Losi XX4 Forum - Page 10

New Jack · #**226** 12-25-2002, 02:02 AM

Makaluch (Mark): Hey, it's me (Matt) the guy that talked to ya the last two weekends online (IM) it's good to hear that you finally got your XX4, man let me know how it works out, I might be in the market for one until they can figure out a way to fix this Front A-arm problem with the XXX4!!!!! Did your wife know about the XX4 before you got it or did she find out when it wound up in the Mail???

If you get one of those Battery conditioners as well let me know how that works!!!!! Take it easy!!!!!

New Jack · #**227** 12-29-2002, 03:32 AM

Makaluch: Hey that AE Diff. Spring you told me about to put in the XXX-NT diff, is the Part # 6582 by any chance, that's the only diff. spring I could find on the web site (AE), it actually is called a diff. thrust spring. Let me know, if that's it I'll order it & give it a try!!!!

makaluch · #**228** 12-29-2002, 02:56 PM

Yup, that's it ! You'll be pleasantly surprised with it's "action" and durability. It's called that because it performs a pushing action. I'm not saying Losi's beveled washer stack isn't a functional design, but I am saying that the spring works better IMO. The added bonus is that the spring will not contaminate your diff like the washers will.

I told my wife as soon as the mail came in reporting that I won...

. I didn't think I would because my bid (on Ebay) was at a respectable low. I was bored, but like to see people get a fair price for good equipment...that'll teach me

It's a great buggy. I'm in the process of going through it right now. So far I've only found a hairlin fracture in the chassis to the outside near the driver's side batt tray, and one incorrect length shock shaft in the front. It's nitride so it's ok though...lol...it'll work in the rear.

Ok,...enuf babbling...hope that trick works out New Jack ! Lemme know what you think of it when you run it. Lata

Mark

New Jack · #**229** 12-29-2002, 05:33 PM

Makaluch: I'll be sure to give it a try, I also bought that light weight Alum. slipper shaft/gear, but can't get my tranny off my chassis, Dang that Loc-tite works good!!!!!

adam lancia · #**230** 12-29-2002, 06:30 PM

New Jack: i've heard some complaints about the aluminum slipper shaft. some guys that were running low turn mods were breaking them. i never tried one for that reason. one thing i did like though is the non-slipper layshaft. it gets rid of the whole slipper assembly, works well if you run on a high traction surface where you would crank the slipper down anyways. first time i tried it, i never switched back.

adam

New Jack · #**231** 12-29-2002, 06:43 PM

adam lancia: Yeah, I hope I like it. Supposedly you get more RPM's out of your Engine, I don't know if that's just a sales gimmick, but I'll find out soon enough, hope it works well. If I get a Hole Shot everytime, it'll stay in mine permanantly as well!!!!!

Casper · #**232** 12-30-2002, 12:09 AM

The aluminum shafts to snap and that is a gurantee! It is just a matter of time. The non slipper shaft is the way to go. I have instructions and the parts you need to convert on my web site http://home.att.net/~casper04. The aluminum shaft should just give you more bottom end and the tranny will spool up faster but I doubt you will notice a big change.

New Jack · #**233** 12-30-2002, 01:59 AM

Casper: I tried to go to the Web page you listed above, but it says URL page not found when I got to that site!!!!!

Yeah I need info on that so I don't screw something up, especially since it's Nitro (XXX-NT)

Casper · #**234** 12-30-2002, 11:42 AM

http://home.att.net/~casper04/ is the web site. Sorry it included the period at the end of my sentence which screwed up the hyper link. The info on my site has to do with the XX4 non slipper conversion. For the spring installation on the XXXnt diff just put the AE spring where the belvelle washers go and you are fine.

New Jack · #**235** 12-30-2002, 01:25 PM

Casper: Cool man, Thanx!!!!!!!!

Luckyman4 · #**236** 01-03-2003, 11:06 AM

Hey Casper!

Couple of questions ... I just did the non-slipper conversion to my XX-4 and the brand new spur gear seems to have some 'quality control' issues; ie when I spin the spur gear the outer edge of the spur 'shimmies/wobbles' - like the spur was drilled slightly off angle from 90 degrees or is warped - if you look at it from above (shaft & gear mounted in chassis), the outer edge (teeth) of the gear moves left to right about 1/8" to 3/16" - new shaft, new spur pin, new spur - as the pinion meets the spur, the spur teeth move from the outer edge of the pinion to the inner edge - It's like the shaft hole in the spur was drilled at about a 88 degree angle to the shaft instead of 90 degree? Is this normal production tolerance or did I get a bad gear (or shaft)? Have you run into this before?

Also, I went looking for a used Monster heatsink and found a nice deal on a Team Hommies ... are the Trinity and Team Hommies heatsinks identical or different styles? Tough to find pics online ...

LMK, thanks!

