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WL Toys 104001 Beginners Guide: 4 things you MUST DO

30/4/2021

27 Comments

 
The WL Toys 104001 is an all new car from WL Toys for 2021 that is in the larger 1/10 scale size. Unlike their previous 124019 which is essentially a lengthened 144001, this car is a completely new design. For this reason I will firstly be looking at some tuning that I STRONGLY recommend you complete before even your first run. This is not a review, I'll look to complete that later on once I've spent more time with the car and can give you some thorough feedback rather than an off-the-cuff opinion.
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Just like the 144001 was copied from the LC Racing EMB-1, the 104001 looks to be inspired by the 2016 onwards X-Ray XB4 which is the same basic design to this day albeit with minor improvements year to year. The XB4 is a high end race car and is a strong platform to base design off. However where the XB4 is a no-nonsense race car the 104001 has gone down the basher route so materials and complexity of parts have been downgraded to meet a price point which is more accessible. Whereas race cars need very specific and precise tuning and consumables, bashers tend to be more forgiving however there are some basics you can improve on to enjoy better durability, performance, efficiency and handling. Here I've identified 4 key areas to look at. None of this tuning requires new parts, only consumables.
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​My WL Toys 144001 was ordered from Banggood here
Add Differential Fluid
With the WL Toys 144001 and 124019/18 we added grease to the gears as this semi solid material would attach to the gears within. In higher spec RC cars differentials are sealed with gaskets and o-rings meaning you can use flowing fluids of varying viscosity to tune them. The good news is then that the 104001 does indeed have sealed diffs so we can use a proper diff fluid. I've have chosen to use a 10,000wt fluid which is very much on the thick side. This will create a high level of resistance to the diff spinning and will serve it well on low grip surfaces. If running on high grip surfaces like tarmac, concrete, carpet you'd want to go much lower, say down to 100wt or even the same grade as is used in your suspension. Regardless of what you choose, here is the process for removing the diffs, opening, adding fluid, re-assembling and putting your car back together. This whole process is MUCH easier than the 144001 due to the design improvements they have made.
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1) Remove the M3 screws circled in red above at the front of the car
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2) Remove the 2 long m3 screws circled in red above from the underside at the front.
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3) You should be able to easily remove the front diff cover now. I like this design!
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4) Remove the 2 long m3 screws circled in red above from the underside at the rear.
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5) Remove the M3 screws circled in red above at the rear of the car
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6) Just like the front the rear is super easy to remove. See the diff cover in the foreground here
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7) Take out both front and rear diffs. You'll need to follow these steps for both (which are identical) Undo the 4 small M2 screws.
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8) The large ring gear will com off like this. Don't let the pin fall through but the light coating of grease from factory will keep it in place
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9) Pull the side gear out of the case and pop it back on the ring gear as above. See that green gasket? Sealed Diff!
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10) FYI this is what the ring gear side assembly looks like. O-ring completes the seal and it is well shimmed
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11) I used a 10,000wt oil but this is on the heavy side. Perhaps start with 1000wt or lower for general use. Any RC brand is fine. I Find Team Associated cheapest usually but there is a global shortage of bottle caps at present - being used for sanitiser bottles!
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12) Top the diff up to the rim with the diff fluid. Some like me like to fill to 100%, some to the cross pins, some half. There is no right answer but the more you fill, the more the effect of the oil will be felt. As I say, I prefer 100% full
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13) Wait for the bubbles to come up. This may take 10 minutes with thicker fluids like mine.
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14) Pop the ring gear back on. Excess fluid will come out of the screw holes and that is fine.
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15) Screws back in
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16) Add some grease to the diff pinion gear as pictured since there was no lubrication there at all from the factory
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17) Return diffs to the housing front and rear taking care to add driveshafts to the diff cups. Reverse steps 1) - 6) to reinstall the diff housing covers.
