Posted: 7/9/2025 5:49:59 PM EDT
Probably useless for most of you, and sorry no pics  The car is https://60years.associatedelectrics.com/rc10b84d-team-kit/ the new 10B84D kit, and the manual is available here, or from the main product page at teamassociated.com - I'll walk you through the foibles I've run into, so far... Firstly - in the "Additional" section on page 2, it says tires...but not wheels. You need wheels as well - no wheels are provided with the kit. While you're ordering the wheels and tires, I would also HIGHLY recommend you order the following parts with them: ASC71034 - rear wheel hex clamp set - should come with the screws and pins for it (well, we'll see, mine's on order still ) - this is because either the tiny cap head screw OR the threads it threads into are SUPER easy to strip - one of the rear ones didn't even get snug before it gave away...so extras on orderASC91609 - front wheel hex clamp set - suffers from the same problem as the rears - mine didn't strip out, but in case, I've ordered a spare set ASC91436 - the pins for the wheel hex clamps...as well as for the CVA axles/boots - these are super easy to lose. If you don't want to spend the $3 on this, then get a good magnet ASC92541 - mount backing arms - you'll probably only really need one spare, but just in case...this is because the 20mm long screws it says to use in the rear for the step that uses these, are just BARELY long enough to engage maybe one or two threads...in my case, instead of doing both screws at the same time, I tightened down one and then went to do the other - and the other caught a thread and then gave up entirely and stripped out. Now both sides of it are stripped out. And since the screws use that to actually affix themselves to in the front and rear...%99 of the screws have a 2mm socket in them. It says 5/64ths will fit, but...either my 5/64ths bit is horrible (it's a Wheeler, so probably) or it's an actual true 2mm, but either way - have a COMFORTABLE 2mm driver around. I'm using some precision thing I happened to have laying around and it gave me a blister from repeated use It's more designed for little machine screws that you snug up, and not for torquing things into hard plastic.Note I'm only maybe 1/2-2/3rds of the way through my build yet - I'm just at the building turnbuckles stage; next are the center diff and shocks. So I haven't gotten a total and complete picture of what more you'll need for spares before you start Some build notes - Step 1 has you put on the chassis side rails. DO NOT DO THIS. Get everything else on that page done first, THEN circle back and put on the chassis side rails. Reason being the next step(s) have you thread a really long screw into something basically through where that chassis side rail would be, blocking you...make your life easier and do that step later For mine, I eschewed the ball ends in Bag 1 Step 2 and Bag 1 Step 3 and went with the inserts instead for a stiffer chassis - ymmv. At the end of all the Bag 1 stuff though I had 2 extra 1mm blue metal washers (it calls for a few of the 2mm thick ones in the steps) as well as 3 extra LP SHCS screws, plus the "optional" steering endlink/set screw thing at the end of Bag 1 Step 7 - I'm assuming these are some tuning options, or possibly battery mounting options from Bag 1 Step 3, or something? The manual makes zero mention of any of this; they're just kind of...extra. This will be a running theme, of "what is this for, the manual doesn't say"....most of the time you can kind of piece things together and figure it out from other similar things in other parts of the manual, but the extra washers and screws are total head-scratchers for me. Bags 2 3 and 4 are pretty straight-forward - however Bag 4 Step 1 where it mounts the 2 20mm long screws up through the mount arm (A) into the backing plate - don't do what I did and put the plate in upside down...it'll work just fine, it just looks dumb That one threaded in fine for me - it was Bag 4 Step 6, where it mounts the REAR one...that one's the one that stripped out on me. The 20mm screws are really not long enough. With a wide enough set of vice grips you can probably clamp it all together tight to give those screws just enough room to thread through, but...A couple other things with Bag 4 - Bag 4 Step 2, part 92513 and Bag 4 Step 7, part 92513 (same part numbers) - you'll note that in Step 2 it circles something on the SIDE of the piece saying to look for a "0" there, and in Step 7 it circles something on the TOP - those are the ONLY CLUES you'll get as to which one goes on the front axle and which one goes on the rear axle. The text is also impossible to see without cheaters and a light Depending on which way it's oriented in the chassis will determine if it's +0 or +3 or whatever offset, so...don't get it wrong!For Bag 5 Steps 1 and 2 - the orientation of the front shock mount MATTERS. They don't say it, but one side will sit flush against the mount; the other side will not. The side with the part number should face out/front. I found this out the hard way after I put everything on it, screwed all 4 screws mounting it to the chassis, wondered why there was such a huge weird gap when all the screws were tight...backed the mounting screws around, flipped the whole assembly around and yup - now it sits flush. The REAR shock mount doesn't seem to have the same issue? Either that or I chose the right orientation the first time For Bag 6 - They don't do a good job on this step. Pretty