Casper · #**237** 01-03-2003, 11:32 AM

The gear will wobble some and it will be a little noisey because of that but this is pretty normal. The pinned spur gear attachement does not allow a lot of control over the spur so it will wobble a little but it should not affect performance a ton. Can you rock the spur back and forth or is it tight and canted? I imagine you can push on the top or bottom and get it to shift some. If this is the case it will right itself when you drive. I would not worry about that. As for heatsinks. I ran the Team Hommies one. Team hommies was a division of Peak and they were parts designed by Derek Furatini. He is a long time pro driver (over 15 years) and a friend of mine. That one will work great for you!

Luckyman4 · #**238** 01-04-2003, 12:03 AM

Thanks Casper!

I figured it might be like that, well, I'm gonna run it this Sunday so we'll see how it does. Going to the non-slipper setup sure cuts down on rotating mass, I think(and hope, lol) it'll work without eating up the teeth on the spur. One good run should tell! It seems fine in my hallway ...

And I'm glad to hear I stumbled onto, er, wisely chose the right heatsink. It should get here in the next couple of days. BTW, I just love my XX-4 WE, the blessed thing seems to be "almost" (knock on stiffzel) indestructable. Recent club races have shown the XXX-4 to be relatively fragile unless upgraded to graphite. The only XXX-4 guys not breaking arms are the ones with 5-6 pairs of spare arms in their pit boxes ... kinda of a voodoo charm against breakage it seems. But my XX-4, like two weeks ago a corner marshall was trying to dodge me to get to a wreck when he stepped full weight on my front shock tower ... I swear you coulda heard a pin drop after the crowd's initial "GASP", waiting for that "Krrraaaaccckkkk" sound to snap the air ... but it never came, my heart started beating again so I just drove the rest of the heat out. Talk about a sturdy car! ... now if the driver could just find some consistency

Thanks again Casper!

Casper · #**239** 01-04-2003, 12:44 AM

Sounds GREAT! As long as the motor does not move you should not need to worry about stripping a spur! Good luck and fun racing!

Luckyman4 · #**240** 01-04-2003, 11:28 AM

Casper,

What kind of tire foams do you use, especially in the fronts? My 2WD experience tells me to use a firm or two-stage insert in the rear, and a medium/stock losi insert up front, but I noticed in the WE manual that they used firm in front & medium in the rear. I'm especially confused when mounting Holeshots on the front rims - the sidewalls balloon over the outer rim edge and look like the sidewall flex will be excessive ... I can see using a firm insert to compensate there, but it seems like I'd want to use a soft or medium insert up front to gain steering. Should I use a really firm insert up front with Holeshots and a soft/med insert with front taper pins. Or should I just go with stock losi inserts all around? [I generally throw away my stock Proline inserts, they deteriorate quickly in my experience and fail long before the rubber goes]. What do you run? Your advice would be appreciated, thanks!

Casper · #**241** 01-04-2003, 11:18 PM

Luckyman4-- I normally run bomb one (grey) foam in all of my tires. I have been running the losi firm foam on occation in rear tires also. I like the trinity bomb one because it seems to last the longest for me and it is cut a little wider then the losi foam. Now losi has recently changed there front foam and it is now a little taller which is GREAT! I now run losi stock foam in my 2wd front tires. For 4wd I cut down bomb foam (about a 1/4 inch or 25% of the foam) off and put it in the fronts. I used to do this for 2wd fronts also. The rear foam is a little taller then the front foams most everyone sells and it seems to support the tire the best. Bomb one seems to work just about everywhere. On really high bite tracks I would consider 2 stage foam or a harder foam but that would be an exception. Bomb one grey has always worked for me. I am hoping that losi updates there rear foams like there fronts by making the foam a little taller and if this happens I will more then likely just use it. For now though I like that the trinity foam is a little taller and a little wider then the stock. As for front and rear. I would run bomb one all the way around. For proline tires (M3 holeshots) You might want to experiment with some firmer foam though. I found that the prolines tires do not have a lot of sidewall stiffness which can be solved by 2 stage foams. I hope this kind of answers you question.

Casper · #**242** 01-04-2003, 11:20 PM

For the record I normally run losi tires. I do run holeshots on occation but tend to find losi tires work better and last longer in most of the applications I run them in. What type of track are you running on?

Luckyman4 · #**243** 01-05-2003, 10:30 AM

Thanks Casper!

What timely information! Last night I was driving myself crazy trying to get a set a Holeshots mounted because I had Bomb 1's in the rear and (older) Losi firms up front ... and the front tires were coming out about 1/4" less in diameter ... I went through a pile of Losi inserts and finally opened up a brand new pack and "voila", they were the same diameter as the rears. I lost some time, but got to thinking ... are my current tires like this too? Sure enough, all the fronts I got in the deal when I bought my used XX-4 are about 1/4" smaller OD than my rears. No wonder my car has been handling a little squirrely at times, that in effect gives me different gear ratios front & rear, like the overdrive/underdrive option on the XXX-4 & S. Revelation!

