NEW Pro Boat "ZELOS 36" Twin Cat

[arrover]

My flexes are always almost greaseless after I run. Even if it's only for a packs worth. I also get grease on the rear of the boat and I have found it in the tunnel up near the front of the exterior of the boat. It's strange. One of my drives is slightly lower than the bottom of the boat. If you put a straight edge on the rear pad, the strut body where it mounts to the hull will hold the straight edge off of the hull. JP, let me know how things work out for you.

[JPriami]

Arrover, will do. I put a little locktite on those threads & light grease on the piviot balls. Also put a thin bit of silicone between the strut & transom as I bolted them back on. If they leak now I'll be surprised.

As well one of my stingers are just a hair below the sponson.

[gman350]

I've been going over my Zelos, tightening bolts, waterproofing rx, etc.

One of the motors had no loctite on any of the endbell screws, and most of them were 1/2-1 turn loose. The other motor was fine and had loctite on all screws.

All of the strut and rudder to transom bolts were loose.

I sure do like the removable electronics tray.

Removing the motors was kind of a pain, was thinking about cutting down an allen wrench to fit, found that Kintec racing has one on their front page that looks like it will make the job a lot easier.

I scribed lines where the mounts were as a baseline, then when reinstalling I slipped the flexshafts in and out and moved the motor until the flex didn't deflect on the collet.

I didn't take apart the struts, but I think I will after reading the above posts.

[gman350]

Is there anything I can put on the ends of the rudder cables ( at the servo end ) to keep them from fraying?

Considering soldering the ends when I do my flexshafts, didn't know how well it would work?

[gman350]

Boy these flexshafts fit tight in the liners.

They had little to no grease on them, as tight as they fit I'll bet they won't hold much grease.

Maybe the liners will "wear" in to allow a tad more clearance?

[gman350]

So I noticed the boat sits flat on my workbench....which seemed a little odd due to the water cooling pickups.....

Is that what is referred to as "hook" on the bottom of the hull at the transom?

[Keagan-Z06]

image.jpg

Z getting some Air!

[Rafael_Lopez]

So I noticed the boat sits flat on my workbench....which seemed a little odd due to the water cooling pickups.....

Is that what is referred to as "hook" on the bottom of the hull at the transom?

No, that's normal. The steps are designed that way; all of our cats are designed that way. It's parts of why they "drift" and handle so well. Once on plane, the boat should only ride on the back two steps.

[Rafael_Lopez]

It did this out of the box on the first run. I adjusted the struts maybe 0.5mm the 2nd run & it did it. No adjustments for the 3rd run and it did it.

I just removed both of them for inspection. It appears to be leaking from where the piviot ball screws into the long shank of the outdrive. It was really loose at that connection. That's where the bulk of the grease was & those threads were covered in it. Im guessing water passing by it at a fast rate creates a vaccum. Then the grease gets pulled out. I'll clean the grease and use a little locktite on reassembly.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]142141[/ATTACH]

I'm glad you found that these drives come apart. From time to time they can vibrate loose a little. The grease coming out like that tells you they need service. I didn't see anything like your picture with all the grease during testing, but my boat was the first off the production line. It's likely they forgot to tighten them down all the way on yours.

For those servicing the drives, I wouldn't put loctite on them. Tightening them down too much will prevent them from being adjustable, or will at least make it a PITA to adjust. If loctite gets on the plastic pillow ball seat inside the drives it can damage them. loctite is know to break down composites. If you are concerned about them coming lose, use silicone on the threads when you put them together.


Arrower, if one of your drives sits lower than the other you may have a defective boat. This may be why your boat bounces the way you have described. Share some pictures with me if you don't mind. We may be able to send you a replacement hull if it's as bad as you describe. There is no adjustment for you to loosen and push the drive up. It also concerns me because the drive and the stuffing tube have to be aligned or there will be an excess of friction on the flex shaft. You can PM me the pictures or post them here, up to you.

[Keagan-Z06]

[Mxkid261]

Looks a little windy lol

[zooma]

Good grief. I went to the club lake today, and there were four of these already. Too late for bragging rights.

[Keagan-Z06]

Looks a little windy lol

Sure was, I can't catch a break since I got into RC boats.

[JPriami]

I'm glad you found that these drives come apart. From time to time they can vibrate loose a little. The grease coming out like that tells you they need service. I didn't see anything like your picture with all the grease during testing, but my boat was the first off the production line. It's likely they forgot to tighten them down all the way on yours.

For those servicing the drives, I wouldn't put loctite on them. Tightening them down too much will prevent them from being adjustable, or will at least make it a PITA to adjust. If loctite gets on the plastic pillow ball seat inside the drives it can damage them. loctite is know to break down composites. If you are concerned about them coming lose, use silicone on the threads when you put them together.


Arrower, if one of your drives sits lower than the other you may have a defective boat. This may be why your boat bounces the way you have described. Share some pictures with me if you don't mind. We may be able to send you a replacement hull if it's as bad as you describe. There is no adjustment for you to loosen and push the drive up. It also concerns me because the drive and the stuffing tube have to be aligned or there will be an excess of friction on the flex shaft. You can PM me the pictures or post them here, up to you.

I didn't put locktite on the threaded collar that holds the ball in place. I used it on the threads where I was pointing too in the pictures. They didn't vibrate loose. They were that way out of the box. Like you said they must of missed that at the factory. Only other down side to it is my flex cables look way more worn than just 3 times at the lake. One of my struts is also slightly lower than the bottom of the hull. It's not much, but still so. I'll try to get a picture showing that if I have time.

[JPriami]

Good grief. I went to the club lake today, and there were four of these already. Too late for bragging rights.

Time to paint it & modify!