an exercise in minimalism. ZZMT Crawler

[frizzen]

This is SUCH an awesome way to trick out a ZZ-M!!! Thank you for sharing!!! Since someone asked for body on shots, mind if I show off mine a bit?



Moved the PCB slightly up, aft, and outboard, so it's now held to the post that used to hold that side of the PCB Cover down. This way it's got a little more room to articulate. I shaved the front body mount, used a wad of "sticky tack" (weird removable adhesive stuff, found in office supply places) to mount the body onto the rear clip.

Having a body definately limits the travel. I can stuff a half pedistal under opposite tires without the body and have all four tires touch. With a body, you can only stuff one half pedistal under a tire before it's twisted up enough to contact body.

[Clint]

This is SUCH an awesome way to trick out a ZZ-M!!! Thank you for sharing!!! Since someone asked for body on shots, mind if I show off mine a bit?

Very cool, I'm glad someone else tried this. We have clones. Now add a blue zz se transfer gear and a black pinion gear and you will have one hell of a slow crawler.

Moved the PCB slightly up, aft, and outboard, so it's now held to the post that used to hold that side of the PCB Cover down. This way it's got a little more room to articulate.

Thats exactly how I mounted mine. I was contemplating moving it even further back, over the motor, but then it was too easy for the front end to spin 360' and rip out the steering wires. The body is the limiting factor anyway so I left it.

I shaved the front body mount, used a wad of "sticky tack" (weird removable adhesive stuff, found in office supply places) to mount the body onto the rear clip.

Having a body definately limits the travel. I can stuff a half pedistal under opposite tires without the body and have all four tires touch. With a body, you can only stuff one half pedistal under a tire before it's twisted up enough to contact body.

I _finally_ picked up an Aztec Gold Jeep body this week, so mine will have a body now. It looks like the jeep gives more room to articulate than the truck bodies. A homemade baja body would be even better.

[SuperFly]

That's looking great frizzen.

Hey, do you think you could get some side shots of that? I'm doing one that is more similar to yours, as I'm not a lipo guy. I'd like to see how you dealt with the battery placement and attachment.

So far, I've done the front shock travel mod and added a 4th gear to get it down to 83:1 or something like that, and weighted the wheels. Lately, it's my most driven bit, mainly because I can drive it anywhere

I'm using a ZZ jeep body on mine. I carefully cut the snap-on black top off, and I added a roll bar, seats and a dashboard to the PCB cover. Clearly, I'll need to rethink the pcb cover part if I do the articulation mod.

BTW, I should add that it doesn't have to be an SE gear, any old-school bit or zip blue idler gear will work.

[CaboWabo]

So who's gonna be the one to take full on shots of the process and document it for a tutorial in our Articles section?

[Clint]

So who's gonna be the one to take full on shots of the process and document it for a tutorial in our Articles section?

I can work on this. I picked up 4 more ZZMT's. 3 are still virgin.

[Tuner1989]

So who's gonna be the one to take full on shots of the process and document it for a tutorial in our Articles section?

I can work on this. I picked up 4 more ZZMT's. 3 are still virgin.

Please do i just cant seem to accomplish this without major play in the rear end.

[Clint]

So who's gonna be the one to take full on shots of the process and document it for a tutorial in our Articles section?

I can work on this. I picked up 4 more ZZMT's. 3 are still virgin.

Please do i just cant seem to accomplish this without major play in the rear end.

You need to support the driveshaft, either run it through a hollow tube glued in place or use a couple of xmod bearings(one in front, one in back)

Or...If you have small washers, you could build up the area behind the driveshaft gears to remove play.

In the tut, i'll address this area of concern as it's the hardest part.

[Tuner1989]

So who's gonna be the one to take full on shots of the process and document it for a tutorial in our Articles section?

I can work on this. I picked up 4 more ZZMT's. 3 are still virgin.

Please do i just cant seem to accomplish this without major play in the rear end.

You need to support the driveshaft, either run it through a hollow tube glued in place or use a couple of xmod bearings(one in front, one in back)

Or...If you have small washers, you could build up the area behind the driveshaft gears to remove play.

In the tut, i'll address this area of concern as it's the hardest part.

Tried washers and bearings i think the tube would be the best shot. Do you know what size i would pick up and where?

[Clint]

So who's gonna be the one to take full on shots of the process and document it for a tutorial in our Articles section?

I can work on this. I picked up 4 more ZZMT's. 3 are still virgin.

Please do i just cant seem to accomplish this without major play in the rear end.

You need to support the driveshaft, either run it through a hollow tube glued in place or use a couple of xmod bearings(one in front, one in back)

Or...If you have small washers, you could build up the area behind the driveshaft gears to remove play.

In the tut, i'll address this area of concern as it's the hardest part.

Tried washers and bearings i think the tube would be the best shot. Do you know what size i would pick up and where?

Not offhand.. But if you have a spare zz controller antenna, you can use a short segment off that.

[Tuner1989]

So who's gonna be the one to take full on shots of the process and document it for a tutorial in our Articles section?

I can work on this. I picked up 4 more ZZMT's. 3 are still virgin.

Please do i just cant seem to accomplish this without major play in the rear end.

You need to support the driveshaft, either run it through a hollow tube glued in place or use a couple of xmod bearings(one in front, one in back)

Or...If you have small washers, you could build up the area behind the driveshaft gears to remove play.

In the tut, i'll address this area of concern as it's the hardest part.

Tried washers and bearings i think the tube would be the best shot. Do you know what size i would pick up and where?

Not offhand.. But if you have a spare zz controller antenna, you can use a short segment off that.

Good info man, will do.

[CaboWabo]

Back from the beginnings of quote hell. lol
Thanks Clint, that'd be a real "pimp" thing to do.
You can already tell there'd be quite a few of us thankful for it.

[frizzen]

I did this a while ago, but my camera's batts puked and I hadn't been able to find the charger for a bit. So I only had gotten one pic of it, and that was with my UPS body. I haven't done a 6 tooth with a blue, but I have a 6 tooth with a green on one of my other trucks. It's definately on the list of mods...

I'd thought about the Jeep (mine's yellow too) but I like it on a soft-spring with long travel chassis, it looks too "stock" for that wild of articulation, and they're impossible to find so I don't want to risk mine. A baja or an extremely bobbed crawler would look great on here and not mess up travel too badly. Hmmm....
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I took the full-on lazy method for dealing with battery placement. I shortened the battery leads slightly, determined they're stiff enough to hold the pack "close enough" to the chassis plate for me without having to add anything to actually retain them.

Don't bother doing a long travel mod unless you're running REALLY soft springs, it'll just pivot the solid axles before anything could start to compress.
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I know what you mean about rear end having too much play, the glue on my rear bearing popped free, but it still meshes tight enough to power the front without more noise. I don't like it being that sloppy, but it still runs fine.