Your advice seems to tell me not to worry about mixing foams front and rear, ie soft fronts/firm rears or vice versa, and just go with a good firm foam all around. That works for me. On my fronts I'd been cramming a full width Losi buggy rear in to get the sidewalls to stiffen up, going with cut down Bomb 1's sounds better. Luckily, I haven't glued anything yet and I can go back and make 'em right.

I have two tracks I run at, my local club track where I run 95% of the time is hard packed clay that is scaled and broken, overall in a 36' X 50' area, the "main straight" is about 43' long when driving "the groove". It's often wet when we start, and dries out quickly to dry/dusty by the Mains - depends on how cold it is and how much the heater runs and dries out the track. Several tires changes a day are normal to keep hooked up. I'd call it more of a "dry groove" than blue groove track. No rubber gets laid down in "the line" because it's constantly drying out and getting abraided down into dust ... off the line is dust and dirt clods, don't go there! The other track is about 2 hours away and is a premier track, it often hosts the Region 8 ROAR offroad champs. It's about 45' X 100' and is definitely blue groove. Slicks when it's new and wet work well, taper pins as the heats progress. It's very smooth compared to our "Baja" club track, our track has 2" scaled potholes at spots in the straight, just keeping the car pointed in the right direction after hitting the holes takes a lot of setup and driving skill.

Casper · #**244** 01-05-2003, 04:48 PM

It sounds like blockheads and x-2000's would work well on your home track. I would try them. I would guess reds would be the best to try. On wet clay type tracks pink works really well also. Ask around with the fast buggy guys and see if any of them have tryed the pink tires there.

Luckyman4 · #**245** 01-06-2003, 12:21 AM

Casper, your good advice paid off for me today! The non-slipper setup worked like a champ - especially running Stock, the new set of M3 Holeshots hooked up nicely, the new set of Team Blue Star outdrive bearings I put in were super smooth, and with my tires all equal in size the car was a lot more predictable! lol

Blockheads and Holeshots are almost the same design aren't they? Losi vs Proline? & I've been running X-2000's with fairly good results too. I'll try a set of Holeshots up front and some X-2000s in back ... I tractioned rolled several times today with the Holeshots, they were that hooked up!

I finished second in the A today, and my lap times were consistently better. Setup and practice, Practice and setup. THANKS!!

Oh, almost forgot ... that Team Hommies heatsink is awesome! Not only did it turn a lot a heads, "Hey, where did ya get THAT?", but it really cooled my P2K down a bunch. Before my motor would come off the track almost too hot to touch even for a second, but at the end of today's heats I could keep my finger on it forever. WOW!

Casper · #**246** 01-06-2003, 11:05 AM

Glad to hear that things worked out for you! The blockhead has a square jug like the holeshot but they are smaller and the outer edge of the tire is quite a bit different. It might be a little less agressive for you and reduce the traction rolling issue but still give you lots of fwd bite. I think the Sprint front would be a lot more like the holeshot but again a little smaller pin and a little lower porfile.

decypher · #**247** 01-06-2003, 01:06 PM

Ok. Real quick stupid question!

Am I supposed to use Buggy rear tires as XX-4 rear tires? After searching through a losi distributor, I found specific fronts for the XX-4, but not for the rear. Help is greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time!

Casper · #**248** 01-06-2003, 01:27 PM

2.2 buggy rear tires work on the XX4. The spec tires are a horrible blue rubber that does not work all that well. They do sell 4wd front tires. Do not get 2wd (ribbed) front tires for your XX-4. Any buggy rear tire will work on this car as long as you use Losi rear rims.

Luckyman4 · #**249** 01-15-2003, 01:19 AM

Casper

I found out where the torque stress goes when you run the non-slipper set up ... in Wednesday nights race I landed a little too hard I guess and broke both the front and rear axle/wheel pins on the right side! I think it possibly 'legacy' problems since I got this XX-4 second hand, but I didn't check all the pins when I got the car and they've worked fine for a month or more now, but I'll wait and see if I shear any new pins before I change back to a slipper set up. I really like the added punch the non-slipper set up gives, and my diffs and belts have been fine. Just a 'heads up' for anyone else converting to the non-slipper ... I recommend just replacing all the wheel pins as part of the upgrade. [or at least be smarter than me and pull 'em out and check them for wear when you switch, lol]

btw, I've had no problems with the spur gear I was concerned about earlier, not an issue at all.

Casper · #**250** 01-15-2003, 10:50 AM

Wheel pins do shear on there own. I break those all the time on my 2wd running mod. I am not sure this is a result of the non slipper. Out of the things that are stressed by this mod I think that is one of the lesser. If you could get wheel spin before the mod then you are not adding any stress it did not see before. It sounds like it was there time. I hope you do not have any more pins break in the near future. That is one of the more frustrating things to happen IMO.