After disassembling the front axle from the main chassis and links, we first remove the center servo mounting plate as we will be replacing this with the battery/servo plate.

Here we disassemble the stock hub carriers and steering knuckle.  We prefer to do one side at a time to make sure we do not loose any parts in the process.  The stock ARTR comes with coarse screw as the upper and lower king pin screws, because of the aluminum hub carriers and knuckles we are installing, those need to be changed to machine screws.

Putting it together now with the bearings and the axles installed

Now we reassembled the hub/knuckle assembly back on to the main axle.  We elected to use just one screw on the back side to hold in the hub carrier.  The hub carrier is a snug fit over the main axle, and one screw is enough to hold the hub carrier in place.  On the other side, we applied a little trick and installed only a 3x8mm set screw.  The set screw will be there to prevent the hub carrier from pulling out or becoming mis-aligned with the axle, but because the screw head is missing, it gives the steering knuckle more travel for more steering clearance.

Here’s a shot from the front with the set screw installed

Here’s a shot that shows the extra steering clearance we gained with the set-screw trick

Next we mount the battery/servo combo plate onto the main axle.  Because of the battery configuration that we will try to run with this truck, we have dremeled off one of the mounting stubs from the main axle.  The two remaining stub is more than strong enough to mount the plate.  Our goal was to be able to tuck a 3×3 saddle pack style battery underneath the plate, while running the ESC mounted right next to the steering servo, giving the truck and near perfect left/right balance.

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