- 3-Racing Cactus - Build -



Its a great bit of kit for the money, & I was surprised with the quality of the kit parts! It even comes with a set of AKA tyres too
I'll be running the HPI Flux Pro ESC & Motor in it (Thanks to Adrenaline models for that), Spektrum SR3100 receiver & a Power HD 1206TG sevo in the front for steering!
And so on with the build we go
Bag 1 is always a good place to start!

Chassis, front end, rear pin holders & steering bits!

Yep nice set of bearing with the kit!
Now is that what I think it is?

Yes it is!
Kit come with anodised pink parts. As nice as the anodising is................it's gotta go. off to the caustic soda it is!
I hate pink or purple anodising!

Da composite main chassis! All nice & clean out of the box!

Bet the bottom of it won't look like that soon!

Front end of the chassis is held on with 4x M3 lock nuts & 4x M3x8 flat head screws.

Screws secure from the bottom.

10 mins & some caustic soda later & that rubbish pink is gone. Hurrah!!!

You only want the larger of the alli parts, 4x M3x8 scres & a 0.5mm & 1.0mm suspension mount RF spacers.
The RF spacers sit under the pin holder.

And screw in to the allow from the bottom. As it's metal to metal I used a little blue threadlock just to be safe.

And there we have the chassis up to now!

Time to start getting the steering rack build.
These parts came on a tree. So snip them off & give em a trim with a knife & start the build with screwing in the 4.8 ball studs.

Just like that!

& one ball stud in the left steering arm & push the M5x8x2.5 bearing in both the left & right steering arms.

Place a 3.02 shim on one of the M3x12. Do two of these!

Place two M5.7x5.5 bushings in the steering link. One in each side of the.

Push ya screws through aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand..........

Screw down you steering arms to the link! Job done!!


Now to mount it to the steering to the chassis using two M3.18 button head screws, two M5.02 shims & two M8.9.2 steering posts.

posts, shims & screw go like that!

And you should end up with it looking like that.
Check for binding & unscrew until till its gone! On with the build we go!

Hinge pins, front arms, pin carrier & lower suspension mount red to go. Do a little sanding on the arms to get them to fall under
their own weight.

Push in the pins.

And secure the front pin carrier with two 2.6x6 countersunk screws.

Front bumper and screws ready to bolt the front arms to the chassis.

Place the front suspension assembly on to the chassis & screw the bulkhead down ion place.

Rear M3x16s in first

Then secure the bumper to the front end with the last two M3x16 screws.

Bag two here we go! looing for the front shock mount!

There it is. Ready for attachment.

A little more de-anodising on the M3x10x1.5 spacers. Slip them over the two 4.8x7 ball studs.

And screw into place. I'm going with stock settings for a starting point!

Put in place.

Screwing to place with the four M3x10 button screws!

Tower in place. Seems very sturdy.
It's been a great kit so far. No grumbles from me!

Right up next is the front hubs. Again all nice clean!

Push in the two M5x10 included bearings

Screw in a 4.8mm ball stud.

Push the knuckle are pins through the knuckle arms.

Place a M5x02 shim over the knuckle arm, then a hex adaptor.

Then secure with a M2x12 hub pin.

Take your knuckles and & place in the C-hub with an M2.5x7x1 plastic spacer each side of the knuckle. Push pin though &

Secure with a M2x4 button head screw.

Left & right hubs finished

Next up...........turnbuckles!

I always take a little bit of plastic out of the ends of the ball caps just for ease of starting them off!

The supplied tool helps lots! Make four up & put them a side ready for mounting!

Time to mount the C-hub/knuckle assembly.

Two spacers each side of the c-hub, push pin though & secure with a M2x4 screw.


Snap on you four turnbuckles and there you go!

Bag 3 & we start the backend!

I'm building the mid motor chassis so I can do away with these gear box half's.

You'll need to make up two 24T idle gears.

Lay shaft came pre-built but I still took it apart & rebuilt it!


Although the kit come with ball diff grease, I opted to use the Team Associated.

Grease up both Diff half's & Place a spacer/plate over each diff half. Then put a little grease on the plates.

Put a little bit of grease on the diff balls.

Place the two 5x8x2.5 bearings in the open ended diff half. One will sit inside & one will sit on top .

Place your 52T diff gear over the diff half with the bearings in.

The start to put your diff balls into the diff gear. I like to use the diff grease tube so the balls stick to the end!

I just put a smidgen of grease over the balls for good luck!

Place the other half of the diff over the gear.

And prep the rest of the parts for putting it together.

a M10x0.3 shim & a M10x15x5 on each side of the diff.

Put a little dab of Anti-wear grease on the thrust bearing & place it over the M2.6x22 diff screw.

Put a M2.6 lock nut inside the diff nut, then place the M1.3x2 spring in the end of the diff followed by the diff nut, & place the diff screw into the other side.

Tighten down all the way until its time to bed the ball diff in at the end of the build.

Mid motor gear box half's

Lay shaft in place!

Diff & idle gears in place with grease........

And that was my first mistake.
I should have given it a dry fitting as when it went together, it didn't want to close up too well. So after taking it apart once or twice I got it to close!
Yay!!................er no. now there's a binding when to turn the gears. So gunna strip it down tomorrow & have little at what might be binding inside! Hmmm not happy about that bit!!

Mid motor guard time. Screw in the M310 set screw & screw the mount down over it.

yuk

Better

Place the motor guard & motor plate over the gearbox.

The start screwing the plate & mount place.

Time to bolt the rear shock tower into place.

Screw two 4x8 ball studs each side stabilizer seat.

