Amt0571

I have not managed to open the turntable. How do you do it without breaking anything?

I have not had the issue of the tips pulling from the shafts yet. I doubt It'll happen considering the use this model will see is mostly as a display. I have the 42144 material handler and the 42043 Arocs, obviously with original cylinders, and when I pick them up to play the cylinders are usually sticky and I need to move them before playing like you describe with the mould-king ones. The small one that operates the grabber on 42144 and the buckets on 42043 are the worst offenders. I usually move them slightly manually and then they work smoothly.

Finally the cylinder and pump replacement arrived. It was not said on the Aliexpress ad, but they turned out to be from "Mould King". They seem to work well and the cylinder has less friction than original lego cylinders which means a slightly smoother movement. They're visually identical except that both, pump and cylinder, have a "Mould King" logo engraved on the side. It's ugly, but somewhat difficult to see, so it doesn't bother me that much.

Well, I've finally finished 42043. It has definitely surpassed 42082 as my favourite set. Don't get me wrong: I love 42082 for its huge size and well working functions, but the Arocs functions all work flawlessly, the looks are great, and it's a set that feels like they didn't try to reduce costs anywhere. Pneumatics with motorized compressor, a relatively complex gearbox with 3 other functions, 2 driving and 2 steered axles, full suspension, a 6L full size piston engine... It's just too good. The only things I could wish for are a softer front suspension, a steering that felt slightly less stressed, a reversing gearbox a-la 42082 so it wasn't needed to use the switch on the battery box to change direction, and a crane that was "foldable" in a more realistic manner. All things that I can easily pardon since the set is so good. I paid more than the original price: 235€ + shipping for it, used, with original box, manual, fully cleaned, disassembled, and a new sticker sheet. It was definitely expensive, but worth every cent. We need less cars and more Legos like this.

Great information. And do all silicon oils use carriers that dissolve the pieces, or are there safe to use silicone oils? I sprayed the oil yesterday and today everything seems fine at the moment. Does it means It's ok? Or is it a slower process?

I'm building an Arocs 42043 and the turntable felt quite bad even before assembling it. Turning the gears with my fingers it got stuck even before attaching the crane to it, and after mounting the crane on the truck it barely turned more than 20º before getting stuck and making the clutch gear slip. I had the idea to lubricate it, and looked online about adequate oils. I found that some recommended silicone oil, and I went to the garge as I had a silicone oil spray. I sprayed inside the turtable through the 4 top holes and spun it and after that everything started to work like magic. Later, I read that some silicone oils contain acetone and that it damages the plastic. The spray I have doesn't say anything about it, but I'm not sure if I should be worried and remove the oil. I used a Parkside branded spray that specifically says "plastic" and "rubber" on it... so I suppose I'm safe, but I don't really want to damage anything.

Eventually I'll probably disassemble the polarity switches and the 8082 battery box, but so far I have not felt the urge to do so. I assume the problem is corrosion because the cable connections fail sometimes too because of it. At least cables don't need to be disassembled to remove the corrosion, so It's an easy process. I know micromotors tend to fail, but last time I tried, probably a couple of years ago, both of them worked like new.

Yes, I know that. In fact I have one of the connectors wired to a 9v wall transformer, from when I got tired of replacing batteries. The problem is that the polarity reverser switches don't work either. I have 4 of them from 8480 and 8082 and 3 of them don't work at all and the 4th works partially, only in a specific position. The 8082 battery box doesn't work either. Someday maybe I'll try to disassemble them to see what can be done... I suppose the internals are corroded.

8880 is probably my favourite set and it has a lot of sentimental value to me. I wanted it so much when I was a kid... I think I waited a couple of years for it, and when it finally arrived on christmas it was such a great moment! It's the only "old" technic I keep assembled on a shelf. I also really loved 8082 because I played so much with the motors but, unfortunately, like with 8480, which was also a great set, multi controls no longer work and the cables insulation has desintegrated leaving only the exposed wires. On the modern ones I built after my dark ages, I love 42082: it's huge and the functions work great which makes it really fun to play with. Someone has told me that this year, Santa is coming with 42043 which I always regretted buying when it was new... we'll see if it surpasses 42082.

Yes, that was my thought exactly, as I saw a bunch of them on bricklink that said that they didn't pump in the description, so I suspected they end up failing the same way. I wanted to build the excavator with original parts, but I have made an exception on the pump and cylinder for this reason.

Following your instructions I have cleaned the rod and the cylinder is now smoother. It still leaks air around the seal when retracting though, and it doesn't retract unless there's some weight on it, which is not much of a problem as the excavator arm weight seems enough to lower it. I've been unable to save the pump though. There's no way to make it pump consistently. In the end, and since they were relatively cheap, I bought a clone cylinder and pump on Aliexpress and also ordered some parts on Bricklink to replace a few missing and broken ones so I can finish building it. I hope the aliexpress parts quality is good enough.

I'm trying to rebuild my old 8837 excavator after 30 years of storage and I noticed that the pump mostly doesn't work. For every 20 pumps, maybe one works and the others don't add any pressure (and in fact leak any pressure already in the circuit). I also noticed that the big piston leaks on the shaft seal (it retracts, but it doesn't hold pressure), and the metal shaft is blackened from what seems corrosion or residue of a rubber seal. It holds pressure normally in extension though. I tried to open them to see what's happening but felt that if I pushed harder I would damage them. I checked on bricklink and both parts are available but, being old parts, I fear they'll end up the same. I also checked aliexpress and it seems there are chinese clones available. Is there a way to repair those parts? or is the best option to buy a working or a cloned part?

I'll check it out! thanks!

Thanks. I've just bought 2m of grey, black and blue tubes. The ones in the package seem to work well, but look quite ugly, so I'm going to assemble it with the new ones.

I just received a used Arocs 42043. Everything seem OK and seems in good shape (have not assembled it yet, but pneumatic controls, cylinders, and pump work perfectly, as well as the motor), but one pneumatic hose seems to be replaced as its matte instead of shiny like the others. The matte hose seems to be ok, but the others that seem original have clearly lost flexibility and they seem to me they're deformed and keeping the shape they had on the assembled model. Is there a way to restore the original flexibility of the tubes? Also, the original set stickers, which are applied, are cracking and peeling on several places. The seller included a new, non original, sticker sheet (which I appreciate), but it's print quality is not as good as the original. Is there any place that I can buy a sticker set with the original print quality at a reasonable price?