With no real fluid inside my diffs would free wheel easily and limit traction where I needed it most when offroad. Although I'd probably choose a slightly lower weight fluid next time I do get much better drive grip on low grip surfaces and more predictable drifting.
Adjust tie rods to the correct length
The tie rod are the metal bars (with black plastic ends) the connect the wheel hub carriers to the chassis. They are fully adjustable and shortening or lengthening them can change the following:
  • Camber front and rear - the angle the the wheels lean in (negative camber) or out (positive camber) at the top
  • Toe adjustment front only - the angle that your wheels point in (toe in) or out (toe out) looking from the top down
Adjustment from the factory is awful - way too much toe out and negative camber. The ideal is for a tiny bot of toe out on the front of a 4wd car (or neutral to be safe) and a little camber front and rear to help with cornering and tyre wear. Below is how to adjust:
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1) This is how it came from the factory. Toe out and all of the steering mechanisms are misaligned. Yes, my slippers are super comfy.
2) First you'll need to set a reference point, that being that the steering cranks and assembly is in neutral (symmetrical) position as above. This will be the point you adjust everything around.
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3) In the image above you'll see the servo horn is not pointing straight up with the steering cranks in that neutral position - this needs to be addressed...
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4) Insert a small too (I used a 1.5mm allen key) into the hole in the tierod/turnbuckle and rotate either back or forth. Since each end is threaded oppositely the tierod will lengthen or shorten. In the above photo I pulled towards me to shorten. Note if the black plastic ends twist off the pillow balls the give them a small twist to release the bind and you will be fine to proceed as normal.
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5) Steering cranks are now symmetrical and servo horn is pointing straight up. This should give even steering for both left and right now.
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6) Now adjust the right steering tie rod to set the "toe". Aim to point this either straight ahead or allow up to 1 degree "toe out" (pointing outward). A little toe out in a 4wd car is ok because the front wheels being driven pulls them forward. The 1 degree allows for the slop in the steering mechanism to be taken up mean that under power the point directly ahead. Repeat for the left side
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7) Do the same for the front upper tie rods which set the camber. Aim for around 2 degrees negative camber at the front i.e. tops pointing slightly in towards the car. Repeat for the other side.
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8) Finally adjust the camber for the rear. Start with around 1 degree - ever so slightly pointing inwards at the top
As you saw my steering, toe and camber adjustments were well out. This tuning gave me more consistent steering left and right, better straight line tracking and cornering stability plus more even tyre wear.
Correct fluid level in the shocks
When the 144001 was released it didn't have enough shock oil and dampening was a little light. Later on they had too much oil which limited travel and made the lower seals leak. So how about the 104001 now that they have those learnings? Well mine was alright - slightly low if I am picky - which I am! I topped mine up with a 30wt shock oil as below:
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1) Remove the front shocks 1 at a time. To do the top you'll need a Philips screwdriver and something to hold the M3 nut while you undo it.
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2) Undo the lower M3 screw as well and remove the shock absorber
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3) Here is one of the front shocks removed
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4) pull the spring up and remove the lower black collar via the slotted piece. Set the spring and collar aside
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5) Unscrew the top cap. Don't spill it! If you have been playing with the shock like I always do, allow 5 minutes for the bubbles to escape the thich shock fluid.
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6) I topped mine up with a little 30 weight oil right to the top with the piston fully down.
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7) Gently remove the rubber seal from inside the top cap. It will look like this once you have removed.
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8) depress the shock piston and pop the top rubber seal on. Some fluid will overflow - that is fine
9) Gently screw the top cap all the way on. Pull the piston all the way down and you should feel consistent resistance all the way down as the shock absorber does it's job. As the shaft leaves the cavity it will create a small vacuum which causes the rubber seal to flex slightly into the cavity whilst keeping a hydraulic seal. If movement range is limited or you hear bubbles, repeat steps 5) - 8).

