P8ntballjunkee

I've been looking around to find this answer somewhere in the many Gravel Hound threads and I've not found one yet. I'm searching for replacement/spare drive cups for my car. Essentially the parts surrounding the dogbones connecting to the differentials and wheels.. Has anyone ever broken one of these? Do I really even need to bother purchasing them? I haven't upgrade to CVD's but I'm considering it, at least for the front. As much fun as it is runnning the car 3 wheel drive, I'd rather have spare parts.
Found the wheel joint below but the differential joint is not available. Any help is much appreciated!

http://www.etamiya.com/shop/tamiya-d...-90009601.html
http://www.etamiya.com/shop/tamiya-d...-90009599.html
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The Mad Modder

I would highly recommend that you don't buy aluminum wheel joints or diff joints. The stock ones will be stronger since they are steel. Aluminum is also a poor material for things that will rub(joints rub the dog bones). If you want to upgrade, I would suggest that you get Tamiya's universal joints and diff outputs.
Outputs
#53790
universals
#53791

http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/ite...oduct-id=53790
http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/ite...oduct-id=53791

If you can, use the part numbers that I posted at the top to find the parts on e-bay, it'll be cheaper than direct from Tamiya.

J.D.T

I have broken these, I have also made the plastic come unmolded from the steel on the stock ones

tobee craft racing part # 43110 is the hardended steel version of the diff outdrives
# 43060 is their cvd
# 43100 is the hardened steel propellor joints for the center driveshaft

dinball has the tobee prop and outdrives and also the gpm alloy for $5.90 wheel and $5.50 gear box(diff outdrive)

http://www.rcmart.com/catalog/tamiya...page=3&sort=1a

If you can put the money into cvds I would recommend the stock tamiya ones, they are smaller and much smoother than all the bigger style ones, unfortunetely this will require you to switch the gear box joints(outdrives-which you want to anyway)
the CVD is part number # 53791
the tamiya outdrives are # 53790
3 racing # TT01-02
tobee craft # 42640

I would recommend the tamiya joints with tobee gbj's

shoot these guys and email and see what they can do for you, they are tamiya list -17%, the shipping is a little high but its EMS from japan to iowa in four days, just depends on how much you want to spend, Champ is the best dealer for tamiya I have found, get some spair parts while you are at it if you go that route, the frames were $5.15 last time I got them, compaired to $10 in the US, a and b parts trees, were $4.40 and $5.20 compaired to $11 and 12 each stateside, Hope that helps. You will need paypal

http://translate.googleusercontent.c...http://www.rc-

P8ntballjunkee

Wow, thanks for the great info.  I wasn't aware of the steel vs. aluminum issue.  I'm assuming a lot of people have moved on from the original stock silver can motor than I'm still running.  Maybe that's why I haven't had one break yet but I figure it's only a matter of time.  We can only run stock anyway.  If I can get a lot of parts cheap and pay a little more for shipping that's still a good deal.  Would you say the CVD's are more durable than the stock setup?  I know they're supposed to be more efficient and so forth.  As I'm only racing in a semi serious family league I don't want to go too overboard.  I do enjoy knowing I have the parts to fix any issue and it's fun to upgrade when I can.
Thanks for your time and input!

RC-Hedgie

Just to say yup I agree with whats been said. I have gone Lipo & brushless and the original Tamiya outdrives have failed. The steel inner becomes "unmoulded" from the plastic outer. RCMART are pretty good. Tobee parts are really good and worth the extra cash if you ask me.

Hope this hepls

Hedgie

J.D.T

The square and option one (one set on ebay one time?they make undertrays for the df 02, wish I could find a source) cvds are very fine, but $10-12 higher per set, the tamiya ones are smaller diameter but don't let that fool ya they are stronger than all but the tobee IMO, they feel much more precise in the knuckle part than the larger sets. With the stock dog bone setup if you "pop off" the rear suspension you run a chance of not only the dog bone flying away but you can actaully loose the outdrive with the cvds you don't run that risk, if it pops off your cvd makes sure the outdrive stays in so I would say if you can swing for both sets as its $45 well spent. I bent several of my dog bones even with the stock setup and little tires, It was not very long before it had 12 cells and a titan 550 with 4" tires as I wanted more 4 x 4 from the buggy than racer, as evidenced by its slow progression to truggy wanna be status

Another bonus of the tamiya cvds is they are partially rebuildable, while they don't offer the shaft by itself the wheel stub end of the cvd is part #53499 the cross pin is #53500 but that $15 might be better spent on other spairs as its doing to take a massive nasty crash to sheer a stub end tamiya makes a titanium one for touring cars that actually goes right on but I can't recall the part number and last I knew even with the champ rc hookup they were $25 a pair or something nutty.

Anything in the df 02 manual champ has or can get, its very seldom we run into out of stock situations with them, if you wanted the tamiya parts tree the entire outdrive, prop shaft and stuff would be $5 or less I am sure as the a and b parts trees are under $5.

I would recommend making some homemade hinge pin braces with sheetmetal or thin aluminum angle as you can sheer the suspension holders off the frame with a bad enough crash, with the stock motor its hard to go fast enough to do it but I have seen it done, the frames are only a little over $5 but It takes a good half hour to change one if you know the car really well, I always tap my chassis before I put it together so usually I would be down a day. Here is a picture of the rough version, I later rounded the corners and painted it black to blend in. Square makes a nice rear brace and carbon fibre back bumper replacement but I didn't wanna spend that $30.

J.D.T

picture splash

J.D.T

my wanna be truggy version of the df 02, probably had three bodies and a several motor swaps since then but basically the same, I got the same body in grey and black this time, $25 pre painted from tower, can't complain, velcro down the sides of the chassis hold it on for 95% of my bashing, two of the bottom pictures are the double front tower I run, the Sqaure carbon fibre in front of the second generation yeah racing aluminum, for light bashing the carbon fibre one would be fine by itself IMO. The last picture on the bottom is the square diff locker, for bashing it makes a huge difference to spin both rear tires all the time.

P8ntballjunkee

Well hopefully I can talk the wife into letting me spring for CVD's all around.  Sounds like the only way to go.  I do have the diff locker, put it in and raced one day with it.  I bent my rear dogbones nearly 90 degrees from straight and that was stock motor/gearing but..... I was running the larger dirt hawg tires.  I've since removed it due to the fact that I didn't want to break things I didn't have spares for, drive cups so to speak.  In our race league we aren't allowed to touch the cars once the race has started, no flipping them back over, and no help if one wheel comes off the ground and all the power unloads to that wheel.  I was hoping the diff locker would work, and it did, but unfortunately it worked too well. 
As for that rule I'd like to find a body to mount on it that will aid in the car being tipped back over from it's top to it's wheels.  The stock body as we know...if you're on your top, you're not gonna be tipped back over again.  Very frustrating when you get tipped over only to watch all the slow drivers passing you as you sit and pray for a miracle.  As with that I need to figure out the best way to mount the new body.  I like the (blue) body you've mounted in the pictures above.  I'd like something similar.  Essentially I need to mount something that will increase the overall height of the car, that way when it's on it's top and another car hits it on the track, it will want to tip back onto it's wheels more often.  I think proline makes the 56 ford f-100 body that I like the lines of, but I'm afraid it just would be rediculously too big.  I guess I just need to work some overtime, spend the money and do a little experimenting.