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Returned to the workbench again today and got a few more bits onto the buggy

Steps 10, 11 & 12

Time to assemble and mount the suspension arms and hubs. Once again this car roughly follows the “Losissociated” style that has become the norm, although Yokomo have put their own twist on it. The top of the front steering knuckles hang below the caster block, giving the car a deceptively different look from the top, and the rear shocks are mounted behind the arms and feature kinked top links. Parts quality is again very good.

Assembling the front hubs is another opportunity to break into the Champions Pack, this time for the wheel hex adapters (for “Losi”-type fronts) and the optional aluminium kingpins. The wheel adapters are an easy fit, although I used some of the supplied black grease to hold the pins in instead of the suggested rubber cement (which might be a bit too permanent for easy maintenance). The king pins are unusual in that there are two ways of fitting them, which either lowers or raises the steering knuckle. I fitted them in the “up” position, mainly because it is the same as the kit pins and also because it is a bit easier to line up! Experience will show what effect this has on handling (in theory, the “up” position will create a higher roll centre at a given ride height, which will take away a little overall grip but increase responsiveness at the same time).

I did notice that the king pins actually have quite a lot of free play on them anyway, so I will consider a shim or two after the shakedown run.

Close-up of the B-MAX4 front hub

The rear hubs accept the near universal “Losi”-type pin drive. I’m not a huge fan of this to be honest (nor of the small front hex), but it has become the de facto standard. If only Tamiya’s Top Force or Kyosho’s Lazer had been more successful, then we would have had a sensible 12mm hex like the touring cars do…

On the topic of pins, Yokomo supply a split pin for the drive - and as much as I hate losing standard pins, these will be impossible to get out in a hurry, because they were almost impossible to fit! Look carefully at the driveshaft and one side of the hole has a slight chamfer round the edge which makes it easier to seat the pin before you squeeze it in with pliers.

Close-up of the rear hub

The suspension blocks that the arms hang from are adjustable - they can be turned upside down to alter the front kick-up and the rear anti-squat. I should have mentioned earlier that there are a couple of team driver setups at the back of the manual (including Neil Cragg’s Euro setup), and if you want to build your car with one of these you need to decide before you start, because the rear suspension mount that was fitted in Step 1 is also adjustable, and is well buried if you decide to change it now! I’m building mine to more or less kit settings.

The front arms are a very good fit but curiously the rear arms have a good millimetre of free play. Almost as if Yokomo forgot to include some spacers (there are plenty for the hubs). It’s another part I will look at shimming after the shakedown.

That’s enough words for now - here’s a nice picture!

Overview of the car after Step 12

Steps 13 & 14

Time now for one of those time consuming jobs in every car build - assembling the turnbuckles. Once again I am turning to the Champions Pack to pull out a set of seven titanium versions (although I suspect that the kit steel ones would be absolutely fine too, they are an almost identical thickness). The ball cups are a new design for this car, chunky and with an access hole in the top for quick unscrewing of the ball studs beneath. This should decrease wear from popping off the ball ends themselves.

Once assembled and set to the correct length (easier to do the final adjustment on the car rather than by hand), I noticed that the front upper links were rubbing against the shock tower, causing a tight spot as the suspension dropped. A quick examination suggested that the rearward sweep of the link was causing the edge of the ball end to rub, so out came the craft knife and a small chamfer was made. Result - smooth suspension travel again.

Trim the ball end like this to stop it rubbing on the front shock tower

View from the front of the B-MAX4 with turnbuckles now fitted

Steps 15 & 16

Now we come to the biggest reason people will have chosen the Champions Pack - the alloy shock absorbers. These have come straight from the BX (the previous Yokomo buggy) and are superb quality. Apart from threaded alloy bodies, they also include the famous Yokomo bleed caps, titanium nitride shafts and machined pistons.

They are easy to assemble (due in no small part to the quality of the parts), but I have a couple of tips.

First, use a little shock oil to lubricate all the o-ring seals as you assemble them.

Second tip is more personal preference than anything. I don’t compress the shocks fully to bleed them because what happens then is you cause a vacuum in the shock which actually pulls the shaft back in when you try to extend it. I don’t like this at all, so I set the shocks to rebound without pulling back in from full extension. To do this, push the shaft in only about 1/2 way before bleeding, the check that the shaft does not pull in at full extension. Also check that the shaft can be fully compressed without locking up from hydraulic pressure. Generally, this style of shock will squeak a tiny bit at full compression because it needs air bubbles to work, so don’t worry about it. In fact, I would rather hear the squeak than none at all!

