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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.

Step 1

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

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 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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 20th, 2008 at 2:18 am and is filed under Yokomo B-MAX4. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.