xxx4 / 22

[bjcaldwe]

As with most of my projects, this started as a day dream and then a way to consolidate how many brands of parts I have to carry. It began with "I wonder if I can use 22 suspension and shocks on a xxx4?" So, I did.

I have a friend who is doing a similar project with a xx4, so we have been bouncing ideas off one another.

Here is a link to my hb d4 / blitz / firestorm 2wd buggy project.
from awhile back.

I drove the car out in front of my house last night for the first time. Now I will try to fill in the gaps of how I got there.

Here is a quick video tour of the car. It was shot on my phone so the quality sucks. The tires were the only set I could afford to waste on the concrete in front of my house. The electronics will be cleaned up before it is raced.

http://qik.com/video/41301696/xxx4-with-22-suspension

Here is a link to my project photos:
xxx4 /22 Project

[bjcaldwe]

There were a few obstacles to over come.

1. The losi diff cups require a large dog bone end
2. The xxx4 has imperical sized bearing and the 22 metric
3. The 22 arms use a much larger 3.5mm inner hingepin and the front hinepin angles are different.

First I flipped the rear mount to the front and the front mount to the rear. This gave me toe in in the rear, and helped straighten out the front inner pins. I also had to trim the inner mount's inner hole and then flip the mounts right to left and vice versa. Below kinda shows the front mounts, and also a steering mod I am going to try.

[bjcaldwe]

At first I used 22 front arms and carriers with the xxx4 spindles and shafts and it was a direct fit. However, all I had was the universals from the xx4. So, after fitting the 22 front arms, carriers and spindles I had to look for drive shafts. Using a metric mip style sedan stub axle I knew I could mount a mip cvd. The problem is the xxx4 cvd bones have been discontinued for awhile. Since I live in the US, I called MIP and talked to Eustace himself and he told me to look at the traxxas mip bones. I found some for the electric rustler but they were just a bit too long and would hit the diff when the front suspension was compressed. After searching online for countless hours, I ended up looking through a stock of old parts at a hobby shop I race at. There I found the answer, mip cvd bones for the losi lxt truck when using the xx retro transmission conversion. And, they fit perfect. I used a schumacher stub axle, and machined down the area where the pin is with a file. Then I used the losi front wheel hex from the HB d4. Done deal. Front suspension done, and wheels mount right up.

[bjcaldwe]

The rear end I used stock aluminum inner mounts and the front 7.5 mount, both drilled out to allow the use of 3.5mm inner pins. I bought 3.5mm drill stock from mcmaster car and then cut them down to the size I needed.

This pic shows the 22 rear arms, hubs, and the rear mount. I also flipper the rear tower to better align the rear shocks.

[bjcaldwe]

I was having trouble finding a rear bone that would work, and wanted to use the 22 rear stub axles. So, I made some. On my previous project I tried epoxy to bond the halfs with a sleeve. One bone to this day I cannot get apart, the other would never stay together lol. This time I soldered them. I use two broke sc10 cvds, which fit right on the 22 rear stub axle. I then cut two losi dog bone ends off. I joined them with some tight fighting brass square tubing. Round would have looked better but the shop was out. I scuffed the bones on the ends nearest the brass. Then I laid my iron on the scuffed area until it was really hot and flowed solder over the areas. I tried to twist the cvds so it would spread as evenly as possible. The pic below is before I soldered them.

[bjcaldwe]

Here is the front end. It has 22 front arms, spindles, carriers, d4 losi hexes,

sedan metric stub axles, mip lxt cvds,

and a few mods. The front mount is a rear suspension mount to help make the inner pins parallel. The bumper mod is basically what many have been doing to beef up the front end.

A funny fact is I sold this car to a friend of mine back in 03 or 04. It set unused except for missing shocks all this time.