I got myself a brand used savage flux!

After starting electric running 8 months ago with a brushless revo, I have really enjoyed it. So much so that I've converted my jato to electric and got a brushless 4x4 stampede. I've only run nitro once this year, but have run my electric rigs many many times.

Still, after running my savage-x earlier this summer, it made me remember why I enjoyed the savage. Tough as nails and big air all day long!

I tried getting a kershaw kit to convert my X, but that fell through, so I bought a used flux off ebay. Guessing it's an older model since the ESC isn't waterproof. I even had to buy a new rack to put it on because I ran out of room.

It showed up today before lunch then while on lunch, I spent some time with it. I went over it a bit to see what was what, tightened all the visible screws, took off the 17mm axle extensions/hubs, put on a set of traxxas 3.8 geodes with chevron tires instead the pinned tires/wheels on it. I had a spare set of 17mm hexes in a drawer and the HPI flanged nuts. Also re-situated the esc/wiring, threw in a spare receiver and got it setup on my radio. Plugged it into my pc to update the esc settings, it's an HPI Blur F360C. Adjusted the brake, reverse, punch, LiPo cutoff... Had to solder on my own TRX connectors. Man that sucks. Trying to solder 10AWG wire is impossible with a 25W iron. Had to heat the tip with a torch, then it worked. I need to get a new iron.

It appears to have the adjustable suspension kit on it. It has LST shocks with FLM upper mounts and RC Raven dual rate springs. It also has alloy rear hubs and alloy front hubs/hub carriers. Needs a new roll bar and rear tower, both are cracked. The guy says he coated the circuit board of the ESC with something to waterproof it. Not sure how that will hold up to snow and wetness. Has a decent steering servo in it, not sure what though as it also has an RPM center skid, so I can't see the servo. Appears to have RPM arms on all 4 corners too.

Luckily, my SMC 9000mah 2S packs fit perfectly in it. I was afraid they would be too thick. I charged a couple up to go get a run in after work to figure out if I need to order stuff for the weekend. Made it 12 whole minutes into my first run and busted it pretty good. Snapped the battery tray on one side nearly off the thing and ripped an upper arm/ball end apart.

I have a spare tower/roll bar, so I can fix those, but had to order battery box mounts and hopefully the right ball ends for the upper arm.

The rig, I didn't take any photo's when I got it, only after I wrecked it:


The damage:

you look to be as hard on stuff as I am nice rig tho....

Jam Racing 1 said:

you look to be as hard on stuff as I am nice rig tho....

Click to expand...

I do try. Really though, I try to build my rigs to the point that I can drive them as hard as I do with minimal breakage. Since this is literally day 1 for this truck, I'm just finding weak spots.

Will be getting a t-bones rear skid/bumper/wheelie bar for it in the near future. That has worked infinitely better than the stock bits on my X. Then I need to grommetize the front/rear skids so they can take a hit better without smashing/breaking the upper bumper mount doodads. I plan on putting the full X roll-bar on it, which will add a bit more strength to it and help keep the body from buckling/cracking badly.

Then I'm not sure what I'll do. Not 100% sure on the LST shocks. It doesn't stand as tall as my X with the big bores on it. I had it in my head that the LST shocks were longer than savage shocks, but maybe not.

Anyone know if there are alloy battery box holders around? Can't believe I snapped that on my first run.

I forgot how irritating it can be to work on a savage... I ordered parts to fix the things I broke as well as a new roll bar, shock tower. Still waiting on the large ball ends to fix the one I broke, should show up today. After looking more closely, this thing has the adjustable suspension conversion kit on it and personally... I don't care for it. It makes the upper arms very weak as it connects to the hinge pin plate via a 3mm bolt with 6mm worth of stand offs. I can see that snapping a bolt off pretty easily. I've ordered replacement stock hinge pin holders and arms for when that happens.

Also, while replacing the shock tower on the rear, I had to tear the diff housing apart since it all interlocks. I noticed the rear diff felt very open, like it had grease only in it. Even though the guy said he rebuilt the diffs, a quick inspection suggests otherwise. The grease was clearly old and pretty dry, so I took it out and went to take it apart to find one of the diff cup screws had the head sheared off and what appeared to be damage to the cup caused by an attempt to get the stud out. I couldn't get it out either, so cleaned it out, found a couple chipped teeth on the large sun gears, put some 50k in it, replaced the bearings on it and the input pinion and put it all back together. I have a new diff coming in the mail as well for when that dies completely. It does have the machined BP ring gear and HD cup with the steel blocks for the cross bars, so that's good.

I received new plastic battery mounts, but decided that since I had to take the tvp's off to replace them, I'd try using some 1/8" thick angle iron to make my own. I wish I had noticed the lower supports weren't offset like the the uppers are, or I would have used angle iron for those as well. I did replace the short 1/2" screws with 3/4" or 1" screws though for those where they connect to the chassis. I bought 4 feet of the angle iron... but I lack the proper tools to work with it. Had to use a sawsall to cut it, so it's generally awful. May try to use a buddies band saw to cut up some 1" wide pieces so I can have them on hand later to raise the boxes up a bit so I can use the angle iron for the bottom braces as well. I'm afraid now it will break the ears off the boxes. Time will tell.

