How To: Getting Started with an MR-02

To get your rolling chassis going, you will need a few, very basic tools. Amongst them is a Phillips head driver, an XACTO knife, some PN racing tire tape and a lighter.

The rolling chassis from Kyosho comes assembled as a 94 mm wheel base car with the motor mounted behind the rear axle of the car. Since the motor is mounted between the rear axle, this configuration is know as "RM" or Rear-Motor. At this wheelbase, any Kyosho AutoScale that has a wheelbase of 94 mm will fit on the chassis without any modification.

The Mini-Z rolling chassis also comes with an optional 98 mm wheel base motor mount (as you can see pictured above.) The stock 98 mm motor mount has the motor mounted in front of the rear axle. This is known as a Mid-Motor car, or "MM". At this wheelbase, any Kyosho AutoScale that has a wheelbase of 98 mm will fit on the chassis without any modification.

In this case, the body we are using is an Aston Martin DBR9. The Aston Martin is a 98 mm wheel base car, so in order to fit it on our MR-02 chassis, we are going to swap out the rear motor mount to the mid motor mount.

Start by removing the screw that attaches the top shock to the rear motor mount and the 2 screws that connect the motor leads to the electronic board on the chassis.

Flip the car over and remove the 2 screws that attach the rear suspension to the main chassis. Once these are removed, the whole rear en can be detached.

Once you have removed the entire rear end, you must remove the rear differential from the old motor mount. First remove the left rear tire from your car.

Once you remove the rear left wheel you can pull the differential out to the right of the car. After you pull out the differential, unclip the motor holder to pull the motor out of the mount as well.

This is an expanded view of where all the parts you have removed belong in the car.

The first thing we need to do with the new motor mount is install the bearings that came with our stage 1 Upgrade package. You will use two of the three 3x6x2.5 bearings supplied, one on each side of the motor mount.

Now we can slide the differential into the motor mount and slide the left tire anchor into place.

For the next couple of steps we need to bust out the beautiful new Aston Martin DBR9 body. Open the package, take the cover off and pull the wheels off of the display chassis. Don't be afraid, the nuts holding them in place are just pressed on.

Above we have the Aston Martin wheels almost ready to install on our rolling chassis.

Again we have an expanded view of the of the rear end. This time we have the aston wheels and bearings. The third 3x6x2.5mm bearing goes on the outside of the right-rear tire of the car. On the left, we install the wheel just as it was when it came from the factory.

This is a pretty much finished rear mount, ready to instal to the main chassis.

Next we will attach the H-plate (also known as t-plate) on the car. The upgrade package comes with your choice of a Soft, Medium and Hard plate. In this case we will use the medium one.

First, attach the H-plate to the motor mount.

In order to run a 98mm wheel base it is necessary that the h-plate holder and the h-plate are installed on the 2 forward-most holes of the main chassis.

H-plate is now installed! If you want a little more rear traction, use the softer bar, if you want a little more rear slide use the hard plate.

In order to install the motor on the mount, we need to press the mounting plates onto the motor. We are installing a 7 tooth pinion on the car, therefore we select the 7T plates.

As long as the plates are installed correctly, the motor should slide right into place and the gears should mesh properly.

This is a ready-to-install motor clip.

If you stick a phillips head screw driver into the top of the shock, you can unscrew the bottom part of the shock and take it apart. Once dissasembled dip the shock shaft into the grease and re-assemble it once lubed.

Time to route the motor wires and screw the terminals back to the electronic board. It is important that you do this correctly and that your wires look like they look above or at least that you are certain that they are not binding.

We now move to the front end of the car. The first thing we will do is remove the front wheels.

The Stage 1 Package comes with some stainless steel king pins. These are much smoother than the stock steel ones and should make your front suspension work much better as well.

To install the king pins, we must first remove the old ones. To do this simply remove the plastic "C" clip that secures them.

Assemble the front end in the same way that it came from the factory. This time, use the stainless steel king pins.

Slide the wheels over the front axles and install the wheelnuts. Be patient, we are almost done...

The body clip is next on our list. Remove it from the dummy AutoScale chassis and install it with the same two screws on your MR-02 chassis.

Make sure that your body clip screws are tightened all the way. A loose clip is more prone to breaking and stripping the chassis screw holes.

Now remove the AutoScale tires from your wheels. These tires are so hard I think the only thing they might be good for is drifting.

We still have tires left to install. Funny that this is the last thing we do in this article, because if you were to do on single upgrade, this would be the one to make the biggest difference.

To install the tires, the easiest way to do so is with double sided "tire" tape. The one pictured above is made by PN Racing.

Use some of the wide tape on the rear wheels. Go around the wheel 1 full circumference making sure that the tape sticks evenly and staight.

Cut the tape at the seams of where the tape begins to overlap with an Xacto knife. This method is the easiest to make sure that the tape is on every little bit of wheel.

Do the same in the front of the car.

If you heat of the tape a little bit, it seems to stick better. This must soften the adhesive temporarily allowing it to penetrate whatever it is gluing together better. Don't scorch the wheel though, all that is needed is to heat up the glue a bit.

Peel the adhesive protective film in order to expose the glue of the tape.

Mount the tire on the wheel and work it on evenly with your fingers. Make sure that the tire looks even, that it is centered and not "lumped up" on the wheel of the car.

Again, work the front tires so that they are even and balanced on the wheel.

prepare to install the body...