Henk sorry I haven't been in touch. I fly to Bangkok in a few hours to compete in TITC but will give you a shout as soon as I'm back next week.

Thanks,

Dan

Procat housing also stops assembly moving and losing belt tension when you hit things - I know, I've tested them :rolleyes:

So the ProCat housing does help considerably with setting the front tension, and it's not just a nice idea on paper. I'll use the ProCat housing for the runner then, and use a few shims to reduce the lateral play.

Btw, is there an alternate solution for fitting the rear wing? I bet the stock upper wing washers, that are fixed with the rubber bands, are just about as common as hen's teeth, right?



Hi Dan, no worries. I know you are a busy man, and will get back to me as soon as you can. Have a safe flight, kick some other driver's behind when running, and get back in one piece. :D

Can someone please have a look at this question?


And I'v got another inquiry, about the rear belt tension, with MMS layshaft and diff. I am a bit torn between 2 settings of the excentric bearing holder. It came set with a little lower tension, turning the spur or diff feels very smooth, and when I block one with my hands, there is no slipping. If I set it one notch more tight, the tension still looks not too tight, but I do feel a little extra drag when turning the spur or diff.

I want to make this car run as smoothly as can be, but don't want to risk stripping belts or damaging pulleys. Motor will be a brushed 17 double, expected to get to max speed of about 40 to 45 km/h, which is what I run most of my vintage cars at.

I use the SX3 wing mounts on my Procat but you can still get the old wing rubbers. Just look for a the size on eBay they are cheep the same goes for the o rings on the front.
Here's mine

http://www.oople.com/forums/showthre...=148624&page=4

And as for the belt tension I've never had a problem with setting it to the manual setting. You'll get the hand of it eventually, and i run mine with a 6.5t brushless setup and I've had no problems yet.

http://www.retromodelisme.com/scan_p...r-page-11.html

You mean screw the wing on using those SX3 wing buttons? Or use the complete wing mounting setup?

"Just look for a the size on eBay" what does that mean? You mean just the rubber bands? But I also need the wing buttons that these rubber bands go through.

I got enough rubber bands for the crashback system, though I could use those black o-rings that remove the slop on the A-arm hinge pins.

http://www.racing-cars.com/pp/Old_Ca...cat/U1247.html O rings

Wing mount
http://www.racing-cars.com/search.asp

The second link just refers to the search page. Was that intentionally, as hint? ;)


Btw, when you take apart the u-joints, these tend to stay a little "open" after re-assembly. Not enough to be afraid of these coming apart on their own, but with some side to side play on the metal plus-shaped connector block. Is this anything to worry about, or just how these all look after having been taken apart a few times?

Also, I found one of the thrust bearings has the plastic ring holding the small metal balls coming apart. And it's missing the 2 spring washers. I read about some modern parts replacing the thrust bearing, is that the way to go, and same applies for the spring washers?

Try this link Henk
http://www.racing-cars.com/pp/Old_Ca..._SX/U3298.html

You can get the spring washers with the new diff screw again from Schumacher. This has the diff screw for the 23mm Bosscat pro diff but has the spring washers.
http://www.racing-cars.com/search.asp

As for the thrust race the plastic cage has a tendency to disintegrate, they did eventually replace it with a metal one. I've heard people remove the cage and add an extra ball instead.
The part number for the thrust race is U1954V they do turn up on eBay and places. If you look for the part numbers you should be able to find most of it cheeper than on Schumacher's website.

Ok, i'll probably go for the metal thrust race, and keep the plastic one for the shelf car, to keep it as original as possible.

And the plastic U-joint "forks" being a little bent outwards, will that be an issue?

I ordered some metal thrust races, so that's settled. Just a few questions remain:


The front suspension pivots use small o-rings to take up the slop in the hinges. Are these convenient for fitting on a runner, or would it be better to use hard plastic washers, like you seen on about all modern cars?

I may not have enough spring washers, to add on the screw that holds the diffs together. Looking for a cheap replacement, that will still be reliable, and not have to worry about diffs unscrewing themselves or so. Suggestions where to look?