Since the motor mount bolts are blocked by the TVP (or they were), I noticed the spur mesh was tight on part of the rotation, so I adjusted that as well since I had it apart. Now I think the outer bolts are out far enough that I can adjust them a hair more if needed without taking the TVP off.

Also, it uses the FLM (I think) upper shock mounts for LST shocks. The 2 screw holes in those do not match the shock tower holes at all. Upon inspection of the broken tower, I noticed the holes were heavily reamed out so they could use the FLM mounts. The holes are about 2mm too far apart. That was annoying to deal with as well.

Buying used can be a lot of work... Someday I will learn.

The battery box mounts I made:

This was from a few days ago.

Made it 10 minutes or so and ripped a screw out of the bottom of one of the shocks. It was way too short to do the job, especially since the arms are RPM, which is softer than stock. I ran long ass bolts through both shock mounts (front/rear side of the arm) with bolts I had with me. Then 10 minutes later, I snapped the top mount off one of the LST shocks.

The way the FLM upper mounts are made, they push the top of the shock out far enough so that the spring lightly hits the upper arm, but is still at an angle leaning forward in reference to the bottom of the shock. So, as the shock compresses, it's also receiving shearing force and putting pressure very unevenly on the upper shock mount.

I ran it with the broken shock just back and forth in the grass and did a lot of wheelies just to run out the pack. Then I ran my stampede... and it ate another spur gear due to a pebble or harsh landing. Not sure which, but it went from very quite (for a stampede) to noisy.

Anyway, the rest of the truck held up fine. I pushed it pretty hard. After I ran a pack through the stampede, I called it a day and came home. Then I dug through my savage parts and found a spare set of flux big bore shocks I bought to have backup for my other savage. I took off all the LST shocks and FLM mounts, then dumped the oil out of the spare flux shocks and put in some 40w (comes with 30 stock) and ordered a set of white springs like my other savage has. Also ordered more 50/60 weight as I was too low on both of those to fill 4 big ass shocks. As bad luck would have it, I had 1 bolt that would pass through the shock and tower to put a nut on the back. So, I got creative and made pins out of traxxas t-maxx hinge pins, then put collars on the back side instead of bolts. I used to have that on my t-maxx many years ago due to snapping bolts off all the time. I did have screws long enough to go through the front/rear shock mount on the RPM arms.

So, I intend on taking it out again tomorrow to see how it does. I know the shocks well be too soft, but to be honest, I wasn't really impressed at all with the LST shocks.

Bash with the big bores, almost tagged a guy on a bike:

Kind of soft, which jars the chassis when it bottoms out on landings. Also had one of my solder joints almost come loose on me.

I ran my stampede for a pack, then went home to do a bit of wrenching on it and fix the solder joint on the savage, also added 10mm of shock spacers to the savage and went out again.

I ran it again after this back at the first skate park and broke it pretty good on a hard roof landing. Was distracted by a dog incessantly barking right behind me. I haven't edited that footage yet, but will post it up when I have.

Somewhere in the middle of the second video, things got a bit noisy again. The slipper was slipping and I stopped, adjusted it and locktighted it, but it still didn't sound right. I checked the mesh and it was more or less ok, but I noticed a lot of flecks of metal near the pinion/spur and the pinion is pretty worn. That red skate park is slick. The ground/concrete paint almost feels like your walking on wax, so it causes a lot of wheel spin which makes the motors heat up due to the higher RPM's happening a lot. My 2wd e-jato is really tough to drive there until you get used to it.

Got new springs, 50 and 60 weight shock oil on order and a RRP 21T pinion. I also ordered an RRP 20T in case the 21T is too much. I figure the wheels/tires I'm running are smaller diameter than what the rig came with, so going up 1T on the pinion would put me at about stock gearing. Will see how it does.

Edit:
Forgot to add the bad roof landing video:

Got some wheel time in this weekend. Found out that associated 50w is just too heavy for 4 shocks. I busted 3 shock ends off my front shocks. Broke one even after dropping back down to 40w. My rear shocks now have white springs but my front shocks still have pink springs as the second set of white springs didn't show up yet. They should be here by next week. I busted all 3 shock ends on the front. I'm not 100% sure of the cause, I'm assuming it's the oil being too heavy... and me being too stupid... or a combination of the two.