Finally reinstall the shock and repeat for the remaining front and both rear units.

My shocks were slightly underfilled and I could have run as is but with this method I get the best and most consistent dampening possible.
Confirm gear mesh is correct and adjust if necessary
The 144001 had a fixed motor mount which was great because your gear mesh was perfect no matter what but disappointing for the advanced users because it meant not adjustment if you wanted to change pinion sizes. The 104001 is fully adjustable and my gear mesh was way too tight from the factory. This forces this pinion against the spur which creates friction and results in additional wear, a reduction in power and increase in load on the motor and electronics - not the situation you want and a really important area to fix. Below is how I set my gear mesh correctly.
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1) Undo these 4 screws that hold down the gold coloured aluminium piece that keeps the spur gear in place. Use a good driver as these screws have plenty of loctite
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2) Next undo the 3 screws that hold the black plastic spur gear cover on. Remove the cover and this will expose the spur and pinion gear
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3) Loosen the 2 circled screws but don't remove - 1 full turn is more than enough. You'll see they go in a slotted hole. You should now be able to slide the motor in and out which will move the pinion closer and farther from the spur gear.
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4) Personally I like to set the gear mesh by feel but the paper method is easier for beginners. slide a piece of regular a4 or copier paper between the pinion and spur. Pust the pinion hard into the spur with the paper between and snug down both the motor adjust screws that you loosened in step 3). This should be the gear mesh set. Rotate the paper out and it should be tightly crinkled as above and your gear mesh about right - make sure the car rolls freely to be sure. Reverse the disassembly of steps 2) and 1) and you're good to go!
My gear mesh was too tight. with it correctly spaced as above you'd instantly get more power, better battery life and less wear.
No droop screws, no rear toe adjustment.
On the 144001 we were able to add droop screws to limit suspension travel but we do not have this option here. The only way this can be done is by adding collars between the shock piston and body as was done in this article. This does however mean disassembling the shock in order to do so. As much as I'd prefer droop screws like on the 144001 and 124019/18, setting ride height with collars in the shocks seems to be commonplace with 1/10 scale race cars, presumably because it is more accurate.
The rear arm pins resolve a lot of the strength issues from that of the 144001 including a through bolt and solid metal mounting points but takes away the adjustability. Toe in is less severe here though so I am happy to leave as is on this car - not that I have a choice!!
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Unlike the 144001, the rear arms have no plastic inserts meaning can can't choose between toe in and no toe. Instead they have one piece aluminium mounts and screws rather than captive pins. This is a vastly superior design feature that was a weak point on the 144001 and 124018/9 series of cars.
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Rear toe in is exaggerated by this picture and it's not too bad. It actually helps with cornering stability in the real world. Lack of adjustment here is a small price to pay for the extra durability.
What next for the 104001
I have plenty of plans for the 104001 to come which of course I'll be writing full guides on which will include:
  • Full review and comparison to the other WL Toys models
  • How to get the most performance out of the stock setup
  • Brushless upgrade guides (of course)
  • Wheel and tyre recommendation
  • Servo upgrade options
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Review is coming soon and it gets a bit messy!!
Hopefully you have found this article useful, I'm focusing on making my guides and testing more technical and exhaustive so the choice is made easier for you. If you purchase via the links here or on any of my pages I receive a small commission at no cost to you which is enough to help my cover my hosting fees and other expenses related to quadifyrc.com - thanks. BTW if you are looking for some solid deals I chose my favourites in the coupons and discounts page here
27 Comments
RCFREAK
7/5/2021 04:41:30 am

Excited for the review. Been saving my banggood points for something like this.

Reply
QuadifyRC
7/5/2021 11:22:18 am

Do it... Main problems so far are that it's slow and there is a bit much flex in the chassis but those are easily and cheaply resolved.

Reply
Vincent Fischer
1/6/2021 01:44:48 am

The let it stuck in the Prom,phase forever which prevents you from spending BGPoints :/

Reply
Steven A Lehneke
12/2/2022 11:44:37 pm

I love the V10 or or 104401 but my biggest problem with it is that The rear Pinion gear the one against the big differential gear keeps turning into powder both of them are knocking teeth off and then turning into powder this is the 2nd car I got a return on from Amazon and I'm not sure if I should do a 3rd I'm even put heavy duty black grease from traxas on the small gear and big gear and hopes of this not happening The front does not do it only the rear and it did it on its 2nd run out Please help is there a heavy duty Different opinion here I could get