The shocks are then fitted with the kit supplied black springs and spring bottoms, and mounted onto the car with some more newly designed parts. Thankfully these don’t seem as easy to crush as the old Yokomo ones (I’ve seen many a Yoke with dodgy handling because the shock mounting balls were crushed and causing major friction).

Alloy shock in place

It’s getting late again - more updates soon!

I had a crazy idea in my head that I could get this built on a Wednesday evening ready for racing on Thursday night… well that was never going to happen with two small children around the house. But, about three hours of work tonight has got a pretty recognisable car chassis assembled.

The box

Quite big, with most parts bagged up in one large sack, and the chassis, body, wheels and paperwork seperate. Also, since I paid a little extra, the all important “Champions Pack” has been dropped in there too.

"Enjoy this product knowing that you are driving one of the best handling RC cars ever designed."

Inside the B-MAX4 box - "Champions Pack" is bottom right

Step 1

Is fitting the suspension mounts to the main chassis. Over in a flash - impressed already with the parts fit.

Step 1 complete

Step 2

Time now to attach the lower halves of the gearboxes, motor mount and centre transmission. Front gearbox needed a little time to get in place without overtightening the screws, it will sit flush when fitted correctly. Don’t forget to read the manual addendum!

Step 2 out of the way

Step 3

This is the most complicated yet - the servo saver and steering rack. But the parts are so good that it really is a doddle to do. The B-MAX4 has a bellcrank servo saver, same concept as the older Yokomo tourers but a more compact design. It’s mounted on bearings which is a nice touch for a supposedly “budget” car (although this car is well specced even without the Champions Pack, it has full bearings, full UJs and a slipper as standard).

Another TOP tool I have acquired for this build is their 3mm hand tapper (PT-081030). Although there aren’t many machine threads into plastic on the B-MAX4 (just the shock mounting screws and the ball studs), tapping the holes in advance makes them so much easier to fit and with no risk or damage to the plastic. Highly recommended.

The TOP thread tapping tool

Step 3 complete - tap used on steering ball studs.

Step 4&5

Step 4 is absurdly easy - the diffs come pre-assembled, so all you do is slip some bearings and shims on the outdrives! I gave the diffs a twist and had a look for signs of lubrication and they seemed alright, so I will give them a go as they are. I will probably give the car a quick rebuild after its first run anyway to see what has bedded in and what needs adjusting. A good feature of these is that they can be adjusted externally by putting an allen key through the side of the outdrive - no need to pop out the driveshafts. Step 5 is also pretty straightforward, since the centre driveshafts are also pre-assembled. I prefer the alternative shim setting at this stage as the standard one seems too tight.

Close-up of the B-MAX4 gearbox

Step 6

Step 6 sees us cover up the gearboxes, and also fit the anti-roll bar holders - one of which will have to come off again later when the Champions Pack is opened.

Drivetrain sealing begins

Step 7

This is a fiddle. The slipper clutch seems a solid design - but lining up all the parts while trying to keep the spring compressed needs a few attempts to get right. Be careful with this because I have a feeling that if you tightened it up in the wrong position you might cause some serious damage to either the drive pin or the slipper plates. On top of that, the slipper nut is awkward to screw on (read the addendum), especially with the threadlock paint that Yokomo put on the drive cup. The Champions Pack has an optional 81T spur but I chose to stick with the standard 87T (I’ll be using a 10×2 brushed, probably on 19/87 which is 10.76:1).

A view of the slipper before it gets covered up

Step 8

Fitting the top deck is straightforward again, quite a few screws but it all lines up well.A nice feature is the access cover for slipper adjustments.

Starting to take shape

Step 9

Time to put the hardware in the shock towers now. Both seem chunky and will hopefully prove to be durable. Not a huge number of mounting positions, three for the shock, two for the camber link, but should be plenty for most people.

A look at the rear tower with hefty wing mounts...

...and now for a look at the front!

OK then, that is all the building for today. Will update the blog when I get some more under my belt.

My original plan was to get some socket head machine screws to build this car with, replacing the cross-head self-tappers that come in the kit.

A bit of a hunt around on the internet revealed that nobody seemed to be doing a kit and it would be difficult to try and put together one from a single supplier due to a few unusual sizes.