I also sheared off 3 wheel nuts. I got some axial ones in today, they don't thread on as far, but they seem built more robust, so will see how they do. I have two old HPI wheel nuts on the rear and 2 axial wheel nuts on the front now.
Can see how they fit here:
https://www.hpisavageforum.com/threads/alternative-to-the-z680-5x8mm-flanged-nut.18073/#post-205429

This weekend:
Skate park locally:

Skate park 35 minutes away:

Park running locally:

Last weekends vids:
https://www.hpisavageforum.com/threads/last-weekends-bashing-videos.18123/

Some cool skate parks near you. Parts always break at the skate park.. Looks like a lot of fun though. Especially that 3rd from the Last one. Nice videos man

I love this thread. Love reading the updates. how are you liking the white springs and 40wt? i put 50wt in mine and if feels a bit too thick.

WhatTheFlux said:

I love this thread. Love reading the updates. how are you liking the white springs and 40wt? i put 50wt in mine and if feels a bit too thick.

Click to expand...

I have yellow on the rear, white on the front and I'm pretty sure 40 in all 4. I really like it so far. Adding the pro-line trenchers added even more cushion to the landings. I tried 50, but was snapping shock ends off every bash. I still snap one on occasions, but not nearly as frequent. Shock ends are hard to come by... you have to buy $15 worth of parts tree just to get 4 of the dumb things. I was going to try to source something different, but with the lack of an LHS... it's hard to see what would/wouldn't work well with the big bore cups.

I replaced the upper mounting bolts with traxxas t-maxx hinge pins and collars. I also replaced the lower screws with a bolt that was long enough to go through both the front and rear mounting ears on my RPM arms with a nut on the back side. I think part of my snapping ends issue is from the RPM arms being flexible and twisting on bad landings.

Got a new motor/esc for my flux. Wasn't sure how waterproof the original was since it was the old blur esc. The previous owner said he sprayed stuff on the board, but odds are, he didn't remove the heat sink and get inbetween the fets.

Got the Castle Bamba Monster X with sensored 2200kv motor. I bought a cheap integy motor mount/clamp and ground out one of them so it would fit over the fins on the castle motor and I'm using the original clamp/mount on the front of the motor. I did have to lock the pinion on further out than with the flux/torque motor, but I think it will be ok. I also had to bend the motor wire tabs up quite a bit so they didn't make contact with the rear mount/clamp. I used a new grey high temp sensor safe rtv to seal all around the sensor wire on the motor. Also found out that the motor wires on a sensored esc have to be wired to the esc in the proper order or the motor just vibrates like a blender with lead shot in it.






Taking it out today to see how it compares. I ran it a little last night just to make sure I had the brakes set up with enough and the punch control was dialed back a bit.

Well, snapped the top off one of my shocks on the castle's first bash. Landed on a curb from about 15 feet up. Not sure why the shock broke... it landed right on the center rpm skids and jammed it into the TVP.



So, figured I'd take an hour and see if I could put the LST shocks back on. I'm using the FLM upper mounts, but instead of trying to force it to fit on 2 shock mount holes like the previous owner, I just drilled the center out of it to 4mm and ran a 4mm bolt through the stand off and the tower on the lowest hole with a nut/washer on the back side. I thought about cutting the little ears off the mounts, but they aren't hurting anything. Then with 4 or 5 washers on the bottom, there's no rubbing and they seem to work ok now. I ran the lower bolt through both RPM shock mount ears. I didn't have a bolt long enough to put a nut on the back side, so will see how this works for now.

I did notice that they aren't as long as the big bores, so I'm losing a few mm of height. Guessing the volume of oil will compensate for the shocks being a bit shorter, and then some. The chassis will touch the ground before the springs/shocks bottom out. At full steering lock, nothing rubs since I have the XL HD extenders for axles pushing the tires out. I had to have those just to run big bores or the trenchers rubbed... I think.





I did have to replace a cap on one of the LST shocks. Upon doing so, I noticed there wasn't a bladder in it... so, will order those for all 4 shocks and probably throw some 40 weight in it to work with the RC Raven springs. I think I ran 45 on my LST back in the day with those springs and it did ok.

I ended up going back to big bores and leaving the LST shocks for a later date. I got the parts to fix the LST shocks, fixed them, filled them, then put them in a drawer. I have the LST shock conversion kit I won on this forum a few years back that I can use to put the shocks on properly.

So far, since this last photo, I've installed stock lower arms as I was still breaking shock ends. Since the install of stock arms, I've beat this thing hard, lots of big air and lots of high speed tumbles. No busted shock ends. I did rip an arm off though, it broke the ears off at the hinge pins. Still sticking with stock arms anyway.

I've also installed a super 5sc transmission with center diff in it recently. I had some troubles installing that and figuring out a diff oil that worked for me (75% 500k/25% 1M associated), but I think I have it sorted out and really like it with the trenchers and 4S I run. You can peruse this thread if you want to read more on that.



Threw a new body on it as well after the new transmission install. The rear basically fell off the old one. I picked up some reenforced tape yesterday, so will go around the rear and front body mount with that to hopefully get more life out of this one. Was just a savage x body I got off ebay a year or two ago that I had in the closet.