clearly this step was written out by someone else other than whomever did the rest...LOTS of missing things here. Firstly - they don't mention it, but the two sides will be mirror images of each other for Step 1. Don't do what I did and make identical parts, and realize as I was trying to mount them, that they diagrammed out the left side...the right side needs to be a mirror image of that. I had to disassemble and flip around the right side's parts basically. Not a big deal but if you're a guy who does things by rote like I do, it can mess you up a little. At the end of Bag 6, I had two tiny little grub screws left over that I had absolutely no idea what to do with - the manual doesn't mention them at all. It wasn't until I did Bag 7 Step 3 - at the very right of the page, where it says 2 x 3x6mm set screws and where to insert them, that I realized what was up - They forgot to put it in the manual, but for SOME reason, they want you to put in those grub screws in the bottom after completing Bag 6 Step 4 - you screw them into the bottom of the right and left caster blocks, 92535 - once you've put the hinge pin in and tightened that down, if you look at the bottom of the block, you'll see a tiny threaded hole. Put those set screws in there and tighten them down. Absolutely NO idea what that's supposed to do; doesn't seem clear to me at all, but whatever. Also be careful when installing 92522 - the caster inserts - the printing on them is TINY and it's really easy to break off the wrong ones and use those. Break out your cheaters and a light and make sure you use the right ones. For Bag 7 Step 1 - be careful here - same thing as above, the rear hub inserts, are also diabolical with this step. They set axle height; by default they have you do +1 (as near as I can tell, they fuck with + and - numbers here and what they're relative to - +1 means in this case the chassis is +1mm lower to the ground as near as I can tell?) - I went with 0 as I want the axles extended as far down as I can get them; I want max ride height that I can get. They ALSO include two sets of rear hubs - I had to literally google this. One set is marked "HRC" on them and the others are unmarked. HRC in this context means "High Roll Center" - eg the car will be baked in a few MM lower; it's intended for carpet dedicated cars. As this is a dirt kit and I plan on tromping through my backyard with this...I didn't use those. Be aware of this. I'm currently on Step 8 - one thing I can tell you immediately is before you start grabbing turnbuckles and twisting shit on them, MEASURE THEM. 2 of them are 3mm longer than the rest...and it's really not super apparent unless you stack them up against each other. I'll come back to this thread when I get further
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"Oh, bother," said Pooh, as he pulled the pin on another grenade...
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And, sigh. Bag 9 - the center diff. Bag 9 Step 2 - fill partially assembled center diff with 200k cSt diff fluid. Guess what's not included with the kit? It came with 15k diff fluid for the front and rear diffs, 30 and 35wt oils for the front and rear shocks, but....no center diff fluid at all. ....one more thing to add to another order from Amazon. What should have been a day or two of kit assembly before breaking it in the backyard has now turned into 3 or 4 days of waiting for items to arrive just to continue on with the build...Welp, since that particular bag is fucked, I may as well pack that bag back up and skip ahead, and start working on the shocks...fortunately most of the kit is pretty modular so I can come back to that without needing to undo half the car to get at it. |
"Oh, bother," said Pooh, as he pulled the pin on another grenade...
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Originally Posted By Evil_Ed: And, sigh. Bag 9 - the center diff. Bag 9 Step 2 - fill partially assembled center diff with 200k cSt diff fluid. Guess what's not included with the kit? It came with 15k diff fluid for the front and rear diffs, 30 and 35wt oils for the front and rear shocks, but....no center diff fluid at all. This is wrong They actually DID include a bottle of 200k fluid. Instead of the larger bottles the 15k fluid and 30/35wt shock oil came in, it came in a smaller squeeze tube...like a larger tube of their green slime stuff basically. It came in one of the first bags I opened and I didn't read it; I set it aside figuring it was for the shocks or something later, some kind of other lube. Nope! I found it looking over the shock parts this morning, actually read the stupid thing, and whoopsie...there we go. It means I could have built the center diff last night, filled it with the goo, and this morning could have sealed it up since I figure 10-12 hours would have been enough for air bubbles to propgate out Sigh, oh well. So while that's airing out today I'll do the shocks as well I guess, and slam it all together tonight...and wait for the rest of the parts to show up. I was looking at vacuum chambers last night and by far the cheapest one was the Tamiya one at $45...then I started reading the negative reviews where it wouldn't hold a vacuum for very long at all, noped out of it, started looking at others...and figured for a limited-use item, spending $100 wasn't worth it. Hell $45 wasn't worth it
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"Oh, bother," said Pooh, as he pulled the pin on another grenade...
