NipNip - Maverick Vader XB

[Nip Nip]

Ive had my vader less than a month now (its my first RC car so jumped into the deep end), and on the third trip out managed to kill a motor and ESC, but shall start from the beginning.


Bought my Vader about a month ago from a friend at work, just loved the power it had when test drove it.








First thing I did was to change the dean's connectors over, my friend showed me one where the connection melted through the plastic housing, so on went EC5 all round.


From memory it has the 7075rc Rear Bearing Holders and Front C-Hubs. It also came with a Castle Creations 1717 taken out of a Traxxas.


First time I took the buggy out all way good, motor was hot to touch but the ESC and Battery's were cold.


Second time I took the buggy out it kept stopping about 40m out, and then nothing so walked over to find that one of the solder joints had come apart, so I shall be rerouting the cabling so its not above the motor.





Third time I went to take the buggy out it was making weird noises, the drive-shaft wouldn't rotate and it made it about 6 inches before smoke came out of the ESC so everything got turned off.


Went over to a friends and trying the motor on a brand new ESC the motor wouldn't rotate, and when it did it wouldn't do it smoothly.


Upon closer inspection it showed that the pinion gear slipped down the shaft and was boring itself into the motor mount plate. This was completely flat faced when it was first installed.

 

[Nip Nip]

and this is how the inside of the motor now looks

So an order was put in for a Hobbywing EZRun 150A ESC (UK Stock) and the guy in the States who sold the motor originally wouldn't exchange it but has sold us the motor casing at discount (still on its way from the states).

So with it off the road I took the opportunity to do a complete strip down and rebuild to learn what all the parts are. Great exercise, but it really is like toothpaste in those Diffs. I ended up rebuiliding them with 50k fronts and 30k rears as someone else in the RC group ran a vader and thats what he rebuilt his with.

 

[Nip Nip]

I also decided to cut the nose off of the shell. I HATED having to keep bending the nose through the suspension towers, so shaped it off just before.

With the new ESC though it fouls on either the motor, or the driveshaft cups so I now have to find a way of raising it approx 6-8mm from the standard location and it will be fine

Can't wait to get it up and running recently.

 

[rookie101]

Sorry to hear about your bad luck, but once you get it all sorted out you'll love the buggy.

 

[Guest]

Looks good! It's a great platform.

 

[Ildy666]

Good luck and have fun with it...

 

[Nip Nip]

Update time once again:

I decided to make a brass shim up for the motor to try and stop the pinion from working its way down the shaft again.



While still waiting for the new motor to turn up from the states I made up some rear mudguards (spoiler they work amazing, must be my fav upgrade)

 

[Nip Nip]

The plastic was sourced from a (clean) cat litter tray.

Then the new motor casing turned up WOOOOO



I thought it was best to also install a cooler



In the process of swapping over the motor casings this was why the old one stopped working:

 

[Nip Nip]

Then it was all up and running

Out on its first trip and the mud guards proving there worth. They also just wipe clean due to the material they are made from

 

[Guest]

I like the rear guards!

 

[TerraKill]

Might have to make some adapted rear guards for my MT now, there rad! and look really effective!

 

[phreerider]

love the rear guards, started the exact same( to keep Spanish moss off the rear axles) out pvc pipe with some of the curve left in though yours are some bit taller... looks perfect nice job....tell the cat to go outside!

diggin the flow of work and pics..man your getting all of it! keep it coming