fg build thread

[Sharkey]

Wow, that car looks nice. What a good choice of colors. That pipe looks like it can deliver!!! Also, I like the simplicity of the receiver box.

Chris

thanks. the colors i really wasnt sure of. this has to be the hardest body ive painted, mainly because it has to look good the first time, its not a $30 1/10 scale body that i can buy another if i don't like the paint. started refferencing the picture on the fg site of the alfa, and went from there. im so glad i bought an airbrush last year, its the best thing i never knew i needed. as for the receiver box, it was one of those things i had sitting around and looked right for the car. it is a bit small though as i have a receiver, switch, y harness (very short one) for the throttle/brake servos, power harness for the steering servo, and a modded pico switch all inside it. i just hope i never need to change channels on the receiver, its a nightmare to pull apart.

 

[pipeous]

channels? what are those

 

[Sharkey]

yea i guess im still in the dark ages, i still run fm

got to head out today and do some real testing. i managed to slam into the curb a few times, had it sliding on one side, jumped the curb. this thing is a handful to drive, im not used to driving onroad without a 2 speed, not having a one way bearing to freewheel and the massive amounts of engine breaking coupled with 2wd makes the car very unforgiving when you let off at high speeds. the suspension is way out to lunch still, i figure its too stiff in the front now, and that doesn't help with high speed off throttle stability.

gotta work this suspension out, get some taller gearing to make better use of the 26cc, and i gotta rip the entire car apart and use red loctite on all the screws, everything is coated in blue and still keeps coming apart

 

[Sharkey]

more parts are now on their way. couldnt get the spring set i wanted (7499/01), aparently fgsupply.com has never had it in inventory even though it says its in stock on the site. ended up getting the progressive spring set, and the new pinion along with some other bits. im actualy rather impressed, i got a call from them today after placing my order sunday to tell me they didnt have it in stock, gave me the options and asked what i wanted to do. i have never had an online store do that, i usually end up with an e-mail about it, and being i check my e-mail after work it ends up delaying the whole process by a day or 2. good service from them, im impressed.

 

[Sharkey]

small update. parts arrived this past week, i now have some proper springs in the car. now after feeling how stiff the springs are supposed to be, i know what i had found for a temp was in fact far to stiff, im guessing that was causing most of my handling issues. also changed the shock oil and set the car up with some setup info posted in another thread. i also have now changed gearing, went from 42/24 to 40/26. my car has some duratrax stuff on it, and the gearplate is different, requiring the odd gearing combos compared to most FGs. the gearing change is quite large, however its all i could do, i just hope the motor will pull it alright, i think between having a 26cc and the mielke pipe, it should. if not, it'll at least help with tirespin. wont know till the weather clears up.

 

[Sharkey]

back from the dead, thought id give an update on the car. ive been picking away at it for a while and until the last few weeks haven't been getting anywhere with it. the gearing change helped the car a bit, however didnt do what i thought it would. part of the problem with the 26cc coupled with the mielke pipe is the low end torque is quite high and it makes coming out of a corner quite tricky. the springs helped, but again, not that much. i was starting to think that the tires i got were giving me issues (bought from george, i know he hasnt raced for a lot of years and im guessing the tires are at least 10 years old) and was ready to buy another set. i had started with the fg recommended setup except for one thing, and had changed everything else trying to mask the handling problems. fg recommends 2.5-3 degrees rear toe in, i thought that was too much and would just scrub tires so i ran 1 degree. turns out this was a lot of my problem, going to 2 degrees made such a huge difference in the car, cured most of my handling woes. the car was working alright at our last large scale meet, however i was so far off the recommended setup i decided to start fresh and go completely to stock setup.

shocks are still a bit of an issue, im a little in the dark with shock oil. fg calls for 6000 front and 4000 rear oil, i just assumed it was 60wt and 40wt. i knew about the other ratings for oil viscosity, however none of it made sense as converting it 6000 was roughly 332wt and 4000 is 236wt. after enough research it seems thats about right and apparently what a 1/5 touring car should run. to add to the mix i have no clue how large the fg shock pistons are or how large the holes are, being i don't have fg shocks this complicates things. im a little in the dark here with no real idea were to go.

on the upside, i did just win some parts on ebay. i got a technokit adjustable lsd diff to help with the inside tire unloading out of a corner (i currently have a sealed aluminum diff with 120k oil and it feels like there is almost nothing in it). i also won a new gear plate with the aluminum brake caliper, a set of rear control arms, aluminum tie rods, a pair of diff uprights and some rear axles that are the correct length (no more losing my wheel nuts).

