As much as would have been happy with a working XB straight away, I'm glad things ended up the way they did. I learned a lot repairing this car. I was able to return it to like new condition plus a few add ons for safety.
Though I didn't witness it firsthand this car has a reputation for blowing up the gear plate. The stock gear plate is made of plastic and the bearings are small for the load they take. I've read that over and over in quite a few posts, and most of those people it happened to within the first hour they had their car, typically after break-in. The bearings seize and the gear plate and gears break as a result. It's kind of crappy that this has been going on and they've not addressed it, but luckily for me I saved some money on the purchase and could sink some of that into an aluminum gear plate.
So here are pics of the repairs:
The first thing I did was rip out the stock rx and install a flysky rx. I set the fail safe as well.
There are a ton of screws to deal with, so I took pictures of the holes and the size screw incase I got lost. When I remembered I also threw the driver in the picture so I know what the hex size was... That's another thing everything is socket hex included the servo screws.
Finally... someone gets it right.
This is where the bumper installs
At this point you can pull the whole front end away. This includes the suspension, shock tower, and frond differential. It's really pretty easy
I decided to knock out the lower suspension arm and sway bar before I took on the differential.
I probably could have kept on using this arm because a rod supports the damaged section, but since I already bought the arm, and if it broke and caused a more serious repair.... so I decided not to risk it.
This this is the shock mount, and it's a bit deceiving because it looks like it's molded into the arm. It's not.
This is where it mounts. It's actually kind of cool that they did that since if that part breaks you don't have to buy a whole new arm.
This is another little gem that's easy to miss. and it doesn't come with the new arm so you need it.
It goes right here. It sets the angle on the lower suspension arms.
However, for some reason you get all new hardware with the sway bar.... and it's pretty cheap.
Time for the differential to fix the outdrive.
The two bolts that come out of the top of the diff box are two different lengths
I made a note for myself
The diff oil was like taffy.
The gear just pops off, but it was so sticky I had to use a small straight blade driver. After you pull the pin out there's a washer (you can see), and an 0-ring (that you can't see). I'm explaining that for a reason.
This set screw goes here (below):
This hole exists so you can remove and reinstall the pin from the outdrive shaft.
New outdrive on, 10K diff oil installed.
Easier to put the gear on top then button the differential up.
Differential done... or is it
where does this go?
This is the scene... when I see the rubber O-ring. I mean really I could have sworn I installed it, but there an o-ring sits.... so I tear it all apart again... empty out the diff oil, pushy the little pin out of the hole... nope, o-ring is there. So I check the other side and the o-ring is there as well. So I did all that for nothing, and I still have no clue where this o-ring was supposed to go. It might have come with the new differential outdrives.
Woot! at this point I had already started the break in as you can see by the dirty paper towels. I wanted to break it in before I installed the new gear plate, because frankly, I wanted to see if it worked before I put the time into it. They engine was an unknown. I pulled the plug and it had been run, but it does say in the engine "manual" that they rain it at the factory. Funny thing, the manual says, "We've set the needle setting at the factory, so you don't need to touch them. And it doesn't give any settings ....
It's important to note that I'm going slow for two reasons. One the engine is new and this is only its second start and two, I didn't want to seize the bearings and destroy the gears.
I didn't take many picture of the gear plate install because it was challenging. There aren't any videos (that I could find, and most people give only snappy answers to questions that people have... In other words, I was on my own to figure things out and I made a few mistakes (that were later corrected).
stock gear plate
Adapter and this thing was a beotch to get off. It was frozen onto the shaft and I had to use WD-40. I marred it up pretty good, which wasn't smart, but I sanded the sharpies off and made it smooth afterwards.
Building the breaks back up was a bitch. Worst part about this whole upgrade.
The difference between the stock and the upgrade bearings... upgrade on the left.
All done, for now. I have a belt drive, and a Killer RC power start coming... I'm getting rid of the pull start. Things to note: You'll need to take the center gear off first to the smallest gear. Pay attention to what gear goes where. The exploded diagram is your friend. Check your gears first, then your brakes. The gear adapters shouldn't ride next to the bearing on the plate. They will cause your bearings to seize. If you find yourself wondering why your car has no roll out start pulling gears off one by one. That's how I found the adapter problem, and I was able narrow it down rather quickly.
I might have to sleep in it too. The one thing I have learned already, is the heftier price tag on parts. Sort of like planes, and helis... the bigger the aircraft, them more parts are going to cost. 