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Ok kit is basically done at this point...just finished the center diff and suspension. To catch things up from where I left off - 1) I would HIGHLY recommend that before you do Bag 2 Steps 2 and 3 (putting the A arms on the chassis) - you SKIP AHEAD and do the first halfs of both Bag 10 Step 1 and Step 2 - put the anti-roll bar pivot and rod ends on all 4 corners before mounting the arms. If you wait to do it when the manual tells you to do it, you've got almost no space for your fingers, and trying to actually snap the pivots into place is an exercise in massive frustration. It'll be WAY easier when you can hold the whole thing in your hands 2) Bag 8 Step 2 (the tie rods for the front end of the car) - be super careful when assembling these...it's really easy to put the #1 end on the wrong side of the turnbuckle because the picture is more confusing than it needs to be. I had to undo my turnbuckles because I was trying to do things by rote and didn't think it through, sigh. 3) Bag 10 Steps 1 and 2, not withstanding getting the pivots and rod ends in, is a giant pain in the ass anyway; you need to line up 3 things at the same time and keep them in place the whole time. You want to shove the anti-roll bars alllllllll the way into each of the turnbuckles all the way to the kinks in the wire; you'd think to put them even with the ends but no...you want overhang there. The suspension comes with a bunch of parts to tune both front and rear for droop and travel - I went off-script a little bit and used 40wt oil all around. The manual calls for 35 up front and 30 in back. It does NOT come with extra sets of piston inserts (the plastic discs that control how much / how quickly oil flows through them), just the one set, so if you want to be able to fiddle with that, you'll need to order those along with the kit. You'll have at least two things left over (well, probably more, but these are the two that really stick out to me at the end) - you'll have an extra 72T big pinion gear, and a big 12x18x4 bearing left over. Both of those are for the carpet version of the car, so if you got the dirt version of the car like me, you won't be using those two things. I'm still waiting on wheels to show up (which is a show stopper for making it go), as well as the wheel hexes (probably don't technically NEED them to make it go but still)....and a fan, which apparently is the thing to have now? I guess since the motor's enclosed in the car now...all the other cars I've ever had, the motor always hung out the ass end in the air, so...that's probably not going to get here until Monday sadly...but it'll give the glue for the tires a chance to set I guess I only ordered one figuring it would be more ornamental than necessary but now that I'm thinking about it...it's got mounts for two fans...maybe I should actually get the second fan
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"Oh, bother," said Pooh, as he pulled the pin on another grenade...
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Oh forgot an honorable mention - Bag 11 Step 7, installing the shocks onto the car - when you go to do the rears, put the bottoms on first! If you do the tops you literally can’t get the bottoms onto the studs. Put the bottoms on first, thread on the nuts, then do the tops. It’s not possible to do it the other way around. All in all - other than some niggles with the install docs, missing the wheels, and the two grub screws for the front caster blocks…the docs aren’t bad at all; I’ve had way worse release notes when deploying million dollar software packages for trading systems so all told, not too bad. It could be better to be sure but it could have also been waaaay worse. I wish screws were packaged by part number; it can be hard to discern which screws are which especially for some of the tiny ones that have 2 different kinds in the same steps. Actually I wish all the parts were packaged by labeled part numbers, really. The bag per step was nice, but it could have been more precise. For the price of the kit, some of the plastics were meh. Most of them separated clean with no flash but some didn’t…I would up using a set of lexan body shears to snip them as clean as I could get them (more important for the shock things than elsewhere really). Having a tube of green goo was really necessary for the shocks imo; having a set of shock pliers was also not really “optional”. I happened to have a tube of goo, but didn’t think I’d need the shock tool…wrong. I made do with a set of vampliers and a plastic bag from the parts to try to not mar the shock struts but the actual tool would have made things much easier. Also, as mentioned - a 2mm driver with a big, comfortable handle as that’ll be doing the bulk of the work. You’ll also need a 1.5mm hex wrench but you won’t be using that but for like 12 or 14 screws all told including the 8 bleed screws in the shocks and the 4 for the wheel hex inserts. A ballcup wrench will also come in super handy. Not totally necessary but it did make doing the turnbuckles much easier. And a set of calipers that does metric…gotta measure strut and turnbuckle lengths somehow… |
"Oh, bother," said Pooh, as he pulled the pin on another grenade...