 

[Sharkey]

been a long time since i updated this thread, but i figured that with the off season here and plans to do some changes over winter i figured id just continue this thread along.

i gotta say ive learned a lot about large scale this year, it was a lot more of a learning curve that i expected. it took most of the year to get the car working decent, and really it all came down to tire choice. i always found that with the smaller scale stuff that you could always put a car around the track with whatever tires you throw on it and fine tune the tire choice from there, but its quite the opposite with the big stuff. ive also been quite amazed at how much of a change one slight adjustment makes in the car. what i read on one site seems very true, its like trying to put an 800hp street car around a track. its also found out that with a car twice the size im used to running its also twice the wear. looking the other day, all my rod ends, including the set on the lower control arms that are 3 outings old, are all worn out. everything plastic sure seems to take a beating.

i did change a few things since i last updated this thread. the technokit diff didnt work so well, it fit the car great but was in pour condition and turned the inners to dust after about 3 outings. i ended up going back to the aluminum case diff with the best of the guts i had and filled it with normal grease. the car actually seemed to work better with the open diff, i was planning on ordering a 2 or 4 fold locking diff but am on the fence with that now. i ended up having a bunch of issues with geartrain alignment and melted a gear plate in the process. all that got solved with the proper gear plate and a quick release engine mount. the car got a new steering servo mid year as the on in the car kept wandering as it heated up.

ive already started collecting parts for over the winter. ive been watching ebay for deals and scored some good and bad ones of late. i won a set of supposed balldrive axles for cheap, however when i got them they were nothing more than dogbones with axle boots on them. i was offered a refund but being the stuff looked like brand new and i discovered my diff gears are an odd spline i decided to keep them. my most recent score just arived today, a set of mecatech twin piston hydraulic brakes, both front and rear, complete with aluminum front steering knuckles and rear uprights, bearings, axles and a bleeding kit. i cant wait to start setting all this up. im hoping to find a set of aluminum upper and lower rear control arms over winter, the plastic stuff is so worn out on mine, it takes quite a beating on our lot.

ill take some pics of the car later before i start tearing it down.

*i forgot to post this here, i continued my build thread on another site and forgot to do it here, so im pasting several posts up now

 

[Sharkey]

so i grabbed some pics last night

the brakes are giving me a few issues. the bladders in the lids of the master cylinders are swollen and some of the caliper pistons are stuck. ive had to use the air compressor to push the pistons out, the seals in them and dried right out causing them to stick. one i got them out and some fresh fluid on them they seem fine but still need to work on getting other out.

 

[Sharkey]

slowly making some progress. turns out my brakes are actually lauterbacher, along with the uprights and steering knuckles. was still a great buy, just takes a little modding to fit the car. ive got my plan now for the changes im going to make over winter. with my dad picking up a brand new sportsline 08 ive been able to look at his and see whats not right on my car. most of the changes are just getting the correct parts on the car. found out ive had the long rear a-arms and front tie rods and that has limited adjustment. im also planning on all alloy rod ends to tighten everything on the car up. i just bought some elcon rear upper a-arms on ebay, so that will also help with the flex in the back end.


so here are some pics of the aluminum bits of been making. nothing that impressive, but its all done by hand, a hacksaw, drill press and files.

that was the first thing i built. i decided it would be a good idea to support the rear body mount from the chassis with an old tie rod. i also designed the peice to double for...

attaching the FG toe gauge to. once squared to the chassis it'll make it a bit easier to use the gauge.

the other couple pieces ive been working on is a new diff brace. i had a firehammer brace on before that was hacked up to fit, i had just never gotten to build another. i designed it after the one on the evo 08, it also attaches to the mounting boss on the engine, it really stiffens the back of the car up.

 

[Sharkey]

one more part built.

i was going to build a single shock tower like the evo, however i thought 1/4" thick aluminum would be too thin. i ended up cutting the bottom of the shock towers off to make this work. i was worried about strength however the towers don't seem to flex at all. i found doing this over the small single brace really helped stiffen up the front bulkheads. short of aluminum bulkheads, i don't think it can get any better.

looks like im going to have to order some parts soon, im starting to run out of things to build for it.

 

[Sharkey]

well with not having more parts to put the car together, and not being able to let my dad one up me, i broke out the sandpaper (320, through 1000 grit), dremel and polishing compound. the pics don't show it well, but thought id post them anyways

everything aluminum on the car is now mirror finish, aside from the motor itself. the chassis didnt turn out the way i wanted, however its a very old chassis plate with many scratches and gouges, but it looks not too bad. not shown in the pics is the polished wheel hexes and linkage collars. this is what happens when im bored lol.

i have a couple more things on there way that ill need to polish once they get here, elcon aluminum rear upper control arms and aluminum evo 08 rear lower arms, complete with the toe adjusters, shock mounts, spherical bearings and even an adjustable swaybar. the lower arms were one killer deal i got on ebay. just need to put an order in to advance hobbies and ill have most of what i need to get the car together, aside from a diff.

been having diff issues since part way into the year. the diff was getting knotchy so i bought the technokit diff, wich turned into a disaster. i took the best of my parts and through a diff together and it seemed fine. upon inspection its getting ready to strip the teeth off again, and i doubt it'll last one track day. looking at my options, advance has the 2 and 4 fold self locking diffs on sale, thinking that might be the best way to go. maybe santa will bring me one for christmas

 

[Sharkey]

got a little bit more done today. had to make some spacers up for the front knuckles. the lauterbacher knuckles are a little shorter and was causing the upper control arm to interfere with the spring, worse than it did with the stock knuckles. also did a little more polishing and assembly, nothing pic worthy.

i did win another item on ebay, a hardened layshaft with the aluminum hub, all off an evo 08. im slowly crossing things off my list that i need to get.

