PH001

I think an FTX Carnage would just instantly explode if you put that motor / esc in it!!!! 😄

Yes, the Vorza diff is the same as the ‘hardened’ trophy one. Where are you located?

I'm having problems finding upgraded steering arms as in point 15). The standard arms suck big time. Anyone have a solution?

Discharge mode on your charger will be fine as long as you monitor the voltage, A quicker way is to just use a 50W halogen bulb (I have one fixed to an XT90), again you must monitor voltage. 3.8V is ideal but basically anything from 3.7 - 3.9V will be fine. Lipos are quite stressed when fully charged but are completely stable at 90%.

You say you bought two new ESC's... I assume you have tired the other one? Does sound like an ESC problem to me, and the FTX ones are well known for being absolute gash!!! They actually do a slightly upgraded 60A one IIRC.

Your diff oils look far too thick. I wouldn’t run the centre any more than 50,000. This will allow it to bleed more power to the front when it wheelies. You might have to take it right down to 20,000 to control it adequately.

The fail safe should apply brakes when out of range. You need to setup your esc again. Go to first post on this thread and click link on pdf user manual. Follow instructions in pg.13.

Has been discussed at some length on here. See this thread...

Do you have the carbon upper chassis plate? It makes a huge difference to the main chassis rigidity

You will almost certainly kill the brushed Vantage electronics running a LIPO on it. ESC usually dies first, quickly followed by an overheated motor. They just can't handle the low impedance of high capacity LIPO cells. In terms of mods for the Vantage, about £60 sorts it: 1) RW hardened acetal spur - £9.95 https://www.modelsport.co.uk/rw-hardened-acetal-ftx-65t-spur-gear-vantage-carnage-banzai-hooligan-bugsta/rc-car-products/432730 2) RW hardened steel pinion - £3.65 https://www.modelsport.co.uk/rw-6-pinion-23-teeth/rc-car-products/13762 3) Aluminium front suspension pin holder - £10.92 https://www.modelsport.co.uk/ftx-aluminium-front-suspension-holders-vantage-carnage/rc-car-products/365798 4) Aluminium rear suspension pin holder - £10.92 https://www.modelsport.co.uk/ftx-aluminium-rear-suspension-holders-vantage-carnage/rc-car-products/365799 5) Carnage front bumper - £3.32 https://www.modelsport.co.uk/ftx-bumper-set-carnage-outlaw/rc-car-products/365911 6) Carbon upper chassis plate (essential if you are fitting the Carnage front bumper) - £18.04 https://www.modelsport.co.uk/ftx-upper-plate-carbon-vantage/rc-car-products/365808 7) Motor heatsink - £2.99 https://www.modelsport.co.uk/ftx-carnage-heatsink-1pc-blue/rc-car-products/371076 So for an additional £60 you have a pretty fast tough buggy. I'd also change out the steering servo but that's more optional.

Good point Kukynas! I should eliminate the motor internals by just running the motor by itself...I'll do that first.

Sure, but it's a very similar drivetrain to the Hpi Truggy Flux and that is super quiet by comparison. OK, I'll try to do a vid when I get home.

Thanks for the reply, I could try paper method I suppose but I've always had perfect results doing it by 'feel' with my other cars. I might just change out the pinion for a 14T RW Racing one such as this... https://www.modelsport.co.uk/rw-1-0-module-pinion-14-teeth-for-5mm-shaft/rc-car-products/34365 I'm not quite sure what you mean by spacers under the diff bolts? I just line up the spur and pinion by moving the pinion to the right place on the motor shaft.

Just a note that it would appear that SRI Remote Toys (the link for the hardened diffs above) seem to have closed down permanently 😞 Anybody else found a source for the 101142 hardened gears in stock?

Hey all, I bought a V2 Kraton 6S a while ago and have been carefully stripping it and checking all the parts before actually running it. I have cleaned and re-oiled all the bearings, shimmed the centre diff and put 30k oil in it (all internal gears are good and diff is nice and smooth) and generally cleaned the whole car up. I ran the motor for the first time yesterday and just couldn't believe how loud it was - almost deafeningly loud. Just sounded really rough and unpleasant. Checked the gear mesh on the spur and pinion again which felt perfect (just a tiny bit of rocking on the spur with no tight spots) and all teeth in good condition. I then tried it with the driveshafts out of the centre diff and it was just as bad?? That only basically leaves mechanical noise on the spur / pinion?? The car came with a 14T pinion and the standard 50T spur, they don't look very worn. Is it possible that they are the wrong pitch - I note the pinions are designated a MOD1 pitch but no mention what the 50T spur is? I was just assuming the mesh would be awful if one was 32p for example. It turns fine by hand. Maybe I will make a video tonight on post on Youtube so you can see, AND HEAR! Or maybe the Kratons just are really mechanically noisy? It's about 3x as loud as my Hpi Truggy Flux.