During my hunt I came across this Wikipedia article which revealed that Japanese cross-head screws have a slightly different head to the Phillips screws they look a lot like. According to Wikipedia (if you have faith in - which on this occasion I have no reason not to), a Phillips head is designed to “cam out” if too much torque is applied, making the tool jump out, whereas the JIS (Japanese Industrial Standard) is not. Tellingly, the JIS screws are often marked with a little dot on the head - which you see quite often on the Japanese car kits. This must explain why so many of us strip the heads on our Tamiya cars while building them - we are all using the wrong kind of screwdriver!

So, I have decided to take a gamble on using the kit screws - and getting some new screwdrivers as well.

I have chosen two TOP screwdrivers - the 5.8mm for the M3 screws (PT-03105) and the 4mm for the M2.6 screws (PT-031040). These are distributed in the UK by Much-More Racing. These are a flawless fit in the screw heads - the picture below should show how much more defined the tip is than my old (and admittedly worn) Stanley Phillips #2…

JIS vs Phillips

Another quick “tip” (geddit?) about the self-tapping screws, same as would apply to any screw really, is to be careful not to overtighten them - the plastics on the B-MAX4 seem a little softer than other competition cars and might prove easy to strip - and to tighten them in a star sequence to even out the pressure on the components.

Time to get on with the interesting bit - the build!

After 6 months of just “dealing with it” - I honestly thought Firefox did it deliberately to show up badly coded websites - I have finally found a solution.

It is in this thread - http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum_thread.php?comments_parentId=2926&forumId=1

Seems even the programmers behind Firefox don’t know the reason why - suggestions that it is the Intel onboard graphics at fault, or some deep-lying Windows colour setting - but the answer (for me at least) is this…

Go to Tools->Options->Content->Colours and tick “Use system colours”.

Sorts the problem and websites look as they should again!

I’m not normally one to get excited by things the government does to try and “help” us poor subjects - usually it becomes a completely worthless fudge - just look at NHS Direct and HIPs for proof.

But I have to give credit where credit is due and say that the phone service for renewing your car tax is just brilliant. It only takes a few minutes (unlike the half-hour queues in the Post Office) and best of all you don’t even need to find your MOT and insurance - they are checked automatically. Yay!

If you didn’t already know, phone 0870 850 4444 when you get your V11 reminder through the post.

Quite an eventful game for Adebayor!

6 goals AND a red card - nuff respec'

I know it is pretty easy to do this in FM with Arsenal because it is a very good side with loadsamoney - but it still feels good.

This was one of the very few games in the season where I actually had fewer shots than the opposition - but after scoring two first-half goals Real were always chasing the game and I kept them at bay.

2-0 to the Arsenal!

Certainly wasn’t expecting to see a bird of prey in the city! Wish I had got a picture of it, but the visit only lasted a couple of seconds. It swooped in, sat down, looked around, and swooped back out again.

It was a larger-than-usual brown bird with piercing eyes and a small sharp beak. From looking around on t’internet I think it was a female sparrowhawk - here is a pic I stole from the BBC website…

Much more interesting than a pigeon!

Perhaps it is nesting in the graveyard next door? I’ll keep an eye out!

It boils down to weather.

North East - Summer lasts 2 days.

South East - Summer lasts 2 weeks.

Then you get an almighty thunderstorm. I’m watching it right now, flashes of light, piercing cracks from the sky, torrents of water.

That’s part number RM-016 to be precise.

A very comfy yet rapid handlebar?

First impressions are very good. The bar is more compact than the web images usually suggest, the straight ends are hardly any bigger than my hand (I am 6ft), the total depth of the whole bar is about 170mm (around 100mm centre-to-centre from the clamp to the front), the widest point is about 515mm centre-to-centre, and the greatest drop is about 55mm c2c.

It also has that lovely Japanese detailing which makes you know you have a quality item. I see the same kind of detailing in their RC stuff and it creates a real aura of engineering excellence. I thought I’d pick out this neat little “Heat Treated” sticker as an example. Tidy.

"Heat Treated" and hopefully city-proof too

Next job is to fit them. Fingers crossed they feel as good on the bike as they do off it. At my current rate of progress I should have them sorted by September 2009!

Finally, some quick props to Hubjub who managed to send these very quickly and very well packaged, at what seems to be a very reasonable price too.