TOPIC:

Ok so we found this fella in the loft and the kids (and Daddy!) want to get it running properly. I must have built this in 91 so my memmory is a little shot on what to do, hoever I have got the instruction book(found that this morning after downloading one from here) so its all good, at least I think so!

Here are some pics of what we have.






What I am after is advice on what to replace, and gudance as I go. Also ho the heck am I going to get that body shell clean of paint?

I have got the rear wing but the bracket is broken so I will need a new one of those.

Budget for this is going to be

boonie wrote:

...
What I am after is advice on what to replace, and gudance as I go. Also ho the heck am I going to get that body shell clean of paint?

I have got the rear wing but the bracket is broken so I will need a new one of those.

Budget for this is going to be

Ok fired it up just now and it runs! steering is dodgey as it wont self centre and it likes to keep accelerating!

Now for the clean up and upgrades, need some help here people plese.

Thanks JR. I think I will go for mechanics then the aesthetics. So it may be brushless as they seem to go really fast, will I need to change the gearing at the same time?

For a (not all too insane) brushless a different set up for the gears is not a must.
The gearing depends mostly on where you want to drive it I think. On road or (most probably) off road.
There is an option to get some speed tuned gears :

Tamiya 53127

Advantage of these is that they are a one piece (plastic) part, replacing the seperate metal drive gear.
With it installed you also have a bigger choice of pinions.
A suitable upgrade in any case - the spurs are 66 and 69 teeth while the basic set up is 74T so the difference is not huge...


With the basic spur (first line) the maximum pinion is the one that's provided - 21 teeth.
You can only go smaller (more torque and less top speed) with this one.
The 69T offers the possibility to go up in pinion size...

The car not lining up when driving can have a few causes :
- servo not working great anymore
- steering rods not attached properly
- front uprights (1) won't turn smoothly because king pins (2) are tightened too much
- holes in the C hubs (3) are giving too much resistance - cleaning or slightly sanding can help


I'd recommend getting an alloy motor mount. The plastic part might get warped and kill the gears.
Don't see much advantage in installing a 13 turns brushless over a (let's say) high quality 17T brushed myself though...

boonie wrote:

Ok fired it up just now and it runs! steering is dodgey as it wont self centre and it likes to keep accelerating!

Now for the clean up and upgrades, need some help here people plese.

Thanks JR. I think I will go for mechanics then the aesthetics. So it may be brushless as they seem to go really fast, will I need to change the gearing at the same time?

Not being able to badword the power off is either down to the MSC and/or it's linkages being worn, or badly adjusted, or the throttle trim on the transmitter being incorrect ... but it's mostly in the nature of MSCs to do that ...

Edou seems to have got the steering covered better than I would have done - and that's great info on the gearing :L ... in general, the more extreme the motor, the smaller the pinion needs to be (higher number to 1 gear ratio) to take advantage of the higher revs a brushless motor generates - a really "mild" brushless won't need much of a reduction in pinion gteeth, if any, a "medium" like a 13.5T would benefit from some less pinion teeth, especially on high drag surfaces like grass, and/or in smaller spaces, if you go for the full monty 5.5T, then the fewer teeth the better ...

Bear in mind that the faster you go, the more likely you are to crash it, and as the speed will be mush higher, the more damage you will do - this is an issue with plastic parts designed when the peak of motor development was something like the Technigold motor (21 turns) - even before age, atmosphere & UV has got to them ...

Edou wrote:

...
Don't see much advantage in installing a 13 turns brushless over a (let's say) high quality 17T brushed myself though...

More power, excellent power to cost ratio, theoretically less maintenance, halo effect of the bloo alloy motor can with 3 wires coming out of it - just like _all_ V8 engined cars are automatically hugely powerful & and fast


I'd still plump for a Tamiya Sport Tuned motor & basic ESC myself, at least initially

I know, I'm kinda old school...
Still think I will probably outrun most 13+ turns brushless with my 17x2 turns (21st century - 185W brushed) Lrp.

Jonny wrote:

badword the power off

Might wanna edit that one!

Edou wrote:

I know, I'm kinda old school...
Still think I will probably outrun most 13+ turns brushless with my 17x2 turns (21st century - 185W brushed) Lrp.

Jonny wrote:

badword the power off

Might wanna edit that one!

Yeah I liked that advice too!

Thanks all, have been looking online and I think the low turn brushed moter may be the way. See how the kids get into it then may splash some cash

Going to strip her down tonight when the kids go to bed and see where I satnd.

Stripped and ready for cleaning. A few corroded screws here and there and the speed controller is history!



Once all clean I will start shopping for bits properly, so far I am looking at:


Tamiya 53071 Manta Ray Torque Splitter Set -

boonie wrote:

Stripped and ready for cleaning. A few corroded screws here and there and the speed controller is history!

Once all clean I will start shopping for bits properly, so far I am looking at:


Tamiya 53071 Manta Ray Torque Splitter Set -