Do the flanged nuts have a nyloc section on the end? If not they will defo come loose.

Maybe worth re-binding the controller when you put it back together and recalibrating the throttle end points to see if that helps. Problems like that can sometimes be a little tricky to track down as could also be a transmitter / receiver issue but 9 times out of 10 it is the ESC on the Vantage / Carnage. If it turns out to be that just put a Hobbywing QUICRUN WP-10BL60 in there.

Yeh, pinion and spur easy enough to change. They do have a habit of getting stones wedged down between the chassis and the spur gear which wrecks it pretty quickly! You can buy an enclosed cover for the spur but unfortunately it's not compatible with the carbon upper chassis plate 😞 While you have it apart make sure the grub screws are tight and threadlocked on the input cups on the diffs, and of course you must use threadlock on the pinion grub screw. Slipper clutch also worth taking out and inspecting, make sure the spring tension is wound right up. Once you know all the drive train is good you can just run the car with the wheels off the ground to check all the ESC functions are OK.

Forget conductive glue. If the wire is corroded or oxidised then it won't tin no matter how much heat you put on it. You need to keep cutting the wire back until you get good clean conductor. Easiest way to solder two wires is to pre-tin each first then bend them over into a hook shape with long nose pliers. The hook then together and close the hook loops with your pliers - this way they stay connected without holding with your hands. Then apply solder to the joint and you should get a nice neat job. As above, don't forget to put the heatshrink on your wire first!

Bit strange how you just lost reverse and brake first of all and then the whole lot. That would make me suspect the ESC which is well known to be complete junk. As you say though, the spur and pinion defo need inspecting. I changed them out to hardened acetal ones on my car before even taking it out for the first run! IMHO the essential mods required to a Vantage to get it even close to being suitable for general bashing are: 1) RW hardened acetal spur - £9.95 https://www.modelsport.co.uk/rw-hardened-acetal-ftx-65t-spur-gear-vantage-carnage-banzai-hooligan-bugsta/rc-car-products/432730 2) RW hardened steel pinion - £3.65 https://www.modelsport.co.uk/rw-6-pinion-23-teeth/rc-car-products/13762 3) Aluminium front suspension pin holder - £10.92 https://www.modelsport.co.uk/ftx-aluminium-front-suspension-holders-vantage-carnage/rc-car-products/365798 4) Aluminium rear suspension pin holder - £10.92 https://www.modelsport.co.uk/ftx-aluminium-rear-suspension-holders-vantage-carnage/rc-car-products/365799 5) Carnage front bumper - £3.32 https://www.modelsport.co.uk/ftx-bumper-set-carnage-outlaw/rc-car-products/365911 6) Carbon upper chassis plate (essential if you are fitting the Carnage front bumper) - £18.04 https://www.modelsport.co.uk/ftx-upper-plate-carbon-vantage/rc-car-products/365808 7) Motor heatsink - £2.99 https://www.modelsport.co.uk/ftx-carnage-heatsink-1pc-blue/rc-car-products/371076 So for an additional £60 you have a pretty fast tough buggy. I'd also change out the steering servo but that's more optional.

You can also just use an M4 serrated washer behind the wheelnut. Works well.

Truggies for bashing, buggys for handling. The truggies tend to have more ground clearance and bigger, more forgiving wheels. Buggy would run rings around it on a track though, buggies just tend to be more agile.

Carnage didn't stand a chance really. The notorius is such a bully!

You won't get any interference issues - those days are long gone. For runtime, just buy a set of the highest capacity nimh batteries you can buy. Ideally you would run lipos but not on your budget. The cheap esc's and brushed motors will also probably get too hot. Can't beat lipo for energy storage though.

Can't see it being the motor - sounds more like the ESC can't supply current.