Lets disassemble the stock three speed to clean, re grease and add bearings to it.
Coming from a welding background and being a Millwright the cheapest way to get a front driveshaft spinning was to weld up the main output shaft and file a flat spot for a set screw to snug up against.
stock shaft.
Newly extended shaft.
Even running an 80 turn crawler motor i wanted a bit more low end grunt. I ground the motor mounting holes some to get an 8T pinion installed.
Being as i had this long pinion gear in my box and keeping it cheap i had to grind the transmission cases just a little for clearance.
All buttoned up and running smooth.
To get a driveshaft in the front and a decent pinion angle i opted to move the transmission rearward as far as it could go and still retain the stock body mounting brackets.
To do this i cut the seat platform into two pieces so the motor could slide between them and still retain stock body mounting position.
For measurement purposes i cut up an RC4WD Marlin Crawler driveshaft to make sure everything was going to work.
Steel driveshafts will be ordered once final dimensions are set.
And for steering purposes a waterproof 20kg servo.
Next up we'll try to remove that old brushed on paint.....