5 years on a shelf, time to revive the Baja 5b, rebuild and upgrade

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had a bit of time to start the stripdown this afternoon, found a few things that need changing already, some because they simply need it and some cosmetic.

Steering arms are bent (well one of them)
one of the rear shock tower parts has melted halfway through from the exhaust, it wasnt touching so must of been from a previous owner
rear wing is damaged so they are cheap enough to get a new one
air filter looks like its never been cleaned


what surprised me was how much play and slop is in these cars, is this usual? the ball joints seem to have well over 1mm play maybe 2mm, the suspension wishbone arms have play from front to back, i can put a thin washer in there i guess to tighten it up (as long is they swing ok i cant see that being an issue.

I found that i have the original 23cc engine, it worked fine before so ill not change that yet, but ive seen rovan do a 45cc one for £250, not sure if they are any good though

its also got a metal under guard at the rear to replace the black plastic one, made getting the pull start off a pain in the arse but i guess it offers more protection.

that dangerous front bumper is either very badly made or cannot of been a chassis strengthener as i tried to reverse it and the angle is wrong to meet the main chassis, i will most likely put it in a vice and bend it to use it as a strengthener rather than having to buy one, spent about £250 in the last few days as it is so i need to calm down a bit , as the last time i messed around with this i used it a couple of times and then nothing for 5 years so ill assess how much i use it before spending a fortune49592495934959449596
 
Jasongtr said:
good to hear, thanks, i wont wish my engine goes bang but.....

i know ill need bigger driveshafts and probably other upgrades before that anyway
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i thk the only upgrades you'll need would be driveshafts, cups, and gearing. the stock transmission should be ok being that motor doesn't make that much power (4 hp i thk) stock, but it does make a pretty good amount of torque stock. so its not like a alx 48cc or a rcmax 46cc but its powerful for its price.
 
Jasongtr said:
ok, thanks, if it doesn't make that much more power i cant the point of getting it, rather spend the money on something else or towards a better engine
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ok. then I would get an obr engine or something like that. u can get a pretty powerful long block (long block meaning u can swap over the carb, fan shroud, flywheel ect from ur old engine to the new 1) for 250 pounds. here are all the long blocks by obr, 250 pounds is 321 usd btw. and they ship to uk i think. or u coudl see if someone has a obr for sale over there
 
Jasongtr said:
had a bit of time to start the stripdown this afternoon, found a few things that need changing already, some because they simply need it and some cosmetic.

Steering arms are bent (well one of them)
one of the rear shock tower parts has melted halfway through from the exhaust, it wasnt touching so must of been from a previous owner
rear wing is damaged so they are cheap enough to get a new one
air filter looks like its never been cleaned


what surprised me was how much play and slop is in these cars, is this usual? the ball joints seem to have well over 1mm play maybe 2mm, the suspension wishbone arms have play from front to back, i can put a thin washer in there i guess to tighten it up (as long is they swing ok i cant see that being an issue.

I found that i have the original 23cc engine, it worked fine before so ill not change that yet, but ive seen rovan do a 45cc one for £250, not sure if they are any good though

its also got a metal under guard at the rear to replace the black plastic one, made getting the pull start off a pain in the arse but i guess it offers more protection.

that dangerous front bumper is either very badly made or cannot of been a chassis strengthener as i tried to reverse it and the angle is wrong to meet the main chassis, i will most likely put it in a vice and bend it to use it as a strengthener rather than having to buy one, spent about £250 in the last few days as it is so i need to calm down a bit , as the last time i messed around with this i used it a couple of times and then nothing for 5 years so ill assess how much i use it before spending a fortuneView attachment 49592View attachment 49593View attachment 49594View attachment 49596
Click to expand...
I suspect the chassis stiffener doesn't fit because your main chassis looks bent to me ?
See where it is bent across the 2 bolt holes? Shouldn't be like that
49610
 
chassis virtually straightened ou ok to accept the chassis strengthener, its not perfect but would work, i keep coming back to my all black thoughts so may just buy the IRC black chassis, all thats stopping me is the fact they don't have the rear section in stock

the three speed gears have a problem, tried to strip them down and the 3rd gear clutch securing pin/grubscrew was not coming out and rounded off so had to drill it out, so unless i can either tap it out a bit bigger (lay shaft isnt damaged) or buy a new clutch and pin (but ive looked and i cannot see a supp;lier of individual parts) i may need to go back to stock gear setup, hopefully i can sort it.

im going to try and do the industrial degreaser trick to remove the anodizing on the purple parts, and send them off to be anodized black as i suspect that would be cheaper than buying all new black parts.

but the chassis is now totally bare, so its time for some cleaning, repacking of bearings, stripping and rebuilding the diff and shocks, then i can start putting things back together, if only it went as quickly as i typed it....lol
 
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