So...
The local hobby shop I am dealing with has offered to either drill out the grub screw or remove the gear for me when I pick up my parts on Friday. There is a lesson there. Support a business and you get service. I'm sure they would help me with soldering on connectors for batteries too. This store is heavy into RC planes but they do support the ground based RCs as well and needless to say they are going to have a loyal customer with me. I already have a second order ready to go to get "Bash" the Stampede up to speed.
I was just going over the Rustler to see what I have that is worthwhile to keep and what should be scrapped. The shocks seem good and there are a lot of RPM parts. Currently the grounded Rustler has the following RPM parts:
Black Caster Blocks
Blue Front A Arms
Adjustable front body mounts
Black front bearing carriers
Front shock tower
Rear shock tower
Front bumper
Weird that the front A arms are blue but the previous owner went with black front bearing carriers and castor blocks instead of blue.
The stock tires are toast. Currently it has the tires and rims that came on "Bang" the Stampede and Bang is running on a set of Proline Desperado Rims with Trenchers.
I have an idea of throwing a whack of blue into this thing. I think it might look cool. However, the temptation will be there to swap out the black bumper for blue at some point. Then again I think the RPM bumper works for Rustlers and Stampedes so I could move the black bumper over to one of the Stampedes. EDIT: I see that I was wrong. The RPM Rustler front bumper will work on a 2WD Stampede; but not a 4X4 one.
The stock Traxxas transmission case is toast.
So, rather than replace the broken case with stock parts I would rather go the RPM route. It will be upgraded and the RPM has an easy access system to check for gear mesh etc. Trouble is that once I decide if I want to go with a colour then I am going to want to continue that theme across the truck.
Then I will be tempted to want to go with a blue engine protector:
Which will lead to a blue bumper:
And rather than just throwing new rubber on the stock rims I thought that these blue RPM rims might look cool:
What about tires though? I have Trenchers on both Stampedes and they seem to do well in every environment I throw at them. Is there something else I could use for the Rustler? I see this thing being used on a field or empty parking lots and just opening it up. If I try to run it on the sand then I would get a set of Sand paws on another set of rims.
I like the look of the stock tires with the different tread patterns front and rear but I would want an upgrade over stock. Proline seems to make amazing offroad tires and I would be happy to stay with them. I am just seeking alternatives to having yet another set of trenchers on a Traxxas RC.