My king blackfoot restoration project

[Jimbo126]

Hi all, heres my new project, restoring an old Tamiya king blackfoot

 

[Jimbo126]

I put a load of aa batteries in and the tx,rx and both servos worked well, result!

 

I then stripped off all the electrics to get it all cleaned up. More dismantling required with this amount of dirt!

[johninderby]

Nice to see an old Blackfoot being brought back to life. 

 

Have you ordered the bearings yet?

http://www.rcbearings.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=144&search=King+blackfoot

 

        John

[Jimbo126]

18 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Nice to see an old Blackfoot being brought back to life. 

 

Have you ordered the bearings yet?

http://www.rcbearings.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=144&search=King+blackfoot

 

        John

I'll definitely be ordering some of those! Cheers

[johninderby]

Will run much better with proper bearings rather than the stock bushes. The rubber shielded ones work better in the wet.

 

           John

[t2boats]

Love the old retro tamiya! Brings back great memories of my Monster Beetle... Enjoy the rebuild  

[Jimbo126]

1 hour ago, johninderby said:

Will run much better with proper bearings rather than the stock bushes. The rubber shielded ones work better in the wet.

 

           John

Aah I saw that option on there and didnt know which ones to go for, cheers!

[Jimbo126]

Stripped it down and gave it a trip to the home car wash (kitchen sink).

 

I was glad to see that it was all there apart from the front bumper!

 

[Jimbo126]

http://Having cleaned it all up I have put it all back together and after a bit of tweaking got it going really well! 

I have ordered up some bearings but I thought Id see how it went with the old plastic ones in. Even the crusty old motor performed well!

 

Next up will be the bearings to fit when they arrive and then Ill look into a better motor and ESC

[atom3624]

One of my first RC's, built with 2 screwdrivers and a pair of scissors out 'bush' in Guinea, West Africa - locals loved it.

 

Couple of times I lost radio contact when full bore (it maintained the same throttle setting until the battery died!).

 

Hated the mechanical speed controller!

 

Al.

[Jimbo126]

On 07/01/2017 at 14:19, atom3624 said:

One of my first RC's, built with 2 screwdrivers and a pair of scissors out 'bush' in Guinea, West Africa - locals loved it.

 

Couple of times I lost radio contact when full bore (it maintained the same throttle setting until the battery died!).

 

Hated the mechanical speed controller!

 

Al.

Took me a few tries to get the msc set up properly, the hoke that the control arm goes in to is worn so it wouldnt shut off either forward then reverse. A bit of adjustment got it sorted but ill look into getting an electronic one

[Jimbo126]

Does anyone know the rating of a standard tamiya 540 motor?

Ill get a better one eventually but id like to know exactly what the old one is to make comparisons with new ones

[johninderby]

Standard Tamiya silver can 540 motor is 27t..

 

                 John

[chewbacca]

Hoy in those bearings, then grab one of these: https://www.modelsport.co.uk/hobbywing-quicrun-1060-brushed-waterproof-esc-sbec/rc-car-products/404964 and one of these: https://www.modelsport.co.uk/hpi-firebolt-15t-motor-540-type-/rc-car-products/29609 and enjoy! 

 

 

Just ask Noj 

Edited January 8, 2017 by chewbacca

[atom3624]

To be honest, I remember my little Blackfoot well, and the little Mabuchi 540 had plenty of power and torque - loads of donuts on concrete surfaces!!

 

Al.

[Jimbo126]

Thanks for all the info 

That motor and esc seem a good price, it should be a whole lot faster those!

 

Ive never used an esc before, is it a more progressive 'accelerator' than the old 3 speed msc?

[sunny]

MSC is just a variable resistor while esc is a microprocessor so much smoother and reliable and also efficient.

[Noj]

May have a spare bumper.....

 

Bearings are a must, beware of metal fatigue on the rear stub axles, I lightly clipped the wife's rig and sheared the back wheel off! 

 

Great fun on the Firebolt, we have fitted more modern dampers which helps handling a little, steering is vague, our pair are due a rethink to reduce the slop at the servo end....

[Jimbo126]

I picked up most of an old Tamiya Bush devil a couple of weeks ago, which has a mixture of monster beetle and brat bits on it too.

The Blackfoot is in such nice nick (just the body thats a bit tatty) that im going to leave that as standard and mod the bush devil instead!

Got a 20t motor from Daveyb84 and a tx from Mike (evssv), got an esc from sussex model centre yesterday so Im almost ready to put it all together.

 

The rear shocks on it are too long so whel they are fully extended the driveshaft cups hit the wishbones and stop the wherls turning! I think the previous owner had tried to imprive it but actually made it worse