HL Abrams upgrade questions

[iliketanks]

Looking for some help with the following on upgrading my Arbams:
1. Is the first wheel supposed to be wobbly or should I add washers? If so, do I put it between the screw and wheel or under the wheel?
2. The metal road wheels (installed) came with plastic brackets whereas the original plastic wheels came with metal brackets, should I have swapped those when installing the metal road wheels?
3. Am I supposed to clip off the plastic guide-wheel stem to install the 2 piece metal upgraded ones? It seems that the plastic is molded as one piece or am I supposed to only replace the wheel itself and not the stem?
4. How do I go about installing red motors? Is there a guide available to remove stock motors?

[tank_me]

1. If it's wobbly you can use a washer on which ever side makes it line up better with the track center guide teeth.
2. I would use the metal suspension arms with the metal road wheels. The plastic suspension arms on the Abrams are pretty flimsy.
3. I'd have to look at mine when I get home
4. It's pretty simple, but I have always removed one side of the gearbox so you can get to the screws that hold the motor on. You might need a pinion gear puller to get the pinion gear off if the new motor doesn't have one or to adjust the spacing of the pinion gear.

[iliketanks]

Thanks for the feedback. It would be appreciated if you could check on the guide wheels, I currently installed only the metal wheel and if you don't mind, could you also show me how much tension you have on the tracks or snap a pic as to where the tension adjuster is positioned for the 1st road wheel.

I'll have to go back and swap out the suspension/rocker arms and check on the alignment of the 1st road wheel. I did a quick test run after swapping out the stock motors for red motors after realizing the gearbox cover was snap fit and everything went smoothly! However, I'm not sure what pinion gear you're referring to.

[ccarley]

Glad you got your red motors installed, it's pretty easy and if the tank is running well you don't need to worry about swapping the pinion gears.

For track tension, I've found my Abrams likes them to be without much slack. If you pick the tank up, the tracks might droop 1/4" in the middle but any more than that I started to have tracks coming off the sprockets. The tension adjuster will be different tank to tank depending on track wear etc. so what works for one, might not be correct for another. Did your metal road wheels come painted?

Clay

[iliketanks]

Thanks for your input Clay. My road wheels did come painted so all of my upgrades were plug and play. Upon checkin my tension it doesn't have much slack so I think I'll leave it as is until I can run it longer.

Is your 1st road wheel wobbly by any chance? I'm unsure if I need to shim it with washers.

[tank_me]

Thanks for the feedback. It would be appreciated if you could check on the guide wheels, I currently installed only the metal wheel and if you don't mind, could you also show me how much tension you have on the tracks or snap a pic as to where the tension adjuster is positioned for the 1st road wheel.

I'll have to go back and swap out the suspension/rocker arms and check on the alignment of the 1st road wheel. I did a quick test run after swapping out the stock motors for red motors after realizing the gearbox cover was snap fit and everything went smoothly! However, I'm not sure what pinion gear you're referring to.

I looked at my old Abrams chassis and it looks like I never got around to installing the return rollers before switching over to the metal lower so it seems I can't help with those. It also used a Henntec adjustable idler for track tension so that is different than yours. If the motors came with a gear installed on them, that is the pinion gear. No need for any changes if it came installed.

[ccarley]

Thanks for your input Clay. My road wheels did come painted so all of my upgrades were plug and play. Upon checkin my tension it doesn't have much slack so I think I'll leave it as is until I can run it longer.

Is your 1st road wheel wobbly by any chance? I'm unsure if I need to shim it with washers.

I have plastic road wheels with bronze bushings, and they all seem to have some amount of wobble. I would think though that the metal road wheels with bearings wouldn't (or shouldn't) wobble. I would locate some small washers and see about removing the wobble myself. If the tracks don't come off the sprockets (too often) you are probably OK tension wise at least. I will say that I've found if the suspension is squatting due to additional weight, you may need to increase the spring tension; I've done that on my rear road wheels due to the dual current gearbox I have. My daughter's Leopard has the rear 2 sets of road wheels with increased spring pressure as it has metal tracks; keeping the other ones on the soft setting has been working out OK, but increasing those rear wheels tension really helps with keeping the tracks on the sprockets.
I will probably be upgrading to a set of metal wheels in the future since I do run in the sand and dirt Where did you get your set of wheels?

Clay

[iliketanks]

I will probably be upgrading to a set of metal wheels in the future since I do run in the sand and dirt Where did you get your set of wheels?

Clay

I think I got them directly from toucanhobby but I forgot through which avenue (ebay, amazon, etc.) It was a few years ago and I'm barely getting around to working on the tank again. Also, I was mistaken that the metal road wheels came with plastic suspension arms, they were actually metal oops! Everything is ready to go, I just need to take it out for a long test drive to see how it does!

[ccarley]

Thanks!
I checked Toucan's site (don't know why I didn't before) and found they do have the metal road wheel sets all painted and ready, with the arms like you show in your photo. Good info!

I'd say that after, ohh, 5 batteries (maybe more) I have found I've needed to adjust the track tension. It seems things all start wearing in, so it's expected. Even the plastic tracks start sounding better after several batteries, with their clack-clack-clack driving along. Metal tracks with the metal sprocket sound great though.

Clay

[ArmorBolt]

My M1 metal track went de-track with broken pin. I didn't run it that hard just on cement path and one of the track pin broke. Is this common and issue with metal track. And what are recommend way of having this occur again. Should I epoxy glue that pin back when I slide it back to the track. Thanks.

[ccarley]

That pin looks pretty tweaked, I'd look at the track tension first? Was that track pretty tight? Or did the pin just start walking out and then got to the point where it caused a problem and got tweaked that way maybe?

ON reassembly a spot of glue on the end probably won't hurt anything, just to hold the pin in place. And a spare set of tracks :) I actually used the spare track links in the box (with my plastic tracked Abrams) as added detail and used tiny zip ties to attach to the side of the turret on the rack.