sperera's baja experience begins

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You could make your own out of a piece of 3 or 4mm rod easily enough if you wanted to save some money. I will be making my own for my marder beetle rather than spending £15 on an another FG set.
 
yeah sounds easy enough but to be honest im not that talented and don't have much spare time, so going to go with the pre made option.

ok after doing a few measurements i can confirm the cheaper rovan spur gear is identical to the FG gear. the pinion gear on the other hand is completley different, it doesn't use grub screws to lock onto the shaft.

didnt end up installing the new spur gear as my pinion gear is badly worn so don't want to risk damaging the new spur with a crappy pinion. going to order a new pinion gear from CFR and then install both at the same time.

going to give the 4wd one last run this weekend if the weather holds out and then do a complete strip down and check everything, hopefully by then the beast will be fully rebuilt and ill have that to satisfy my large scale addiction :D
 
well didnt get the last run in with the FG thanks to the weather.

well im going to be out for the next few weeks, going to rebuild both FG's.

house repayments are going to start over the next couple of months so want to get them in perfect condition before those repayments start as the hobby budget is going to get a rude shock when that starts.

so just going to take it slow and check everything

might head out with slash if i get bored though :D
 
well didnt get the last run in with the FG thanks to the weather.

well im going to be out for the next few weeks, going to rebuild both FG's.

house repayments are going to start over the next couple of months so want to get them in perfect condition before those repayments start as the hobby budget is going to get a rude shock when that starts.

so just going to take it slow and check everything

might head out with slash if i get bored though :D


yes those house payments can be a btch :lol::lol:
 
ok started the rebuild last night, lets just say very happy I didnt leave it any longer! the dirt that has got into the belt system was amazing! no more wet bashes with this, ill leave the beast and the slash for that!

ive decided to clean and inspect as I go instead of pull everything apart and then inspect, so only get the front end apart and cleaned last night, still took me over an hour to get this far as the clean part took a while LOL.

so far i need 4 new bearings for the belt pulley and 2 new bearings for the front diff.

Here's what I started off with, rear wing and wheels removed.

1Small.webp

Next radio tray came out, at this stage all was well.

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As soon as I removed the front diff cover I knew there was going to be some rooted bearings, ive never seen it this bad, must be wet carrum that caused this, again no more wet bashes!

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the build up of dirt inside the belt system was amazing, never seen it this bad! surprised the bearings hadn't seized completley.

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this pic will show more clearly what I mean, belt is undamaged luckily but its going to need a thorough clean!

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after I cleaned the front diff housing, front diff cover, front diff and the pulleys i topped up the front diff with grease. instead of taking the diff apart to do so I use a syringe and inject grease, i do this every 3 months and once a year I pull the diff apart, clean it out and use fresh grease, works great, so far never destroyed a diff and the gears are like new.

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Also received some bits for the rebuild.

Brand new VRC silenced pipe which has been ceramic coatd (got it for an awesome price, thanks Kev), chrome fan cover and some other smaller bits and peices.

VRCPipeSmall.webp
 
Looking good...still wish I had waited and bought myself a new 4wd model instead of the 2nd hand nightmare I got...lol


can you see where the dirt is getting in? how about sealing the drivetrain off if you can? thin foam stuck around all the joints so no more can get in?
 
it seals quite well if you keep it out of the wet stuff, which im promising myself im going to do from now on!

only had a spare ten mins last night so removed the roll cage and fuel tank, both of which are going to get a good wash tonight.

7.webp

also had time to removed the pipe, so much easier getting the pipe off when the tank and cage have been removed. really enjoyed the fact this is the last time ill be removing that pipe. new pipe is two peice which is going to be heaps easier to get off, cant stand removing the two bolts that go into the cylinder! wont have to take these off anymore!

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made some good progress last night, spent a couple of hours in the garage and im down to a bare chassis!

ok so removed the 5 bolts that hold the engine to the chassis and that just left the belt cover and the rear end left.

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Then removed the six screws for the belt cover and that came apart, as you can see dirt has been pushed everywhere! im cleaning as I go so don't have to worry about a pile of parts needing cleaning at the end LOL.

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Then another 6 screws to removed the tensioner and rear end off the chassis and DONE! Complete strip down. Intersting to not that all my steel sided bearings need replacing because of all the dirt but the bearings that cop the most abuse, i changed to rubber sided last rebuild are fine! Im going to be upgrading to rubber sealed as soon as i can get my hands on some!

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A hose, some CT18 and a brush and the chassis is clean!

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Ok now everything fully stripped down and here's the list I need to get this back to an accepteble standard.

4x bearings for the pulleys.

4X bearings for the diffs.

1x pinion gear (badly worn). (second time im replacing this in lifetime of baja)

1x layshaft gear (badly worn). (first time im replacig this in lifetime of baja)

2x rear dogbones (pins are partially worn). (second time these are being repalced, never run boots and done over 80 tanks on them)

Coil (replacing because i got a rock jammed in there and its looking a bit manky.
 
Interesting to hear the life span of the rear dog bones. I was thinking of getting the boots but cant see they will be of any benefit based on your experience and also my run time is a lot less than yours so they should last for years!!!!
 
these dog bones have been very very good to me.

allot of my running latley has been on beach sand too, never with boots.

i don't know if they are the same length as the 2wd models but if they are i highly recomend them.

started pulling down the engine tonight and also need some clutch shoes and the layshaft gear that meshes wiith the diff, still working but looking a bit tired.
 
these dog bones have been very very good to me.

allot of my running latley has been on beach sand too, never with boots.

i don't know if they are the same length as the 2wd models but if they are i highly recomend them.

started pulling down the engine tonight and also need some clutch shoes and the layshaft gear that meshes wiith the diff, still working but looking a bit tired.

Yeah the layshaft gear is a weak point. What clutch spring are you running in this & your 2wd? I can see the 8k spring being useful in the 4wd but I am inclined to think the std 6k spring is better for getting the power down in 2wd. What do you reckon?
 
using a fg blue clutch spring in both, i love the crazy out of control aspect of the 2wd so i keep the blue spring in there and the 4wd defo needs a blue as the donk is just a standard G290
 
tell me about it, main reason is im waiting for parts, usually i get everything overnight but the fg guy here in oz is getting ready for the world titles in france and has been a bit slack with my order.

everything is stripped and ready to be put back together once I get all the bearings to replace the crappy ones, until then cant do much sorry :(
 
well recieved another order today and only got 50% of the bearings i need and also missing a clutch spring I need.

this rebuild is going to take forever :lol:
 
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