What repro belt cover and body shell are considered the best? I've had some different experiences with repro shells in the past. For some cars, it's spot on, yet on other cars the overall size is slightly off, so you have to be creative to mount the body, as the marked holes on the repro shell don't match up with the actual car.

I've read about different battery straps, like the original one, or the U744 QC. I can't find any pictures of the latter though. For the shelf car, I would like to see if I can get the original ones, but for the runner, a convenient one is what I am after. I don't want to end up just using velcro on the chassis, so some good options are welcome.

And I would like some input on my question about the u-shaped parts on the u-joints, which are bent a little outwards, after these have been taken apart a few times, by me, and most likely also by the previous owner. It's not that far apart that the metal plus-shaped connector block can wiggle it's way out, but there is a mm or little more of play, on the hinge sections. All my other cars use dogbones, so I have no direct experience with the bulky drive axles like used on the Cat.

I have used repro shells from Penguin and TBG. TBG seem a lillte crisper on detail, but a little small, so my preference would be Penguin.

Steve at Penguin is great to deal with.

Not tried Kamtec.

Kamtec.
 

Hi.
I used a kamtec shell on my xls and it fitted nicely .
Just got a brand new xls bumper on ebay . must have been the first to see it !
Dunc2504

I saw it and thought it was a bit steep as I paid less for my WASP racing alloy front box from the same guy. Well at least I know now what the new one I have is worth :thumbsup:

was that the one the guy on here was selling ?.
I offered him 50 for that one as well.
Seems to be the going rate for new ones now !
I used to have loads of them , and other spares when I raced the cats , threw it all out when I moved on to IC onroad (ARGH!).
Duncan.

Hot tip about drive shafts: The Traxxas Slash shafts fit as if they were made for the Cat. Good for a runner!

That's a good tip Mattias. Hot-tip yup! Are the u/j's ('cross-balls') the same too? Shafts don't often appear for sale, and it seems to me that most that do come up are well worn, so a new substitute would be handy.
1: Spreading of the plastic U-joints should be able to be fixed by immersing the part in boiling water, then squeezing the ends parallel with pliers or clamp, then cooling off in cold water.
2: I've done a fix of excessive play in the holes by using a soldering iron to soften the plastic and 'close-up' the holes a little. Maybe not a long-term solution, but better than excessive slop.
3:l I'm not relaxed about Optimafan's sloppy diff, there must be a mismatch of components in there surely?
4: Could the Procat thrust race be adapted to fit the XLS? Probably not, but I mention it because new Procat thrust races are easy and cheap to buy 'cos it's a common helicopter part.
5: Bumpers? got to be close to being worthwhile for someone to do re-rees!!!
(But then I forgot that there'd only be about four people in the world dopey enough to be restoring these things!)

The "cross-balls" do not look the same, but they fit in the Schumacher parts. I use Traxxas shafts in both my Schumacher runners.

Interesting. The bulky Traxxas shafts did already remind me of the XLS ones. Seems like Traxxas looked around pretty well.




5) I think their are more than 4 Cat addicts, I already know more than 4, and I've only relatively recently gotten into contact with fellow vintage addicts like here. :D

4) I got some metal case thrust races from RcBearings, should be a direct replacement. The plastic ones will go in the shelf car.

3) I think it's because I have the metal plates with hex cutout, and not the ones with the friction paper, and the latter being a little thicker or so. Anyway, I used some 8 mm shims between the flanged bearing and the Washer Carrier. With 2 0.3mm shims on each side, the diff has minimal play, and runs very freely.

2) Could work, but then I'd rather opt for applying a very thin coat of CA glue in the opening where the pivot balls go. After letting it cure long enough, it forms an extra layer, tightening up the hole. Have done this with success on worn linkages on a small helicopter. But at the moment, it's not needed, I have some parts with acceptable slop, and the rear suspension will be ProCat, so much less slop there as well Still looking for suitable replacement pivot balls though, as long term solution.

1) That crossed my mind, but the main problem was that when putting these back together, I bent these open too much again, so I was getting nowhere. But after I got a little more familiar with the tool that comes with the XLS, to aid in assembly. Now the joints look much better.

I'm one of those people - wahey :D