Building and set up of Thunder Tiger EB-4 Limited Edition

Limited Edition

This is the building process of a Thunder Tiger EB-4 Limited Edition from day to day including all pro's and con's found.

Day one (04-07-2000)
Received an email from the Local Hobby Shop that my kit has arrived. Yippey
Oohps the price (681 Euro's) was heavy, but we will see if it is worth the money.
When I brought the kit home, I opened the box curious as a little kid.
First I took some pictures of all parts as they come with in the kit.

The outside of the carton box looks great but that does not say anything about the product itself.

Only four tires, rims, tire insert foam and a body. Where were all other parts? Two smaller boxes hide those valuable goodies.

One of the boxes with parts....

A second box with parts....

So, I first unwrapped the user manual/building instructions. And started to read carefully. I knew I was doing something different. What was it? Oh ya! Normally I build the car with all the knowledge and experience I have from the past and that means without the manual as long as possible. As soon as a problem appear I am searching for that manual. But with this car I have promised myself to do it the right way! So I read it 4 times in a row and found it to be very crisp and clear at first sight. All bags are coded with numbers and correspond with the assembly steps outlined in the manual. So it looks that nothing can go wrong!

Except for one major thing. The pages in the manual nicely mention the lenght and type of the screw to be used in the left side of the page. In the actual exploded drawing there is no coding like "3 x 12 m/m" with the screws. Sometimes it is try and error to see if the right lengh is used.

I tried to mark as much as possible correct sizes during this building process. Big minus one for TT.

Also the car set up for shocks and diffs is nicely printed in the manual. Even the effect on changing oil thickness and shockabsorbers connectionpoints is clearly described.

Things that are not with the kit but are needed during assembling are silicone oil for the shocks and differentials. Ashame that TT did not put that for this price in the kit to get the car set up standard! Now we first have to go to the LHS to get some.

Beware that all ratings for the silicone oil for the differentials and shockabsorbers in the manual are in Centistokes Cs. This means that for the rear differential the suggested 100 Cs is not equal to 100 WT as used in the Associated and Losi rating.
In this case the 100Cs is equal to 10WT

Look here for more about silicone oil and ratings.

So we start to look in the manual for the first building instructions. Prepare all neccesarry tools, glues and other things as mentioned first, on Page 1!

In my case as I build the car completely standard concerning set-up as it comes with the kit.
I started on Page 3

We build the central differential at first. Take all parts required for this stage from BAG A (see picture left) and BAG O (six bearings) and lay them down on a clean an smooth table or workbench. So put the diff together and use then some light drops of thin silicone oil on the suggested points to make assembling more easy.

Now take all parts as shown in the picture at the left.

Be sure to take the driveoutput shafts with the flat spots there are only two of them and they are supposed to be used on the central differential.
First put a drop of thin silicone oil on the spots that are marked by a red line. Be sure that the black o-rings have some oil too.

Some prefer to use "Green Smile" to lube the red marked spots.

First put the bearing at each side of the difhousing and gear before putting in the driveoutput shafts

When the bearing is placed and the outputshaft is trough, put on this shaft the small black o-ring. To get the o-ring all the way down over the shaft without damaging it, take the shown gear with the slot upwards and press slowly the o-ring into its place. Do not use any other sharp tool for it!!!!! It may damage the o-ring and so the sealing of the differential. Remove the gear and place the small pin with a plyer into the hole that is running through the outputshaft. Then place the just used slotted gear with the slot down and turn it until it slides into position. Do the same o-ring trick for the main gear.

Now it is time to put the satellite gears into position. Watch that the two flat slotted parts of the axles are put together. See the red arrow. You can now fill the differential with the required silicone fluid for 90%. In this case as we set up the car standard with 5000 Cs.

Now lay the slotted sungear on its place into the almost finished differential.

Fit the two gaskets into the inside of the main gear. The thin one first and then the thick one. The thick one will keep now the thin one in place! If you do it the other way around you have problems with keeping them on the same spot with the holes aligned! Turn the main gear above the differential housing and slide and align the silver pin into the slot of the sungear.

