actually genius. everything in this video except the ballhead screws on the linkage ive done myself and was thinking.. Damm i have not seen anyone do this on the internet i should make a video but you covered it perfectly. great idea with the shock screws aswell, was about to do it but realized the mounting wouldnt work with the metal axles i got unless i shave one of the mounting spots off.
also i got one of the metal transmissions from amazon (fully assembled with metal gear) and i took it all apart and greased/tightened down everything and it fit up nice, cant see the gears through the casing. i noticed all of the screws were like half tightened downed
Haven't considered one of the aluminum trannys, but if one were to buy one of those, and find that the case mating surfaces didn't match up, I thought of two possible fixes, then discarded the first one. First I thought that a little sanding action with some fine grit wet/dry sandpaper, and just disassemble the cases, put the mating surfaces down, and massage them around a bit with the paper on a hard surface to ensure consistent material removal. But then I thought that might interfere with the gear clearances inside the case, and it might pinch a gear or gear hub. Then I thought of the old mechanics standby... RTV Black silicone gasket maker. Just a very thin layer (but not too thin) spread onto one of the mating surfaces, assemble the case and torque until the silicone JUST starts to squeeze out around the periphery, leave it overnight to allow silicone to fully cure, then finish torquing the case halves together and install. Of course, don't UNDER torque during initial assembly, leaving a bead of silicone to harden into a gasket that will be too thick and never compress enough for proper clearances inside the case, and everything inside is rattling around. But I agree, production quality from the aftermarket community for these models has been pathetically poor. While I'm pleased with the wide variety of aftermarket parts, many of these parts are not designed well in the first place, and the pisspoor production quality assurance practices exacerbate those problems. I have found that often, especially with many of the aftermarket lighting options, you really have to have your model builder skills AND problem solving skills up to par to make many of these items work and work correctly, but when you can get them there, you can often achieve some great results. Just don't expect bolt on performance out of the box.
