CAT rebuild

[fathead]

Now now boys!

Test fitted the chassis tonight, I was a bit worried about the belt hitting the bottom of the chassis as it is 2.5mm thick instead of the standard 2mm item, as I suspected gets very close at each end, will just put a little chamfer to keep the belt safe.
(and yes I realise I put the chassis on upside down lol)

[Retro RC]

Love that all black look damo very nice

[Peakey]

Slick vey slick

[fathead]

Will have a black/gunmetal motor in there too when I get one.


Also I'm deliberating about whether to make the rear belt adjustment on the layshaft holders instead of the the diff holders, should make it easier to adjust tension and should affect the front belt tension less when doing so, just an idea, I can't see the glaring flaw in it yet

[Peakey]

Originally Posted by fathead

Will have a black/gunmetal motor in there too when I get one.


Also I'm deliberating about whether to make the rear belt adjustment on the layshaft holders instead of the the diff holders, should make it easier to adjust tension and should affect the front belt tension less when doing so, just an idea, I can't see the glaring flaw in it yet

How are you planing on doing that? Sounds like a good idea and should eliminate belt slip in an impact.

[fathead]

I'm not entirely sure yet, I have a few vague ideas bouncing around my skull, will have to stare at it a bit longer I think.

[Peakey]

You could do it Yokomo style and slot th chassis but you would have to do it for the top deck and the front box

[MattW]

Won't it mean you have to take the spur gear off to adjust that side?? Also, not sure if you'll be able to make the other side into a cam with the motor being so close?? Although I guess you could have multiple holders rather than making it a cam.

[Retro RC]

Originally Posted by fathead

Will have a black/gunmetal motor in there too when I get one.


Also I'm deliberating about whether to make the rear belt adjustment on the layshaft holders instead of the the diff holders, should make it easier to adjust tension and should affect the front belt tension less when doing so, just an idea, I can't see the glaring flaw in it yet

Only problem I can see with that is it will also move the spur position at the same time

[bricol]

Just a thought - has anyone raced a CAT as per the original, without all the new bits?

Back in the day, I broke one bottom arm and wore out a few balls in 2 or 3 years of competition.

I'm running one now, pretty much as per original, with a replacement chassis un-cut for NiCads so I can strap Lipos in it, with MMS diffs as per back in the day, with brushless motors, and despite me still not being able to drive as well I remember I used to, it seems to hold up pretty well. Both being assaulted, and being used as a battering ram (sorry ) by me.

I'm using Procat wheels as I found the JC ones, both the solid and spoked ones, flexed so much, the handling was "interesting".

[DerbyDan]

Originally Posted by bricol

Just a thought - has anyone raced a CAT as per the original, without all the new bits?

Back in the day, I broke one bottom arm and wore out a few balls in 2 or 3 years of competition.

I'm running one now, pretty much as per original, with a replacement chassis un-cut for NiCads so I can strap Lipos in it, with MMS diffs as per back in the day, with brushless motors, and despite me still not being able to drive as well I remember I used to, it seems to hold up pretty well. Both being assaulted, and being used as a battering ram (sorry ) by me.

I'm using Procat wheels as I found the JC ones, both the solid and spoked ones, flexed so much, the handling was "interesting".

Gotto say that apart from running the LiPo Chassis & BossCat diff & slipper (so that it can comfortably handle the brushless motor it is fitted with) the rest of my car is basically as Schumacher intended, original shocks, suspension parts, geometry etc..... I wanted to experience the car (in terms of handling) as it would have been back in the day & I must admit it goes really well - even on astro-turf which is a surface we never raced on back then. So far (Touch-Wood) I haven't broken anything in the dozen or so race meetings I've done with it.

One of the main issues I have had is with how the front end soaks up the bumps, especially on landing off ramps (it seems to bounce back up) I thought the high gearing of the front shocks being so close together may have been part of the problem, so I've moved the front shocks out, by doubling up the shock towers to give an extra outer hole, & moving the bottom mounting of the shock out to the inner roll bar position on the wishbone. The shocks now move more given a set amount of suspension travel... but the problem still exists. On closer inspection I have noticed that a lot of the front suspension movement seems to come from the flex caused through the pivots for the crashback system - I plan to remedy this with a ball joint & tie rod across the shock towers to resist this flex, so hopefully the shocks will actually do their job!

Regarding the battery position, I haven't tried it in any other position than shown in my photos - to be honest once the electrics are installed there is little scope for moving the battery too far... however my final intension is the try the car with the battery to the most forward position, with ESC & RX behind, with the main belt & front diff + driveshafts removed to make it 2wd - One of the reasons why I think the car doesn't soak up the bumps quite so well & has a tendency towards grip-roll on the high grip astro is the fact that I haven't added any weight to compensate for the light LiPo battery (it was way under weight when it was scrutineered when it ran in the vintage class at the recent Mid East Regional) - I plan to add some under LiPo weight to compensate - hopefully this will help also

[fathead]

Think I will shelf the idea of changing where the adjustment cams are for now, plenty other things to do first I think.

Dan,
Maybe you could try beveling the top of the hole in the pistons in the front shocks, with a slightly heavier oil you should then have a bit more rebound damping on the front relative to the bump damping, might help with the front end bouncing.

[DanB4]

The CAT I ran at the 2014 Revival was basically standard apart from MMS diffs. Went well but the shocks were empty and that didn't help. I ran a 13x2 with a Tekin ESC and shorty LiPo.

I'm the blue XLS and Chris Giles is chasing me with his standard red XLS. Amazing fun and close racing.

[fathead]

Nice, I can't wait to race mine again

[purplenut]

Originally Posted by DanB4

The CAT I ran at the 2014 Revival was basically standard apart from MMS diffs. Went well but the shocks were empty and that didn't help. I ran a 13x2 with a Tekin ESC and shorty LiPo.

I'm the blue XLS and Chris Giles is chasing me with his standard red XLS. Amazing fun and close racing.

Great cat!!!

[fathead]

A couple of different options for saddle packs, one on the left is for saddles hard up together in the middle, one on the right is saddles separated with top retainer as one piece option and bottom retainers as 2 piece options. (still needs some tweaking as clearances aren't right yet)
I won't be using saddles but there is someone on here who does want too

[Peakey]

Looking very slick and I'm loving the pace, you'll be racing next week.

[fathead]

Found some bits last night while looking for my old original layshaft

Driver from the car body and new unused driveshafts and mounts

[Retro RC]

If that cave of your was a little more organised you'd probably find the lost city of Atlantis somewhere in there , loved the setup damo my boy is still talking about it lol

[fathead]

Hey now, it's organised, I know where everything is....usually......

haha I just need a lathe now, although need to tidy a place to put it first......