competitive s10 bx's ??

[tonymong]

hi all,

ive just aquired an s10 bx and was wondering before my first off road outing in 14years what the 'situation' is with this car??

is there any mods that i should be doing??

upgrades that i would find benefitial??

and what about cross over components... ive been told that the bx is a lazer zx-5 at the end of the day??

is this true and do all/most parts fit??

i used to be fairly competitve and would love to be so again, and would be even better if i could do it with this car !!!

many thanx for all advice and help

tony

[wozza]

Hi. The blast is a great value buggy out of the box,( With the emphasis on Value!.). I have been attempting to race one for 18 months now, and they will perform well, with a few mods; The LRP hard (Blue) springs, A decent quality rear wing,( IE: not the brittle LRP one.), some shims inside the diffs, to take up the play, and around 7000 weight diff oil in the front diff. I also use 3Racing ZX5 alloy steering knuckles, for strength.

The problem that keeps recurring with my car, is that, even with ultra strength loctite everywhere, when i try to use my high power Nosram ESC with my 7.5 speed passion brushless, half the screws shake their way loose, or something bends that shouldn't, every other heat. This could be partially attributed to the 0.6 mod. gear pitch though, as i haven't yet tried LRP's 48 pitch spur gear,( Mainly due to the cost: £14 for a spur gear!!.). The Shaft that carries the slipper clutch, is the other half of the problem i think, as it is quite soft metal, and bends easily. I am looking at a kysoho replacement, and will post on here should i have any success. As for the rest of the parts, the lazer gearboxes and shock towers are different, but my LRP ones haven't given me any serious problems so far. Do be careful with the screws supplied with the BX though: i brought an aftermarket set, and i replace them as i remove the LRP ones, as they seem to have released some cars with screws that are as soft as the slipper shaft, and chew up easily.
Hope that helps mate.

[whizzy]

wozza

what diff oil are you running in rear

what shims have you used in your diff

[wozza]

I use some really thin ( I don't know exactly, cos i haven't got a micrometer.) washers straight behind the internal end gears, against the O rings, to help seal in the oil, and take up the play inside. Fit some Associated E clips to the internal gears as well as the shims, 'cos the LRP ones can ping off!! under hard racing,( Not a quick repair job either!.). I'm sorry i cant help you any more than that 'cos i didn't buy the shims, i found them in a pot in my late grandad's garage. As for the rear diff oil, 1000 weight i use, but it only lasts about six or seven heats, even with the shims fitted!!.

[farmboy]

I've had problems with the slipper shaft too. I spoke to someone at the distributors SMD who was hugely unhelpful and very patronising to boot.

The 'join' between the slipper assembly and rear gearbox is the problem. It's a rigid join that has no way to flex or move and is, in my humble opinion, a poor design.

Can I ask: where exactly do you put the washers to stop losing the diff oil? I've put heavy oil in mine too and it does leak out.

[wozza]

I fit the shims onto the output cups, after fitting them into the casing, through the O rings. Then i squash the gears on to the shaft, and clip them on with stronger E clips. To be honest, the shims just squash the O rings that bit more, to seal in the casing better. I only carry on doing this because it helps keep most of the diff oil in for just long enough for a full sunday's racing,( 7 heats or so.).

[steve-thebabystore]

Not had problems with loose screws, just stripped heads all the time. Wing replaced and bodyshell with a Lazer one.
Running 6.5t no problems, alloy wheels hex and blue springs all round.

[steveuk]

I tried racing mine this weekend for the first time, wasn't overly sucessfull, but most of it was my fault. Should say that I decided to run it for the first time at a BRCA end of season final.

I bought Fastrax wheels for it, unfortunately fitting them makes the wheelbase to wide for BRCA events.

I then bought Kyosho wheels, which meant width was OK, but the front wheels did not clear steering track links. Had to put washer inside wheel hex and move link to inner hole on knuckle.

Stripped car down to do some work and forgot to put plastic bit back in motor mount which wrote of the spur gear.

Luckily I go racing with someone who is very inventive so I'm now using an Associated spur gear with a little modification to make it fit.

On the day I managed a practise and 4 minutes of one heat as slipper clutch was too loose and final. The only race which I completed was the final and to be honest it went well considering it was on the wrong tyres and had way too much grip.

I'm not ready to give up on it yet, going to try some mods and see how it goes.

Steve