Today I'm starting a new type of content (especially videos). It's called maintenance and improvements, something I'd like to share exclusively with my VIP followers .

Even thought my RC model of Tatra 130 has been extremely dependable in all kinds of conditions (just like a real Tatra), it needs maintenance once a while.

The most problematic system is the steering mechanism (similarly like on the original vehicle). This needs a bit of explanation – Tatra 128 and Tatra 130 were build with a slightly different type of steering mechanism compared to other Tatra vehicles. Not saying it was designed badly – however, as it has been designed especially for Tatra 128, it was not proven that much and some parts had to be improved during production and service later on.

Exactly the same applies to my scale model.

A note for newcomers – the RC model was build exactly according to the real vehicle, not only visually, but also mechanically. That means the chassis is composed of central tube, swinging axles, half-elliptic leaf springs in the front and in the back, spur differential in the front (the real vehicle had 3 spur differentials, the rear ones lockable).

Today we'll begin with solving the large amount of looseness that has gathered in wheel hub joints during the past 9 years of driving in hard off-road conditions with temperatures ranging from -15°C to +40°C.

I decided to implant a metal inset, that would compensate the larger holes in half-axles' wheel hub steering joints. During investigation of best possible solution I found out there is not only a large amount of axial looseness, but also vertical. Both shall be solved with the inset.

The inset had to have exactly 3mm of inner diameter. Accidentally I found a very elegant and also cheap solution – a hollow rivet being produced by local (world-famous) factory of Koh-i-noor. So I bought a pouch of these and the rest you'll clearly see on the video.

Oh, one more thing – the rivets' cap is made of two parts, the shiny cover had to be removed first to get to the hollow inset, that was the exact solution for my purpose.

If you're wondering why the left front tyre is half-white, have a look at my post about 3D printed prototype tyre .

The biggest looseness in steering joints in wheel hubs has been fixed. We'll see how it works. Stay tuned for new leaf springs and tyres!