Tamiya Kits… Whether you are restoring a vintage sand scorcher or building your very first TT-01, There is a certain nostalgic retroness to them that includes using very old school brass bushing and plastic bearings. Now the first thing I look at with any tamiya kit is replacing the plastic bearings and bushings with decent ball raced bearings.
This not only makes the drivetrain run smoother and quieter but also means that they need to be replaced less often as they do not wear down over time.
We all know that Tamiya kits are pretty basic in design and as a result most of their kits use the same size bearings, however just to make it a bit easier when it comes to selecting bearings I have made a guide to help you select the correct bearings for your new ( or old ) Tamiya kit.
Tamiya TT-02 Bearings
Tamiya TT-01 Bearings
Tamiya MF-01X Bearings
Tamiya M-04/M-05/M-06 Bearings
Tamiya CC-01 Bearings
Tamiya Lunch Box / Hornet / Midnight Pumpkin Bearings:
Tamiya Holiday Buggy / Buggy Champ Bearings
Tamiya TL-01 Bearings
These are the most common Tamiya kits customers upgrade to bearings on however with Tamiya's vast range of models you may need to refer to the information below.
Another thing to take into account is that Tamiya do not give you direct sizes in the instruction manuals, but they give you Codes that “kind of“ offer size information. Below are the codes and relevant sizes.
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Tamiya Code
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Bearing Size
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620
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6 x 2 x 2.5
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730
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|
7 x 3 x 3
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830
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8 x 3 x 3
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840
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4 x 8 x 3
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850
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5 x 8 x 2.5
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1150
|
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5 x 11 x 4
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1160
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6 x 11 x 4
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1260
|
|
6 x 12 x 4
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1280
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8 x 12 x 3.5
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1510
|
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10 x 15 x 4
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1680
|
|
8 x 16 x 5
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2617
|
|
17.5 x 26 x 5
|
We hope this information helps you select the correct bearings for your Tamiya kit. This is one upgrade that is a must in our opinion and well worth taking the time to do.
