callsign4223
Staff member
So I have been wanting a ground pounder to play with with my son. I found a smokin' deal on a T-maxx 2.5 on craigslist and jumped on it. I got this thing for $75 and an old coax heli that has just been sitting in my closet. Being that cheap, I expected issues so I weasled Tony into giving me a hand going over it to make sure I didn't miss anything. The kid who owned this truck before me (I bought it from a high schooler) was a friggin' idiot. We completely tore this truck apart and went through it with a fine tooth comb. Shocks had problems, Diffs had problems, Motor is TORE UP, screws missing on the frame, etc, etc, etc. 4 hours later it at least looks like a truck again. We weren't able to start it because A) The bolt holding the carb to the block is missing B) One of the head bolt holes in the block is stripped C) The screw that holds the flywheel on the crank was missing D) The ez-start roller bearing was missing half the needle bearings. If I missed another reason Tony just add it in here. The diffs looked like the kid had blown his nose in them for a week and closed them up. Most of the shocks were only half full of oil. The list goes on, but that gives you an idea of the state of the truck when we started. Now, both diffs have been cleaned up. They both need internal shims, but I think they will work for now. All the shocks are filled to the brim and ready to go. All the engine parts have been ordered from ebay and will hopefully be here by the middle of the week. It was kind of funny, Tony showed me how to do the first diff then said have at it with the other. While I am knuckle deep old nasty diff grease Tony is on my iPad in the garage adding parts to my ebay cart. I was kinda scared to actually see the total, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I feared. $75 for everything but the diff shims and servo gears. So for $150 and a heli I have never flown I will have a working truck, I think I came out on top of this adventure.
Here is a pic of us in the middle of the process. This was taken at 12 am to send to my wife to explain why I wasn't going to be home for a while still. At this point the diffs were done, the motor triage was done, and we were rebuilding shocks.
Here is a pic of us in the middle of the process. This was taken at 12 am to send to my wife to explain why I wasn't going to be home for a while still. At this point the diffs were done, the motor triage was done, and we were rebuilding shocks.