Reply
Chris Vallone link
11/5/2021 11:42:09 am

Love your site my friend, I have learned so much from ya. The 144001 info you put out is awesome, and I plugged ya on my YT channel with the info you share. As far as the 104001, I did a quick open box and initial review and I thought she was ok. Then I did a brushless build https://youtu.be/kt8a_XCKdS8 very basic, cheap setup, and I thought it did not do too bad for 3s, about 47mph on my 3650 4300kv setup. I can't wait to see what your thoughts are. I actually like the platform of this buggy, but I see many folks are complaining about it breaking, but some of the things they are doing to it, are just nuts, not sure what folks expect.

Reply
QuadifyRC
11/5/2021 12:02:26 pm

Thanks Chris, glad to share what I've learned. Waiting on parts till I start modding but in the meantime I'm putting it through it's paces so I can write a review that is in depth and covers off the good and bad bits. I think those people complaining about breakages in the most part are just trying to make catchy thumbnails with exception of the chassis flex which is not great. The fix isn't that hard though and I think if that is addressed plus some other things it is a solid car.

Reply
Chris Vallone
11/5/2021 01:33:17 pm

Totally agree my friend. Very much looking forward to what your review is on it.

BroLee
13/5/2021 07:40:41 am

Hello, really interesting article. Thank you very much. Could you give us the dimensions of the battery compartment? Or the maximum battery size that could be put inside?

Reply
Christian
23/5/2021 12:25:07 am

Hey, thanks for the top notch article. I am also interested in the size of the Battery compartment. I already ordered the car and want to buy some additional batteries in advance. Would really appreciate it. best regards.

Reply
Matt
1/7/2021 04:44:10 am

Great articles, look forward to seeing you do more with this as I just got one!!

Do you have any advice on wheels/tyres? First run bashing mine and I have worn the stock tyres massively. It was on tarmac as well as gravel, so I guess the stocks are really for off road only. Have been looking around, and struggling to find anything reasonably priced, and also struggling to find much general advice online.

Would love any recommendations, but also would like to know what you think of getting some 12 to 17mm hex adaptors and running some 1/8 scale Hobao Hyper 7 wheels/tyres on this as I have a good few sets kicking around! They are a lot bigger (~105mm diameter vs stock 104001 being ~80mm) but I think they would fit. Would this be a bad idea - too much loss of acceleration and too much drivetrain loading increase? Or would it maybe work OK? Tempted to try...!!!

Reply
QuadifyRC
1/7/2021 11:53:25 am

Hi Matt

Thanks! I'm wanting to play with a few more wheel and tyre options before I make a recommendation but I know a friend is quite fond of these: https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_A1MI3b

I'd give the Haobao wheels a try, just keep an eye on motor temps and driveshafts.

Reply
Matt
1/7/2021 11:56:40 pm

Thanks a lot, very useful link - I had not checked AliExpress though have used them before, looks like some good options there.

Keep up the good work, and I hope to see more 104001 articles soon!

Zeurdo
13/8/2021 03:25:28 am

Excellent tuto
Merci pour votre travail
Après la 124019 j'attends avec impatience ma 104001 qui arrive sous peu.

Reply
QuadifyRC
17/8/2021 04:28:19 pm

Thanks Zeur and enjoy the new car!!

Reply
Dominik
17/8/2021 06:51:32 pm

They must have read your website :-D
The 104001 I have received seems to have some of the things fixed right from the factory. They used a lot of loctite and almost glued the golden part with it but I managed to disassemble and found out that the gear mesh was alright. I did the paper test and it looks just like yours. Even the tie rods are at an acceptable length for a first drive.
I have not yet checked the dampers yet but at least they are not leaking ;-)

Reply
QuadifyRC
10/9/2021 01:21:38 pm

That's good news that they are improving. I do know they have made subtle improvements in the other cars that are not worth of a spec update but welcomed nonetheless. Time to get out there and drive!

Reply
TB
9/9/2021 01:45:16 am

Always great checking out the newest article from your website. Enjoyed the articles regarding the 144001 a lot. I always wanted to update the diffs of the 144001 to oil filled diffs. Since you know both 104001 and the 144001 my question is: Does the 104001 diff fit into the 144001? Thank you for your answer.

