Need help !!!
 

So...after a frustrating and disappointing race day with my predx11 i need yr help. I broke the suspension pivot and the body of the screw is left inside the aluminum front cross brace . Any idea how to remove it? Cross brace is brand new....:(

Bad day for me ...had my small problems in the past with my pred but not so many in a day. 1st qualifier and I break the rocker pivot ( never had broken almost 8 months now) so i change the whole thing, used old cross brace etc etc, 2nd qualifier and i break a ball joint and 3rrrddd qualifier I break the chassis and the same time the spur strips :(:(:(:(...

I did this last year...

Few Questions, could your car bottom out fully? Was it screwed in nice and tight?

I tried many things to get mine out, pliers, screwing another rocker pivot in etc etc, none of which worked..

I ended up drilling it out and then putting a helicoil into it...

I bought a new X brace and now use that but my dad runs the old fixed one on his X10 no problems..

Hope this helps,

Tom

Yes everything was nice and tight, i always doublecheck before each heat just to make sure. The only thing that was holding the car from splitting in half was that little silver brace that screws into the rear shock tower.When i removed that, the car fall apart in 2 pieces . It happened in a big triple jump when i landed right on the top of the 3rd , the surface was hard pack.
As much as i like the way it drives in smooth flat sections of the track the more i hate it when it comes to jumping. :cry:

remove the x brace and you should be able to get hold of the pivot from behind (just about) i have boiled all the ball joints + front and rear hubs for 20 mins then drop them straight into a penatrating oil like wd40/gt85 and leave them over night. this destresses and softens the plastic and makes it far stronger.

order a plastic chassis as a replacment. they have extra bracing and are thickened up in the break areas that were found in the carbon one.

as for jumping, do you have the kit wing on ??? i use a Hb wide wing and trim the guerney down untill the car jumps just nose down. this has really added stability to the car. i also run the car in a stick lipo format as this makes it jump flatter as well and gives more mid corner pivot

try kevs pushrod mod as it also increases front droop and the rear droop mod as both of these help the car across the bumps and landing off the jumps

and about breaking rocker posts.
To prevent problems in the future, i just dremeled a groove in the bottom of the rocker post, so that, if it breaks another time, I can dissemble the cross brace and just use a screwdriver into that dremeled groove to unscrew the left in piece from underneath.

I'll post a picture of this later on.

(I used to do that with all the ball ends on all of my cars)

Panic- were you using the hollow posts or the new soiid posts?

Nathan - any other parts you boil? Would you boil the plastic chassis?

Yes Niko , i had the new solid posts.

Niggs - I have purchased already the plastic chassis but I was using the graphite one with saddlpe pack nimh batteries and i have done Kevlees pushrod mod. The only thing i havent done is the wing....but the car landed level on all 4 weels , the only thing is , that i didnt had enough power to clear the 3rd jump so i landed on top of it.

You know in the back of my head i was expecting this to happen so i ordered a plastic chassis which i received 2 weeks ago , but the frustrating thing is that spend my day wrenching my car and not enjoying a good race on a nice track. Plus i started to lose my confidence and i m afraid to push harder.:cry:

Anyways thanks everyone, will try to see wht i can do with the posts + cross brace.:)

Lowie could you please post some pics of the mod you have that allows you to remove broken rocker pivots screws from the cross brace?

Thanks
George

This happened to me with the hollow pivots, luckily I managed to drill through the centre and it pulled the threads out without damaging the threads in the brace.

Lowie what you've done sounds like a good idea, I might do that to mine just incase one of the solid posts ever goes.

im assuming that you have also seen the solid rockers from xtreme as well. they have been introduced as a running change for the 08 car so if you dont already have them order a set as they are a fit and forget part

nope just the ball joints and hubs. the other kit plastics are a different material so dont react the same

here you go:

http://www.the-pred.co.uk/mkportal/m...lbum/a_289.jpg

In case of breakage, the bottom part can now be unscrewed from underneith the X-brace.

@ Lowie

this is a good work...

fortunately for me i use the hold rocker post...that of the x10...:woot:

Ok guys i managed to get the rocker pivot out of the cross brace with the way Lowie did. I was able to cut a thread on the bottom of the exposed screw and slowly unscrew it and remove from underneath (thank god i didnt put to much thread lock over there:thumbsup:).

Now i have another issue though, trying to convert my plastic chassis to lipo stick and i m almost done. Have a problem though with my servo and servo horn. Its a KO low profile servo and the servo horn touches the shell. Have put it close to the motor. Any ideas wht i can do to overcome this?

a lot of people are starting to lie the servos down in that position now (like the standard mounting). HTH

lmao beat me to it. as matt says a few people (myself included0 are starting to lay the servo down. beware tho to lay everything out (as it is a very tight squeeze) and make sure that the servo mounts arnt to close to the battery hole. failing that before you paint your next shell heat it up and use a screw driver handle to create a bulge in the right place and cut a hole in the current one

HTH

(s)low profile servo ;-)

i simply switched to a low profile servo horn, and I cut away all excess material. It still was a neat fit

http://www.ludodg.com/RC/albums/Pred...s/img_1015.jpg

http://www.ludodg.com/RC/albums/Pred...s/img_1019.jpg

how come people are going back to the lay down servo again

well, it would be clear to you if you would have read higher posts ;) ... but it's all about the stickpack-mod.
The stickpack comes at the right side of the car,thus the need to reposition the receiver and servo on the left side.
There they are positioned more to the front of the car, where the bodyshell is lower. ... and thus the servohorn just slightly touches the bodyshell.