Locate the shock tower onto the stabilizer seat.

& screw into place with the two M3x10 button heads!

Ready the motor mount stiffener with its hardwear

End result!!

Slipper time!

Ruffen up the slipper pads a little.

Place a M2x0.2 shim over the slipper shaft followed by a slipper plate.

Push the slipper pads in place onto the spur gear.

On goes your other slipper plate followed by the spring, slipper spring ring & M4 lock nut. Tighten down all the way ready for setting it up later.

You rear end should look something like this by now!
Ready for the motor now!

As I said at the start I going to be running the HPI Flux Pro system in this buggy. I got mine from Adrenaline Models for a great price!.
I'm running a 10.5T motor in this as I didn't want make to quick or the mark!

Bolted in place. Something missing but can't think what

Hmm now where do I fit new brushes?

Next up is the gear cover. Slot in the slipper cover & screw it in place a M3.5 screw.

Secure the gear cover to the gearbox with two M3.5 Button head screw.

Place you gearbox assembly onto the rear of the chassis & put four m3x8 flat heads to hold it in place ready for the rear arm build.

Time to put the rear arms together!

Slide a hinge through the arm & place a pivot ball on each end of the hinge pin.

Push the assembled pivot ball/arm assembly in to the pin carrier.

Push the rear pin carrier into place. Push the pumper into its slot & bolt into place with M3x16 screw for the rear hols & M3x13 for the front hols.

Assembling the rear hubs involves placing an M3x6x2 spacer over a 4.8x7mm ball stud & screwing it into the upright.
Place a M5x13x4 bearing in the front of the upright & a M10x15x4 in the rear.

The left & right universal drive shafts are very nicely build

Push them into the uprights & fit them with the hexes just like the front.

Build up the rear turnbuckles.

Push the hinge pin through the hub end of the arm & place a M2.5x7x1 spacer on to the pin.

Place your upright over the pin followed by another M2.5x7x1 spacer.

Stop the pin from falling out by fitting a M2x4 button head screw.

Bar shocks, rear end done!

Wing mount parts!

Screw the mounts to the shock tower with four m3x12 button heads.

Then place the two wing spacers over the mount & hold down with body pins.

Right time to get cracking on the shocks!

Start by trimming all the plastic parts of the trees/sprues!

I'm going to be putting 1.3 pistons in both front & back but 30w oil in the front & 35w in the rear!

First up fit the shaft with a 2.5mm C-clip.

Slide you piston over the shaft & secure it with another 2.5mm C-clip.

shafts ready! Screw adjustment rings onto the shocks! Nice 3Racing emblem on the shock bodies. Nice little touch!

Right, time lube up the seals & what not. Instead of the Associated green slim, I opted to try some GMK Shock Snot!
It seems to have a thicker viscosity than green slime dose. It seemed to stay on the seals with ease

In order of packing into the bottom of the shock body........O-ring cover, O-ring, O-ring spacer, O-ring, O-ring cover.
The screw on the bottom end cap!

Shock shaft & body built!

Pre tapping the shock cap with it's bleeder screw.

Shacks filled with oil, end cap on & ball cap in place!

Springs & shock ends next.

M5.8x6 ball end in the bottom, Damper ball end in the top!

Front shock in place!

Rear shocks in place.

& there we have it! Right... mounting the servo!

I opted to run a Power HD 1209TG servo for this buggy.

Servo post parts ready to be fitted.

Placement goes post,1mm post shim held in place by M3x8 screw. I added a wash to spread the load on the servo.

The servo save parts read to be fitted. Some folk over in the states have chosen to not run the servo save & have gone with a alloy servo arm instead.

Your servo will need to be zeroed at this point.

Fit the spring, place the spring cover over that & tighten down with a M3x18 button head.
Then fit the ball stud in the top.

Servo arm parts ready to be put together.

Servo are ready & snapped into place. I know, I know I missed a pink bit


In place with the bell crank side of the steering arm snapped on.
Time to screw it in place.

Screw the servo to the chassis with two M3x8.

Next up is the battery stopper. This fixes to the chassis with two M3x8 flat heads.

Building the swinging battery cover is next on the bill. A little cutting & trimming the spru first!

After cleaning up the cover mount, slide an M3x10 though the battery cover & though a flanged tube into the cover mount.

Battery tray foam in next.

I opted to fit both centre & side foams.

Next locate a square peg in a square hole!

Bolt down your hinged battery cover with two M3x8 screws

Locate the mid motor conversion battery post mounts & screw them into place with two M3x22 screws. The screws that came with my kit
were more like M3x25's

Push the cover into place...

Bolt down the battery cover with the two supplied thumb screws. I'll upgrade the thumb screws to alloy one's at a later date!

DST in place for the ESC!

Set of yellow dish wheels came with the kit.

Biggest shock for me with this kit was inclusion of a set of AKA tyres.

You get a set of AKA Three Rib in red compound for the front. Jared Tebo won the 2013 worlds with a set of these!

And a set of Impact tyres for the rear also in red compound.
Both have AKA red inserts too!

Next up......... the body shell & it paint job! ESC in with motor & receiver in place!


The manual says use a 24T pinion. So I did with Schumacher braded pinion! Tiny dab of blue on the motor screws to keep them in place


I chose to remover my fan off of my Flux pro ESC & see how temps go when I run the buggy.


Well after running in my ball diff & setting my slipper, I'm happy to say she's up & running.
Been raining here today so not had a chance to let her rip. Given her a run around the living room & she rollers just fine!

I guess it's time to unveil the bodyshell & pain job!


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