tank same thing, more figure 8's with no more then 50% throttle. 5th tank run same thing figure 8's no more then 75 % throttle. 6th tank final stages of break in. You can forget the figure 8's and run straight lines gradually getting up to 100% of throttle. Try not to just slam the throttle though. Ease into the full throttle and then back down. Turn it around and run it back. Keep doing that for that whole tank. After that tank it's time to tune. 1st get your low speed needle set. Adjust in 8th turn increments when adjusting. Remember clockwise is leaning and counter clockwise is richening. Adjust the LSN until the motor is idling low and the wheels aren't spinning at stand still. If you check LSN setting by doing the pinch test then I believe when you check you pinch the line that runs to the carburetor blocking the fuel about 2inches from the inlet on the carb and it should rev the motor a bit but shut off in about 2-3 seconds after you pinch the line. At that point I believe the LSN is set. The high speed needle is the needle that you adjust for weather changes and barometric pressure changes and such. So after you get the LSN set run the vehicle and check to make sure you got good smoke trail. If you do and it seems like your not getting much power or hear a gurgling sound then start leaning a little at a time 8th turns. After each adjustment start it up and run it to see how it responds. If you start to lose you good smoke or the motor starts to get really hot that means it's too lean. Remember clockwise is leaning and counter clockwise is richening. Try that and let me know if that helps. Also don't be afraid to call redcat customer service and talk to one of the techs. They want you to have a good experience with their product so they will give you some tips to help out with the tuning. If you would rather you can email them and they usually get back to you by the next day if it's evening when you send it and they will get back to you that day if you email them in the morning. Hope this helps if I can help further feel free to send me a pm.

Loverman123

Ok thanks, my friends exceed rc nitro buggy has a tendency of stalling when the break is applied, from my understanding this is a clutch bell issue, does the clutch bell need to be replaced?

kuntri72

Sounds to me like he needs to check the gap in the carburetor. Should be about 1mm gap in the carburetor. Turn on the transmitter and then the car. Pull the carb filter off and look to see what the gap is. Adjust if needed. Use the idle set screw to make the adjustments. Start it back up and hit the breaks see if it stalls. Try adjusting the knob on the throttle knob on the transmitter. Preferably set it to zero if you have a knob like on your earthquake transmitter and set idle srew from that. Let me know if that doesn't fix it.

Loverman123

My brand new engine is very powerful, but I'm concerned because when i reach full throttle and and then let off of the accelerator it almost sounds like the engine is making a sound resembling a jake break, is this normal????

kuntri72

Not sure if that's normal. I don't recall hearing that sound of a jake break in my vehicle. I would have to hear what it sounds like.

Loverman123

its kind of like a muffled pinging sound