Reply
QuadifyRC
10/9/2021 01:22:23 pm

Thanks, really appreciate the feedback. I'm afraid the diffs are quite different - the 104001 being a lot larger.

Reply
TB
14/9/2021 02:02:25 am

Thank you for your answer. Keep up the good work

Brane
28/9/2021 02:09:59 am

Hello, first of all thank you for your website. I have been a beginner in this hobby for a few months and wanted to update my car wltoys 104001 with a brushless set ... Unfortunately I only have one account on Aliexpress ... I found a cheap version on Aliexpress. Do you think that could work? Greetings Brane. PS maybe you can still find a suitable radio on aliexpress ... The products, for example spare parts, are always a bit cheaper than other providers ... And you can pay with PayPal ... And it works very well with payment and ordering. .. Thank you for reading my na ... I live in Germany .....



€ 40,13 43%OFF | 3650 3900KV / 4300KV Bürstenlosen Motor 60A ESC mit 20kg Metall Getriebe Servo 25T Arm Combo Set für 1/10 1:10 RC Auto Lkw
https://a.aliexpress.com/_msJ6ESO

Reply
QuadifyRC
28/9/2021 05:00:19 pm

Hi Brane
My pleasure. Unfortunately there are a lot of variations of these motors ESCs - some are ok and some are not and it's very hard to tell, especially on a platform like Aliexpress with multiple vendors. Here is the budget one I recommend for this car: https://www.quadifyrc.com/rccarreviews/wl-toys-104001-budget-brushless-upgrade

Reply
McDinkil
12/11/2021 02:18:21 am

Do yo have any tire recommendations for the 104001? Primarily being used for light bashing and running on grass and gravel.

Reply
QuadifyRC
16/11/2021 12:11:23 pm

Ah sorry not yet but with bald tyres I'm needing a new set. If you join my FB group a few guys there have recommended some

Reply
Matt
16/11/2021 08:17:52 pm

Can you provide link or name for your FB group? I tried searching QuadrifyRC and couldn't find... would love to join it!

Simon
20/11/2021 11:06:17 am

Hi, thanks for your website and valuable information.
I have a 124018 which I bash and I bend/snap dog bones and CVDs every session. (small jumps on grass). I've tried shortening shock travel, oil ring / fuel line in drive cups, "upgraded" parts, LC racing parts, all to no avail, they keep bending.
A couple of questions;
1. Am I just expecting too much of theses components and I need to stop jumping ? or
2. Is there some adjustment I have missed which will improve / eliminate the problem or
3. Will dog bones from 104001 fit the 124018 ? A seller on Bangood has the 104001 dog bones at 66mm and they look like a larger diameter than standard 124018 dog bones.

Any advice here greatly appreciated (PS I'm getting the EMB-Truggy pro kit for Xmas, perhaps this car will take the bashing without bending things every session ?)
Regards
Simon

Reply
Daniel
3/2/2022 06:45:58 am

Does the WLtoys 104001 have low voltage detection? Can it use lipo with stock set-up?

Reply
Simon
5/3/2022 07:38:07 pm

Hi again, I can now answer my own question posted above about bending/breaking dog bones and CVD's;
1. most 144001/124018 parts purchased of ebay, banggood and aliexpress were all thinner and weaker steel than original parts and some were even extra thin at the join of shaft to cvd ball (the most common breaking point),
2. the "hardened steel 45 upgrade cvd" commonly seen on same sites are very weak and bend / snap like they are made of soft aluminium
3. Doing a brushless upgrade per Quadifyrc recommendations makes the 124018 much lighter and good quality dog bones and CVD's are lasting heaps better now- its hard to bend them if you jump and land smoothly - even 10 meter jumps ! whoo hooo
4. LC Racing truggy rocks, its a HUGE improvement on the wltoys, much, much stronger, jumps further, lands better, takes the punishment better, well worth the extra money.
Cheers
Simon

Reply



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