Innocent Villain IV to Villain X sleeper.......

[gsbuickman]

Hello everybody,

I had some goodie packages arrive today from Funrcboats & philshobbyshop, Thanks guys. Now I can start my Traxxas Villain sleeper X build.

I am going to start off with my new goodies:
Octura X447 counter rotating props set
Octura 4mm to 3.175 prop shafts
8 VXB stainless abec flanged bearings
Traxxas #1581 ESC water cooler kit
And a Traxxas #1517 deck railings, airhorn's & steering wheel set for scale appeal .

I was playing with the boat in its stock form ie: 20T stingers, plastic 2:1 gearing, 7.2v XL-1 ESC and plastic props just to see what the oem setup would do. I ran it on twin1500mah nicd packs, and it was a wet water plowing hog that couldn't even plain out.

I switched to a single gens ace 5000mah 40c 2s1p pack, and the difference was night & day. It jumped on plain and tried to go pretty good for an OEM setup, but that only lasted for 10 second bursts. Try as it did, after it got a good bite on the water, the props would cave and it would turn into a cavitating fool....... .

Well that's all about to change .........

[srislash]

Ok my friend, I'm watchin'.

[Wetter]

i like the fact you can put peeps in there (action figures)
is that the stock color?
me to i like that boat.

[gsbuickman]

Ok my friend, I'm watchin'.

Hiya Slash , how's life with our B.C fe junkie

[gsbuickman]

i like the fact you can put peeps in there (action figures)
is that the stock color?
me to i like that boat.

Heya wetter, ya mean like this ffffftttttppppp......

Yes it is wetter, she's as stock as they come, straight outta 1987' . They were way ahead o their time for sure......

[gsbuickman]

Alright . I just got a bit of free time & pulled this thing apart. It's in relatively good shape for being 36 years old . I did find one of the oilite bushing was split. Dammit spanky that'll defiantly leak alot ..

Now its time to clean, dremel and get a few things changed. The stock traxxas gearing is 28t/14t 2:1 gearing, meaning the propshaft is spinning at 1/2 the speed of the motor, which really overworks the motors.

I happen to have a pair of steel 14T pinion gears here. If there is enough room for adjustment on the motor mounts, I'll try and drill out my 14t gears & mount'em for 1:1 gearing . Now to get a few things done & see how it works .......

[srislash]

Hiya Slash , how's life with our B.C fe junkie

Doin' good, building a Bling Rocket at the moment. Got a new toy shop built

Like the Villian's, reminds me of old days. Plastic hulls only, not enough oomph for the heavy glass ones.

[srislash]

Back in the day, I put the Hyperdrive belt drive on my Systems cat in place of the course gears. What pitch are those gears?

[gsbuickman]

Thats kool Slash', glad your doing alright & keeping busy with your toys .

I haven't used a belt drive system in a while. I think the last one I had was on a cool ol' Tamiya frog buggy, that thing was a battery vampire. Then again that was back in the 1800mah nicad days ......

I believe the gears are 48 pitch, but I am planning on ordering steel gears anyway, so I am still open to pitch changes. The traxxas drive system is essentially the same setup as the Hughes gear drives everyone ran before brushless came out. I just need to regear it & turn it into an overdrive to really get the props spinning .

I am hoping to hear back from Bugzilla sometime soon. He's got a 24v 75a Astroflight 212d ESC for me, he's just gotta dig it out cause he moved.

In the meantime, I discovered I need to order a pair of outdrives cause one is all reamed out, go figure. I also need to order larger diameter 11/32 stuffing tubes, that'll accept the new 4x8x3mm bearings. I'll get an order placed & get back on this thing.

Meanwhile, I'll work on my rigger project a bit more. Details on that later

[Wetter]

so i assume the gearing is still needed? or can it be direct drive?

[gsbuickman]

Hi Wetter ,

I am going to keep this one fairly simple since its just an 80's abs hull. Traxxas used a 14T / 28T gear reduction drive on these. The propshaft spins at 1/2 the speed of the motor. It will be easier to run a larger pinion gear, that brings it closer to 1:1 than trying to figure out a direct drive setup.

I had another villain that was running 447 props on 3s with a 75a esc and speed gems motors. It was a lot of fun. This will be an advanced model taken further

[Wetter]

i have my wife's original Dawn dolls, they would look real sexy when you go post finish photos of your boat.
i would like a scale rig of this matter.

[gsbuickman]

Well I got one of the new octura shafts mounted on the flanged bearings in the good outdrive. The bearings are a very tight fit on these conversion shafts, but they spin free. I think when I go to mount up the new out drive, I'll toss the shaft in the freezer & heat up the bearing to expand it. The expanded bearings should slide over the frozen shrunken shaft, in theory anyway.........

I also got the new Jr racing z series servo mounted, as well as the railings & airhorns. Now it looks much better

Now I am waiting on new stuff tubes and a set of outdrives.

[gsbuickman]

Kool, I have larger 11/32 stuff tubes & outrives on the way from Tower. I also have new speed gems 2 epic motors coming from fleabay :-) .......

[Wetter]

you got me lookn' for one, hard to find.
a few on e-bay but i am not a fan of the site myself.
any ways nothin' like the old days , use to use my 9.6 volt cordless Makita batts. in a kyosho mono build in the early 80's.
aw! the memories.