RC Raven T-Maxx Chassis

Installation

Installing the RC Raven T-Maxx chassis isn't necessarily a difficult task, but you will want to allow yourself some time to do the swap. This is because a good number of parts will have to be removed to swap the chassis plate. The good thing is, that many of the items can be taken off in groups which makes reinstalling them much easier than if you removed everything individually.

The first thing you want to do, is to remove the motor, exhaust pipe and fuel tank. You can remove this all as one unit by removing the four 2.5 mm hex screws that attach the motor to the chassis. Then remove the four screws that secure the fuel tank to the chassis, followed by the screw that holds the wire exhaust hanger to the chassis. Now the whole assembly should be loose, but you'll still need to pop the carb linkage off of the carb slide and remove the EZ-Start connection from the rear body post.

Once all that is completed, you should be able to remove all three parts from the chassis. It can be a little tricky to get the motor's clutch bell past the linkage arm. If you lift and pull the back of the motor out first it should be much easier. You can also go ahead and remove the linkage arm if you wish, since it will need to be removed anyway. What you're left with is shown below.

Next you'll want to remove the brake rod from the transmission. Using a 1.5 mm hex wrench, loosen the grub screw on the end of the rod and slide the collar, tubing, and washer off of the rod. Then you can slide the rod away from it's mounting location on the transmission. I always reinstall these parts back onto the brake rod so they won't get lost while the truck is apart.

Next flip the truck over and remove the eight Phillips head screws from the transmission and chassis braces as shown below. Be careful when removing the last screw, as the transmission will drop if not supported from below.

Flip the truck back over and remove the transmission.

Now you'll need to remove the electronics. You should be able to remove all the screws that secure them to the chassis, and them remove them all as one unit without having to pull the servos loose from the receiver. The only area that might give you problem is the steering servo. Depending upon the servo saver that you are using, you may have to remove it to pass the servo through the hole in the chassis. All screws can be accessed without having to remove any other parts, some of them may just be a little trickier than others, especially those under the skid plate.

Now you're down to the actual plate itself. At this point, all you need to do is to remove the 8 screws that secure the chassis plate to the frame of the T-Maxx itself. There are four on each end of the plate. You will also need to remove two screws that secure the steering linkage to the chassis plate as well. Once that's done, simply remove the chassis plate.

Now you are ready to install the RC Raven chassis plate, and reinstall the removed components. Set the plate on the frame of your T-Maxx and reinstall the eight screws that secure it to the bulkheads at both ends. If you are using aluminum bulkheads, be sure you use thread lock on those screws. Avoid the thread lock if you are using plastic bulkheads. Then you'll also want to replace the two screws that secure the steering linkage to the chassis plate. You'll need to use thread lock on these screws as well.

RC Raven provides screws that can be used with their chassis plate. However, when I reinstalled my plate, I still used the stock screws since they had already been threaded into the plastic. If the bulkheads were new, and have never had threads cut into them before, I would have went ahead and used the machine screws. In the picture below, you'll notice the difference between the screws used at the front bulkheads and those at the rear.

Next you'll want to reinstall the transmission. I prefer to reinstall this item first because you can access the driveshafts better when nothing else is installed on the chassis plate. While that may not be a big concern if you are using the stock axles, it makes a big difference when working with the boots that cover some brands of CVD driveshafts.

To secure the transmission to the driveshaft, I used the cap head machine screws provided by RC Raven. Since the thread pattern matched the previous screws, I wasn't concerned about threading them into the plastic transmission housing.

Next it's time to reinstall all of the electronics. It will probably take you a few minutes to sort through the various wires but overall it's not that difficult. Again, just like when securing the plate to the plastic rear bulkheads, I used the stock screws when I would be threading into plastic that had been previously used. I found that in some areas, such as the receiver box, that I needed to dig into my pit box to find a slightly longer screw. The was necessary due to the extra thickness of the replacement chassis plate. The screws supplied by RC Raven could have also been used, but at the time of installation I decided to avoid rethreading any plastic parts.

Don't forget that you'll also need to reattach the brake rod to the transmission.

The final step is to reinstall the fuel tank, motor, and exhaust system. Make sure you properly set the clutch bell and spur gear gap, otherwise you may wind up stripping a spur gear.

That's all there is to swapping out the chassis plate. Here's a pictures of the underside of the RC Raven plate, once it's been installed.