I would have gone for this solution myself.
A laydown servo can easely be mounted with the standard servo-mounts, just by drilling two new holes through the chassis. The ESC then can be mounted on top of the servo.

Also, as the reciver is now also in the front , there actually is an antenna-mount-position allready in the front of the car which was not used with the saddlepack-battery. Must have been an heritage from the old-style-preds.

But since I have a low-profile servo, there isn't much room on that servo to mount the ESC. So and receiver are velcro-taped on to the chassis. The standing up servo actually gives the easiest fitting fo all components.

i did read the post above but can't see how a servo be can slower when stood up then to been layed down!
or was he just saying all low profiled servo's are slow

apprently digital servos use more battery than analog?

i have a futaba 9550 low profile servo in mine, and whilst it isn't as fast as my KO servos it's not slow!

I also have the servo arm facing into the car for steering, to avoid hitting the bodyshell...

I've got a futaba 9551 in mine and it works fine, plenty of speed and torque. Its also clear of the bodyshell.

Even if digital servos use more power than analogue ones I shouldn't worry batteries have so much energy in them it doesn't make any difference.

I had a (s)low profile in my 2wd and it sucked... was fine in the 4wd though.

Actually i m thinking to go to lay down servo as well ,
Servo + receiver parallel (ko low profile + spectrum sr3100 fit nicely) and as close as possible to the motor and my speedo (mamba) upfront. I think i have seen this layout somewhere in here in the past ( i think was niggs car or kevlee) and i believe it should be perfect.:thumbsup:

Here are pictures of Kev's car from Jan. and March of this year. Apparently he has tried the stand up and lay down servo versions. I would think the laydown version would be better.

Maybe he can pitch in and off advantages and disadvantages of both.

Well here is my lipo stick conversion with the new orange steering parts/plastic chassis.....decided to go with lay down servo option as now there is plenty of space plus i have the alum servo blue posts spare so that i can make the short pushrod mode. Also need to figure out how to get rid of all this "spaghetti" wire i have created ....:woot:

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o...7/IMG_3277.jpg

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o...7/IMG_3278.jpg

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o...7/IMG_3279.jpg

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o...7/IMG_3280.jpg

http://i121.photobucket.com/albums/o...7/IMG_3281.jpg

nice fit, Panic :)
but lucky for you, you had a low profile servo and a small footprint receiver ;)
I guess it will always be difficult to install "normal size" electronics in a Pred.

Anyway: good job!

edit: dude, do not forget to mount the very important motor-screw that attaches the motor mount to the Rear small suspension plate, via the motor mount brace.
On your pictures it seems to be missing.

Ooops you are right. Forgot it....thanks .:thumbsup:

good spot ludo. :thumbsup: that is the most imprtant screw in the whole car. evebn known as the jesus screw lol :woot::woot:

lol, "Jesus Screw", the best name "evah" for a part of a rc-car. I'll remember that one :)

@ Panic,
actually, (excuse me for mentioning this) I DO see a flaw in your layout. It is not possible for you to dismount the motor without dismounting the servo.
I won't be too easy either (if possible?!) to change a pinion this way.

could he take the whole motor mount out, then the motor? though its still alot of work.

im getting an x10 soon and i waswondering if a servo just bigger than a normal servo will fit? (longer, not wider)

thanks
chris

Hi Chris, everything is a tight fit in a pred and all depends of the gear you have. You just have to play around with your esc/servo/rx and find the best configuration ...and no you are right i have to remove the motor mount if i want to take out the motor. ( but i rarely do it ) .

What kind of servo is that ?

Lowie - Yes you are right but this was the only way to mount the servo . One servo post was hanging on air ( was falling into the battery slot) so i decided to place it all the way back :cry:

But in general i dont touch the motor too often neither the pinion...so no harm for me.

a strange one, lol

ansman metle gear 6kg servo, nothing expensive and fancy, but its reasonable quick and metle geard.

speed: 0.15 sec
size: 40.5 x 20 x 41.2 mm
weight 43g

* UPDATE *

So today was another club race at the same track here in Vancouver CANADA.My first time though with the lipo stick conversion, new orange steering arms , plastic chassis , proline wing all the way forward with half gurney - ....and all i can say is WOW!!!!. Completely different car. More steering, more pivot into corners and jump was most of the times level.... :) i like it !!!

Ofcourse i once again had a bad start. I was practicing before the qualifiers and i broke the other crank pivot (and that was it - no other issues). I guess those new beefier pivots are NOT :mad: so beefy (and now i ended up using the old ones again). Need to find out how to make them stronger any ideas? Or any other solution?

was the pivot that you broke a new solid one as if so it is the first that i have heard of breaking. if this is the case can you pm me with some pics please

to be honest i think the only way to get them stronger is to make them out of titanium.. but i dont think that is needed..

you might have had to much stress on it.. when you compress the front suspension down does the chassis touch the table surface? also is there any more up travel from this position?

couldnt you use softer springs? so it will touch down flat instead of having stress on only 4 points?

also if you make something too strong it will only put more stress on something else...so if you use titanium, all you do is transfer the stress. thats why people dont use aluminum...