area52

Team Durango released their latest kit, the DEX408 1/8 scale off-road buggy only the week and area52 was able to get one of the first kits in Europe. The DEX408 is based on the successful DNX408 nitro variant star of our latest Build Blog entry.

The DEX408 comes in Team Durango's distinctive darkish colour design box - a piece of art.

The buggy is supplied as kit and comes with clear polycarbonate body, black plastic wing, white wheels (hidden under that pile o' parts) and without radio system, electronics, or tyres.

The manual is as beautiful as the box and quite thin for a parts-heavy vehicle such as an 1/8 scale buggy.

The 408's drivetrain is equipped with three sealed and oil-filled gear differentials. The spur gear is made from a plastic compound to reduce weight and noise emission compared to a steel gear. The other diff gears are made of steel of course with sintered spider (internal) gears.

The spider gear's cross pins run in sintered inserts for a more precise location of the parts and a smoother running differential.

The front and centre diff are being filled with 7000 CST silicone oil while the rear one received a 2000 CST filling. The oil is supplied with the kit. The white stuff you can see on some of the parts is Castrol White Paste - an assembly grease that we used on the diff's seals to help with lubrication and tightness.

The DEX408's exclusive way of locating the input gear: red anodised ball bearing holders house the bearings and input gear.

Fitting the input gear's retaining circlip can be a tricky task. First make sure you pressed the ball bearings and the input gear in all the way. Then locate the circlip so that it faces the notch in the gear - this will make it easier to remove the clip in case you need to change the bearings when they are worn. Then use pliers to press the circlip onto the input gear. Be careful not to scratch the red bushing as scratches look unprofessional!

Here you can see the build differentials and how the red bushing sits in the gear box cases. We used a small amount of Team Associated Black Grease on the gears, but not much!

The plain hard anodised 3mm aluminium chassis plate. Different from other chassis we have seen in the past it is not heavily machined to retain a certain rigidity against flexing.

The suspension mounts cut from aluminium sport hard anodising and interchangeable plastic inserts to alter the suspension setup without the need to buy new mounts.

Here you can see the front of the chassis with the steel distance plate that raised the suspension mounts and bulkhead. It also acts as a stopper for the droop screws.

Distance plate, suspension mounts and front wishbones in place.Make sure the wishbones move freely and without binding. If they don't (move freely) carfully sand the thin plastic washers behind the wishbones to free things up.

The front bulkhead with attached CNC-machined aluminium shock tower and inserted differential.

The front bulkhead again this time seen from the rear so you can see the retaining lug that prevents the gear case from rotating.

The front bulkhead in place with inserted differential/gear box. The design is being carried over from the iconic DEX410 buggy with both buggies allow for very swift differential changes by undoing a couple of screws and pulling out the diff case.

Pull-it-out!

The rear suspension mounts of the 408. You can clearly see the markings such as RR-L (rear/rear/left) and RF-R (rear/front/right) that indicate the location together with the setting. 3/3 means 3 Degree toe-in, and 3 Degrees kick-up. Try not to mix these up!

Supplied with the kit are also shims to alter the roll-centre setting. Here you can also see the plastic inserts again. Several are supplied with the kit so you don't need to buy additional ones to to adjust the settings.

Here you can see the plastic differential holders/retainers. They are easy to detach to get access to the differential/gear case.

The rear bulkhead with fitted suspension arms. That's for now, more to come very soon!