I've been taking a few images of my build along the way and thought I'd document it and share my experiences. My intention is not for this to take over from the XB808 build tips thread, just provide an overview and review of the build in my eyes. Please feel free to comment as you see fit, or if you have other points that I've missed that could help others.
I'm doing it mostly in the evenings so the photo quality is a bit dodgy as the light isn't very good, and will be adding photos as I go.
Opening the box.
The box contents including the new, very narrow chassis.
All the contents laid out. Things that stand out are the BIG shock springs, the white inner air filter foam (at last!) and the generous selection of shock and diff oils. Oh, and a better quality, black anodised multi tool.
Diff components including the new moulded bearing shields:
Something I've always done is lightly sand the face of the diff cups to remove any high spots. It looks like XRAY are now doing some of this for you, but you can still see the glossy areas that are the low spots. It may not be necessary, but I've never had a diff leak. Sorry for the blurry photo!
Here's the after shot. You can see it's now all matt and completely flat. I do this by adhering a piece of fine glass paper to a board and sanding it an a figure of eight motion. Be careful not to take off too much material as this could affect the tolerances of the diff gears. Make sure you blow off all sanded material out of the diff cup.
All diffs done. The boring part is now over! I also used a 0.2mm washer to tighten mesh. (Please note the 0.2mm washer may not be necessary with the new '09 spec diff cases).
The stupidly thick and strong front shock tower. Until you hold it in yours hands, you've got no idea how strong it is.
To seal the edges of the carbon fiber parts I make a little cup out of tin/ aluminum foil to hold the CA and rest a cotton wool bud (q-tip!) on.
All the parts after they've been sealed. Notice how glossy all the edges are. The idea here is just to 'seal' the edges - don't go apply loads of layers as it will just chip off.
Front and rear diff casing components (with the seals of the two inner pinion bearings removed). Obviously with the new '09 spec car it uses the metal shielded bearings as standard so you don't need to remove this cover.
The two plastic inserts that fit into the pinions are extremely tight. They need to be pushed in really hard. My only theory as to why these are needed is so that material can be removed from the pinions to save weight and they are re-sealed with the inserts so no debris can enter the diff housings.
Remember to back these screws out a bit as recommended in the supplementary sheet to remove some pressure from the bearing. Again - on the '09 spec car it comes with the diff spacers so you don't need to back these screws out.
Both front and rear diff casings finished.
I think the material has been changed slightly for the casings as they now feel even stronger! Notice how far the inner mould protrudes out where the bearings sit inside it.
Everything sits very neatly inside the diff casings. Until you build them you wont appreciate how genius this design feature is.
Rear lower arms are symmetrical, and seem slightly harder/ denser than the EC's standard arms.
The rear arms installed. Notice how there's now two fixing points for the roll bar.
Other parts for the rear assembly. You'll need to delve into the bag containing the clutch parts to get the other set of moulded washers out as in this bag there's only a total of 3mm for each side and you need 4mm to remove more play between the hubs and arms (unless you're building the '09 spec car!). They now got rid of the c-type spacers and replaced them with circular ones, meaning there's no way to remove them without removing the hinge pin. Takes slightly longer but no more spacers falling off mid race!
No grub screws in the outer 'cvds' as the pins are captured in the inner hub bearing.
The captured pins. Also the rear hubs are symmetrical (identical) which is a nice feature.
Just the wing mount to go. Notice the markings on the anti roll bar to denote it's thickness. Yet another useful design detail!
So far so good. Superb XRAY quality as always. I'll upload more photos when I continue with the build this evening...
Last edited by Oli on Sat May 09, 2009 11:40:02, edited 3 times in total.
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