 

[Sharkey]

did some more fiddling with it. pulled the pullstarter and shrouds off the motor to clean it up. played a little more with the brakes. figured out the channel mixing, it works pretty slick, id like to go that route. on the fly brake bias adjustment would be a sweet, and who could argue with a 3rd channel line lock . killer bee got back to me and said they think a v2-s kill switch will work with my radio, so that is an option. i also played around with the linkage and servo horn and got the 645 servo to work not bad, albiet a bit slow, however while playing around it decided to let the magic smoke out. was a little annoyed till i saw that it was built in 2003 and it spent most of its life steering a crawler. guess i gotta upgrade now, since the 645 did work but needed a bit more grunt i figure a pair of 7985mg's will get the job done pretty good. have to wait till after christmas though.

 

[Sharkey]

some new pics

im at the point now where i need parts. some stuff off ebay are on their way from the UK (evo control arms and layshaft, hub extensions and shock tower), be a couple weeks at least. a few other bits are coming from back east, likely a week or more. with the christmas season fast approaching i doubt it'll get much more done before the new year

 

[Sharkey]

i got my order from back east a little sooner than expected, and with it came my brake fluid and brake hose. i spent last night getting the front brake lines made up and bled, kept having problems with one of the lines leaking but i finally got it. tonight i pulled the steering servo out of my crawler, a hitec 985, and tried it out. seems at 178 oz/in it'll be plenty of power to lock the wheels up. i was a little surprised actually, after manually operating the master cylinder i thought there was no way it would be enough. i think even a 5645 might be enough power, however after burning up my 645 i had operating the cable brakes i don't have one to try out, at least nothing i can easily get out.

 

[Sharkey]

a bit of a setback on the brakes. i tried them by hand tonight and the master cylinder wouldnt return. after pulling the master cylinder all apart i found all the seals had swollen up, obviously from the wrong brake fluid. as recommended i used fg brake fluid, i guess its not the correct stuff. now ill have to put another order in to lauterbacher for another set of master cylinder seals and a bladder. i guess im just lucky i only got the fronts working and didnt ruin both master cylinders, however im in the dark again with what fluid i should be using.

 

[Trebor]

check out DOT5 hydraulic fluid

K....

 

[Sharkey]

im not sure dot5 would be the right stuff. i finally found the fluid on lauterbachers site, along with the caliper piston seals i couldnt find last time. looks like ill have to make another order. for the record the lauterbacher fluid is blue. i know ive seen blue brake fluid somewhere, but cant remember where. would rather get the right stuff anyways just to be sure

 

[Sharkey]

i was quite surprised yesterday, my ebay stuff from the uk showed up in just over a week. im starting to think i should just order everything from across the pond, it takes less time to get to me and shipping is pretty much the same.

anyways, here are a few pics of the goodies already on the car.

took me a while to pull the control arms right apart and clean them up, had a bit of nasty looking filing that had been done on one to clean up, and some other scrapes and gouges, nothing i didnt expect though. had to also make some more spacers as i don't have the cone washers to shim the spherical bearings (ill get some in the future, what i built works well though). shocks are going to be a bit of an issue. they are xtm monster truck shocks, they have worked alright but are too long. i was able to make them work with the duratrax shock tower, but with the fg tower and higher mounting point on the control arms i don't have a lot of travel. with the design of the shock body i could cut the tops down and get shorter shafts. as it sits it would be fine on a smooth surface, but we don't seem to run on those lol.

 

[Sharkey]

the brakes are all sorted out finally. i got my parts from lauterbacher yesterday, rebuilt all the calipers and both master cylinders. i hope i don't have to unhook anything that will cause me to need to bleed them ever, i spent a couple hours last night to bleed the fronts and and hour tonight to get the rears. they work great now, just need to figure out how tight i can get away with running the pads, ive got them down to .010" right now and to get them to lock after sitting more than a minute i need to pump them twice. gonna have to go through some brake instructions and see what other setups are like.

had a better look at the rear shocks, i was going to run them as is, however they are going to be an issue. i put the car on its feet and set the ride height, i have less than 5mm compression before the shocks bottom out. axial shock shafts will work and are 18mm shorter, i can cut the tops of the shocks 18mm and it will solve my problem. not quite as simple as it sounds though, going to have to modify the shock pistons to fit the shafts, and im concerned about getting the tops of the shocks perfectly square so they don't leak. im waiting till after christmas, i may re-evaluate the budget and see if there is room for the right shocks.