 And sigh. So, I have the steering servo and motor in there and decided to mock up the battery, esc, and receiver… Apparently none of the batteries I have will fit; it needs “shorty” batteries. Missing from the manual. Apparently my steering servo is too big; at least there’s just about no room for the receiver with it there. I guess they make short steering servos now? Again, wish I knew that before buying the Futaba I got and installing it..again not in the manual. The esc I got uses a T-connector for the battery and it’s pre-wired up, along with bullet connectors for the motor…and there’s just about no room for it with the transaxle there. I’m gonna need to figure that out, and placement for the on-off switch, too. Sigh…and apparently the shorty batteries use bullet connectors, so I’m also going to have to figure out bullet-to-T unless I just get rid of this esc and go with something else.. |
"Oh, bother," said Pooh, as he pulled the pin on another grenade...
  Got the electronics taped in; some jiggering here, some finagling there, and got everything the way I wanted it (except the receiver antenna). As you can see…a normal 2 cell battery won’t fit  I had to do ZERO steering trimming which was great - though I could only test it slowly and on my small back deck, but everything works well. I need to set max steering left and right still, but that should be just max turn left and right marks on the arms and chassis, powering it up, and setting it so max turning hits those marks and no further. I need to go to a hobby shop in the cities tomorrow, get some paint and maybe a battery if I can find one…and figure out an antenna mounting solution before I tape the receiver into place. Clearly the kit wasn’t intended for a receiver with a long antenna; again, not in the manual…I could just buy another receiver with one of those smal sharkfin jobbies instead but I don’t wanna just waste this one. Never mind we all spend more money at the range in an hour than what this cost Don’t know if I’ll be able to get it into the backyard this weekend but next weekend for sure! |
"Oh, bother," said Pooh, as he pulled the pin on another grenade...
  I present the green weenie Got it all together and had its first run…the stock setup is just about perfect. Didn’t need to fuck with trimming the steering even, it tracks straight. The tires though…I got a set of proline electrons and positrons for front and rear and they probably work great in clay but not grass which is fine, low grip, doesn’t stress the diffs much. However when I got it on pavement, it became clear the shitty super glue I used for the tires was shit, because all 4 de-beaded Whoopsie! Ignore the shitty painting btw, I didn’t really care that much I need to put more stickers on it of course…proper tire glue is on order as well as knobbly tires that should suit the grass better. |
"Oh, bother," said Pooh, as he pulled the pin on another grenade...
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I'd recommend using this or something similar for tire glue. Attached File |
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Yup, ordered last night, this stuff to be specific, recommended to me by crazymike. Sadly AMain's estimated shipping delivery times are grossly overestimated...so maybe by next weekend. I probably should have just ordered from Amazon but Prime is such shit now, they couldn't even guarantee me a delivery date before AMain's estimated one...I could also get off my ass and drive to a hobby store about 45 minutes away and see if they have anything in stock, but I'm an American goddamnit. My tax dollars paid for roads. I'm gonna damn sure make sure my money's used wisely so FedEx or UPS or USPS can bring me shit. Two things I didn't do though was actually wash the tires or the rims before trying to glue them in. Gave everything a thorough wash (which also made peeling the old glue off very easy), drying it now, so when everything gets here it should be ready to glue... Also, old school ranger bands work great as tire bands One thing I might want to fuck with is the pinion I put on the motor; I put a 21t on it instead of an 18 or even 17; the manual doesn't list any preferences or suggestions though. Another ding against it, IMO. I've got 17-21 at my disposal. The 18t would give me a 4.3:1 ratio, while the 21 I've got on it gives me a 3.7:1...I don't think that's a big enough ratio change for me to fuss over at the end of the day. It'd be one thing if I were racing, super consistent, and forever .38 seconds behind first place on a track with a 150 foot straight. Fucking around in the grass of my backyard though...I doubt it matters. |
"Oh, bother," said Pooh, as he pulled the pin on another grenade...
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So protip: Pro-Line Electrons in the rear and Positrons in the front...no bueno on grass Got the tires all properly glued up, took it out for a spin...and spin it did. All over. No grip. Which I guess is good, but I can verify...not super fun on grass. I wind up just burning furrows as the tires spin and get no purchase, and it loves doing powered donuts when it can't get going. I've got some studded tires that are ostensibly for carpets that I need to glue on to another set of rims tomorrow. If I'm honest I should just walk to the end of the block and go bombing down the farm road...it's dirt/light gravel and should probably be better...well, until I go off the road and into a corn field, but that's a different problem
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"Oh, bother," said Pooh, as he pulled the pin on another grenade...