After I assembled the complete rear-axle, I checked the left to right weight-distribution. It's very easy to check it on your car. Put the complete power pod included motor on a flat table and pick-up the power pod with a small screwdriver on the center. The location of the center of the PN Racing power pod is easy to find, it's exactly between the 2 threaded holes. I was a little surprised to see a very unequal weight-distribution between the left and the right side. The right side was much heavier.
'Why is that?', may ask some of you. The motor is nearly centered mounted, but the weight of the differential makes the rear-axle weight distribution not very equal. The wheel-load is not well balanced and let your car accelerate like a banana. And the cornering will be different left to right. Most people don't realize this and try to set the steering a little different at the left and right side. But for me, that's everything but acceptable.
The Mini-Z is a very tiny car and every little change cause a big difference when driving. To solve this problem, I tried first to put some balancing weight on the left side of the power pod. If I put 5-6 gr. there, the axle is nearly perfect balanced. But I did not wanted to glue some ugly metal waste on my car. I found another solution to let Flo and the other cracks of the track cry, like little babies.
I took a sheet of 1.5mm stainless steel and cut a u-formed piece out of it. I made a rough drawing on paper (yes, I could make it by my high-performance, numbers-eating monster-computer on CAD, but it was much quicker to make a small scribble by hand). I marked the lines and hole-position on the metal and started the hack-saw massacre in my basement.
I trimmed all by some small files, sand-paper and set the hole to fix the plate on the bottom-side of the power pod. For sure, I had to make another hole there on the power pod. Luckily I did not destroy the expensive PN-piece by drilling a wrong hole, or something else and all fitted nice and perfectly together. After re-assembling the complete rear-axle I checked the new weight distribution on the kitchen scale. The result was as 50:50 weight distribution left to right. Good job, Michael!
The plate had the correct weight, is mounted on the lowest possible position on the chassis and is looking so nice, that I am absolutely sure, Flo gets fleas for jealousy. Plus, my car will accelerate straight, like the space shuttle when lift-off. Hello Mr. Atomic, there is a new option part for you! During Flo is tramping over the alps around the Lake Garda and is stuffed by greasy Pizza, I could increase my advanced technologies and he will have no chance to beat me on this area. And he will be not happy, to see, what I did with my car.
So long, Michael
