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.