unversal drive shafts

[3series takumi]

latest project i yanked out the stock dogbones and put in a set of xmod universal drive shafts. they work great and will never pop out but they are plastic. i am not sure how long they will hold up.

...only one way to find out i guess. there was some modding involved of course but now i can use xmod wheels with out having to drill out the center of them. oh and best part of all is no more wheel pins. i lost way too many of those, good thing they were easy to make out of paperclips ;p

here is my bad picture

[cdog4w]

takumi, gotten any closer to posting a little howto on the xmod shock/wheel upgrades you have done?

[3series takumi]

oh crap i forgot about them, i have been way too busy lately
i will get to it

[cdog4w]

Takumi, you ever think about grinding down the edge of the mini-x wheel shafts so that the axle portion that attaches to the wheel is D shaped? This would ideally allow you to put XMod rims on your x as you already have. Even better, it would let you do it without having to resort to either drilling out the rim and adding the pin groove or using the plastic xmod universal drive shafts (not to mention modding them to fit). I've got a dremel tool, but I need to get a vice so that sucker doesn't shoot through the window or my head.

Out of curiousity, even the threaded part of the xmod universal drive shaft is D shaped correct? And theres no problem getting the wheel nut on and it staying tight? (I don't have an xmod or parts yet)

Lemme know if you think this won't work, otherwise I'm trying it as soon as I can get to RS to get some xmod rims and a vice to do the grinding.

Oh, I'm also going to put up a video of my (sadly) stock mini-x sometime soon. There isn't enough video available for people to see what the X is like, so I thought I'd take advantage of my new digicam.

[3series takumi]

um i modded not so i could use xmod wheels, i didnt it to get rid of the dogbones. unversials let you turn sharp and not worry about them falling off. and the screw part of the the axle is not D shape, it is just a smaller diameter. they use the same wheel nuts as miniz i think.

[3series takumi]

if i had a good camera i could film it, but the one i have would get blury tryin to capture the speed of my baby ;p serious though my camera sucks. i want to get a video of a gas scooter goin with it. the scooter can go 20mph, i sould be able to keep with it if the ground is smooth. just hope it doesnt get ran over.

[cdog4w]

I'm slowly planning out what I want to do with my car. I'm taking my time since I'm new to hobby RC and am trying to avoid making mistakes. I just ordered some extra drive shafts from tiny along with some overland tires, so I'm hoping to have a set of xmod capable shafts after grinding as well as my original set of mini-x shafts. I'm hoping to raise it with the overland tires. I run on an extremely rough asphalt, so I'd also like to go for a smooth suspension to keep the tires on the surface as much as possible.

I'd been using the stock medium springs and you can see it bouncing all over the place. I'm going to try the soft springs next, which I've installed, and man are they soft. This thing is going to bottom out and get a bit scratched up, but hopefully it will run better. How is the motion/travel on your xmod converted suspension - would you say a large improvement on the stock springs, in the context of rough asphalt?

Anyway, whats the deal with "zapped" cells? Most cells include the mAh rating, so I'm assuming its either current or voltage that is more than standard?

Finally, how did you squeeze your 5 2/3A cells on, takumi?

Thanks for being so patient and answering my never ending stream of questions.

P.S. I just got a pentax optio s4 (xmas) and I love it. Unfortunately it only shoots in 320x240 (a lot of newer cams will shoot 640x480), but it should be fine. I am editing the video and will post soon.

[cdog4w]

So since the threaded portion of the xmod axle is smaller diameter and not D shaped, do you think my intended mod of grinding the whole mini-x axle into a D shape (threaded bit and all) will hold a mini-x nut?

Does anyone have experience with this type of nut/bolt situation?

Thanks in advance.

[3series takumi]

zapped cells are.. i dont really know, but they can push 30amps on load and most cells like aaa can only put 7amps on a good day, a very good day. plus they are 1050mAh @ 1.2volts each. i have it set up saddle pack style, but that chassis is not runnin yet. 3cells on one side with the servo and 2 cells on the other side with the esc. as for the suspension, the xmod suspension (air dampers) dont bounce as much. but the only reason i use them is because i got tired of having to take the suspension arms off just to change the springs. a spring swap now takes under a minute for all 4. i have glued a set of warn overland tires on it b4 and ran the diffs tigher, almost locked, that was serious fun. the tires to add alot of clearance over the stock ones, especially the gpm tires. i drove over gravel, it was a blast. i tried to run in sand but i think i may have too much torque to do that. i also ran and a bad street, that was great too, i still do with regular tires and medium springs. the gravel was the best to watch. you can really see the suspension doin its job. i would love to see a miniz or dtm or xmod go where i went.

i raced a miniz with "soft" springs on the bad street and spanked it. all it did was bobble over the street. it was a sad sight.

[sawhit4]

hey cdog4w, i wouldnt advise grinding the bolt that holds the wheel on with a dremel. if you mess the threads up then the bolt wont go on good, wont go on at all, or wont come off if it does go on. Im not sure how soft the metal is that its made out of but if its soft enough the threads would get messed up easily. Im not saying it wont work for sure but its risky. anyway thanks for all the help with the charger i got one ordered from my hobbytown

EDIT: i have an xmod and i dont see how yall use their wheels. its gotta give yall really low ground clearence cuz they arent as big as the mini x wheels.

[3series takumi]

there is like a 1mm difference between the minix wheels and the xmod wheels. the rims are actually the same size just the tire is a touch thiner. that is a small price for the great look of new rims and even greater grip over the stock ones. the tread pattern is pretty effective as well, its even directional.

forgot to add it made no difference on mine because it as raised anyways ;p

[sawhit4]

oh my bad i was lookin at the foam tire rims aganist a mini x rim and neither one had a tire on it. woops

[cdog4w]

Well, I picked up some xmod rims yesterday and I got a sweet suction vise today. The suction is strong enough to pull paint off a wall (showing off to the woman, she didn't appreciate the suctioned paint) oops...

I got out the dremel and threw on one of the silicon carbide grind stones that came with my kit. While I was in home depot getting the vise, I also picked up some machine screws with matching nuts to practice on. I tried to match the diameter of the xmod axle, but of course thats a metric 2mm (from what I've read) and home depot is not even remotely metric when it comes to screws.

Anyway, I ground it down to a D'ish shape and low and behold, the xmod rim slid right on (it hadn't before grinding). Next I screwed the bolt on and it threaded like I hadn't touched the screw, silky smooth. Seemed to hold ok too. Next I slid the rim back on and locked it down with the nut. It worked great for holding it on the axle, but I think I was too zealous with the D shape and it wasn't a perfect grip that way. I also chalk some of that up to the screw diameter not being an exact match.

And yes, I took pictures :P Tell me what you guys think.

P.S. I'm going to try on my mini-x axles as soon as my replacements come in from tiny.

[cdog4w]

shoot, i accidentally hit new thread instead of post reply for the second image, it should be the thread right below this one :P Sorry mods/readers.

heres image 3

[cdog4w]

and finally secured to the "axle"