Then turn the main gear and align the screw holes of the main gear with the differential housing.
Screw in the four self tapping screws slowly by hand. Do not use an electric screwdriver for it. Tighten them in cross configuration. Do not over tight them as you are busy with plastic!

The complete central differential.

Do the same steps mentioned above for the front differential and fill it with the correct value of silicone oil in this case, 5000 Cs.

The rear differential when used with grease (only apply some on the gears do not fill completely) do not need the o-rings.
When filled with thin 100Cs silicone oil use the o-rings!

Page 4

First check the number of teeth on both pinions before placing from BAG B. Some kits (mine too) have one 12 and one 13 tooth pinion. The 13 one is the correct one. So claim at your local hobby shop a good one. Thunder Tiger knows this problem so they can't do problematic about it.
Big minus two for TT.

After the differentials are assembled we open BAG B and take out the differential cases.
Put two bearings in each case and slide the correct pinion trough. Now take the central long drive shaft and secure it with the set screw. Use thread lock on this screw! Make two same units with the crown gear at the right side of the diff case seen from the pinion side. See the left picture.

Now put the aluminum braces on and watch the shape. Left is the front unit. Right in the picture is the rear unit, place the "3" marked aluminum rear brace. Both seen at the outside. Tighten the screws until the braces are secured. Do not over tighten them.

Place now the two other aluminum braces at the inside of both units watch the shape of them. Left in the picture the front unit and right in the picture the rear unit. Tighten the screws until the braces are secured. Do not over tighten them.

After this we switch to page 5 of the manual.

Search for BAG C and spread all parts on the workbench. And they should look like those in the left picture. Take the red marked parts from the plastic tree and save the rest for later.

These springs are not standard in the kit or available as spare part. Use the spring from a ballpoint. In my case I used a four color unit so I had four springs! Just cut the spring between the red marked lines. Make four of them.

Put the screws (3x12 m/m) from BAG C through the metal plate and place the brake material as shown right in the picture. These screws are used to align the two pieces when glued. Then put some drops of Cyano Acrylic glue on the red marked spots. Then press with a metal tool in the middle of the material downwards evenly. Be careful with Cyano Acrylic glue. Wear glasses when using this glue and watch for your fingers not to stick together. The left break pad in the picture is the finished one. Make four of them.

Mount with the 3x14 m/m screws used for the alignment of each side of the brake pad.
The red arrows pointing out the extra fitted brake pad return springs which need to be custom made and are not standard in the kit.
These springs prevent the brake disk from dragging when the brakes are not activated.

Not in the kit but very useful is using four 3x14 m/m hexagon screws where the first part after the head is not threaded. These screws ensure that the inner brake pads move freely over the screw when the brake excenter is turned.

Be sure the brake disk slides freely over the drive output.

If this is not the case remove some material at the inside of the brake disk as marked red until it runs freely. The outside of the brake disk might be having some sharp edges. Remove them also.

Slide the complete units over the bearing at each side and align the brake disk between the brake pads.

Place both brake excenters. The long one at the gearside and the short one in the front.

Slide the plastic bushing over the brake excenters and put a drop of silicone oil on them to make them run smoothly.
I will purchase two flanged bearings later which will give smoother rotation to replace the plastic bushings. Those bearings are not standard with the kit!

Fit on both brake excenters the small hexagon 3 m/m set screw.
Do not use thread-lock!

Never use thread-lock on these small 3 m/m set-screws.

This is how the brake actuators need to be placed in the brake excenters.
The actuator that is mounted in the large one need to be mounted after the center top plate is mounted!

Place the ball with the correct size screw (3x10 m/m) and use thread-lock here. Fit the center top plate and secure with the four 3x14 m/m screws. Place the brake actuator and adjust them like in the picture.

So now is the center of the car ready.

click here for the other pages:
page 1 - page 2 - page 3 - page 4 - page 5 - page 6 - page 7 - page 8 - page 9 - page 10 - page 11 - page 12 - page 13