Freeze's Savage Flux "Frostbyte II" build thread

[JThiessen]

Originally Posted by JERRY2KONE

You should be able to find a small vent plug for it somewhere. You may have to drill and tap it out to size, but there are vents out there for just this purpose. They are usually used on industrial type bear boxes, and come in all sizes.

Not sure what you are referring to here Jerry??? The hole is about a 1" square hole in the bottom of the diff case. The plastic skidplate "covers" it, but due to the flexible nature of plastic, it doesn't seal it very well.

[JERRY2KONE]

that sounds weird. A 1" hole in an R/C diff case? Why did they design a hole that big in a diff? Why would you need such a big hole in a small scale vehicle? It seems to me that you could fab a square plug for that and design a smaller vent plug that would let the diff breath, or block it up totally. I have only been in the hobby for a few years, but I have never seen a diff with any kind of hole designed into them. I am an industrial mechanic by trade, and a Mechanical engineer myself and have worked with all kinds of large scale reduction gear setups that have vents intigrated into their design to keep pressure from building up inside the gear cases and blowing out seals, so it makes sense to me. BUT even in some of that largest gear boxes the size of a full size van or larger only had a 3/4" vent built in to them. Any pics of this diff?

[thzero]

It's not a hole in the diff. It is part of the bulkheads and the lower plate to leave room for the diff to be placed as low as possible I would assume. Go look at the manual on HPI's site, it is between part #86067 and #85234 that they have been most likely talking about covering.

What hole?

[thzero]

That's the gearbox. They were talking about the front/rear bulkheads.

[Finnster]

Originally Posted by josh9mille

I fixed that on mine with some thin gasket paper i picked up from the local auto parts store. I used the quare ridge in the skid plate as a template and just cut it out with a razor blade, fits perfectly and keeps all the dirt out of the diff. Plus you can still take the skid plates off, unlike using silicone where it might act like a bonding agent. You can also use thick paper if you want. I did this before i ever even ran my flux and its always been as clean as new inside and im still using the same piece of gasket material after probably 6 or 7 times of taking it appart

That's a good idea. I kinda like the hole as an easy way to inspect the diffs, but too much fine dirt gets by

Part 6: Drivetrain/Chassis upgrade



Sorry for the delay in updates, but in combination with my lady friend needing my attention along with a delayed order from RC Monster for my FLM TVP chassis, it's taken awhile. But now were ready for the next phase in getting "Frostbyte II" upgraded and complete! Our biggest upgrade and change to the standard Flux is our FLM extended XL TVP chassis frame. This caught my eye earlier on other peoples builds and I liked how it made the chassis stand out and give it a unique look vs the standard HPI frame. Other's reviews have been positive and after a bit more comparing and researching, I decided to go with FLM's chassis. THe fact that I could get a lower skid plate and included beefier and longer rear drive shaft were bonus selling points. Now that the long way for the chassis is over, lets continue!



Sure does look nice, and comes professionally packaged. Kudos to FLM!





Big difference in thickness. Amazingly enough, it was very light weight despite its hefty look, i'd say its only slightly more heavier then the stock HPI frame!




Oh yeah, that's gonna look nice in comparison




Were also going to go ahead and upgrade the drivetrain cups with HPI's heavy duty models. I remember on my first Flux, the diff cups began to wear and and get bent from the stress of the motor and usage after a few months. Hopefully, these will keep that from happening, and they look good!





Allright, it's its long over due to get this thing put back together! We can make it bigger, better, strong, faster..... we have the technology! With limited funds....





Off go the old drive cups, in with the new! I put a little grease on the interior gears, its NOT rust!







Now lets start making this part pile look like a monster truck again! Piece by piece.....

The FLM TVP's come with a very nice, beefy looking extended rear driveshaft. Don't think we have to worry about that one breaking!





Allright, now it's starting to look like an RC truck again! Onwards!

Part 7: Suspension arm upgrade and mods


I learned my first lesson quickly with my first Flux: "Stock A arms do not last long" With that, after suffering major front end damage on my original A arm's, I immedietely switched to RPM arms. However, like everything else in life, there was a tradeoff. RPM's fit and finish with their products tends to be "hit and miss". That being said, I had to do some major dremling in order for the RPM arms to swing freely on my first Flux. And the second time around unfortunately, was going to be no exception





Not much to say this time around except I spent SEVERAL hours dremeling out my new, blue RPM arms in order for them to swing properly without binding. What a farking pain......









The upper arms required the most work. I had to bore out the hinge pins holes majorly to get them to swing freely. Thanks alot for the quality control RPM...






One arm down, three more to go. Ung......

[reno911]

Looking slick Freeze!

[pinkpanda3310]

This looks to be more build and $$$ than I thought you were going to do cheezebite. I'm impressed with your commitment to making this one better than the 1st sav.

Part 8: Drivetrain/axle reassembly


With the major PITA part of the build done, namely, dremeling the arms, it was time to continue reassembly with a few extra's and upgrades


HPI's stock grease is allright, but were gonna put on some high quality Lucas Oil Red n Tacky stuff for my diffs. It sticks real good and lubricates very well with just a small bit grease.





Were also gonna go ahead and upgrade the axles with HPI's new HD wide axle set to give "Frostbyte II" better corning and handling, especially under 6s power.





Oh but wait! We've got more purple again and that just won't do! Time for another soaking in Greased Lighting!






Ah, much better!







I also decided that the shocks were just too "stiff" with 40w oil and white springs and I didn't wanna chance blowing the shock caps and or causing other parts to break due to the reduced dampening. So I'm going back to 30w to be safe.





To keep the ESC and motor wires from rubbing against the body, I decided to zip tie them to the frame





Were looking good now, she's coming to life!

[reno911]

Freeze it looks great, ready for some major airtime.

1 thing, where's the 2.4?

Oh another thing that would really set it off. Dremel out some of the 5.5 plugs so that you could solder them at 90 degrees, as well as shorten the wires dramatically.

Originally Posted by reno911

Freeze it looks great, ready for some major airtime.

1 thing, where's the 2.4?

Oh another thing that would really set it off. Dremel out some of the 5.5 plugs so that you could solder them at 90 degrees, as well as shorten the wires dramatically.

Oh its there, its just stock 2.4, nothing worth taking pic of. I don't have the balls to try something like that with the bullets, so i'll leave them as is.

[reno911]

Oh, wow long receiver antenna.