Assembly - day 2

One of the challenges of 4WD systems is keeping the dirt out. Dirt tends to pack into belt cogs and grit shortens the life of your main bearings. Sacrificial plastic gears don't stand a chance. Well, fabricating custom drive train covers is simpler than one may think. As with the lower chain cover, the top chain cover is a simple plastic tube. Ever wanted to know what to do with used overhead projector "foils"? Here is the perfect fate for those otherwise useless spent plastic sheets. First things first; optimize! This is the front of the tube...



...and this is the back of the tube. Note they are different depths.



A overhead transparency foil, a straight edge, an X-Acto knife, and some tape is all that is needed to make a very effective dirt blocker. These are the number I used: The sheet is 8.5" wide... and on each end I scribed a small mark at the distances noted: this is the front case opening...



...and this is the rear case opening:



With the scribe lines in place, I now connect the two marks with the straight edge. This is important! ...scribe along the straight edge using the -backside- of the blade. This provides for a very nice scoreline without going through the plastic. I trimmed about 1/8" off one end to make the length correct. I also put a strip of tape on either end to keep it from splitting. Now trim away the extra plastic beyond the score lines and fold the remainder into a tube.



I will be the first to admit that I should have done this before the side plates and steering were added. The heat sink too got in the way a little bit but that is not to say that it cannot be done in this order. Obviously, I got it on there, and I did not do any disassembly.

The final step is to put 4 pieces of tape equally spaced along the length of the tube to hold it closed. Here is a closeup with what you should have ended up with:



...and in the back:



The overlap is on top with the opening toward the left side of the car.

I had a little time left over to look at the ESC. This unit is definitely larger than the previous Novak I had in this car. Making room for the motor, ESC, and battery has become a bit more tricky. I am looking forward to using tat torque feature, though. I mounted the switch on the controller with double sided thick tape. Usually, I don't use no stinkin' switch, but what the heck, live a little. And then I taped the wire to the back of the ESC to manage this switch wire loop.



When all is said and done, the ESC will be living in the approximate position shown:



It took a while to get the chain cover just right but I am confident that this will serve its purpose quite well. Other materials I can suggest include a 5-mil Mylar. Even stiff plastic sheeting will work. The trick is to be able to score the material without having it split. Here is where we stand so far with the assembly.



Looks like the suspension will be next!