C3PO

Is there a quick way to swap motors around in one car? The problem is the soldering of the wires from the ESC to the motor preventing this from being easily done but surely there is a high amp-capable set of connectors available for this job? What would you recommend? Edit: Just found these here -- are they up to the job for very low turn motors and high end ESCs?

Absolutely no sign of life at all from the motor ... not even the slightest hint of vibration or movement.

Well had a bit of a disaster this afternoon. For some inexplicable reason, the car wouldn't move. Checked that the battery was fully charged and saw no problem there, so clearly it had to be to do with the motor and / or speed controller. I wanted to clean up the car too so took the opportunity for some open heart surgery...no mean feat for me with my poor knowledge of anything practical. Taking the motor out: An hour later and the car is well under the knife: A downloaded Schumacher parts diagram -- plus some alcohol -- helps the surgery along: Four hours later (after watching Lost), the car is washed in the sink to remove tons to dust and a few odd stones before being dried. The car had been stripped down to the bare components at drivetrain level (there has to be an easier way to remove the belts...) and were properly cleaned before reassembly: But I stil need to determine whether the motor has failed or it is the speed controller. When connected to the battery the controller does its LED blinking thing when the throttle is applied, but nothing else happens. I have been doing a quite a few donuts so perhaps the D3 has finally given up the ghost:

Thanks again ... wow, that's a revelation .. I have a rally car, hadn't realised that. In a way, it's quite good because what I might do is buy a set of off road rallying tyres and wheels and use it offroad in that way.

Thanks very much everyone, excellent advice.

Hi, does anyone have any top tips on how to properly waterproof your electronics in the car (in my case 1:10 touring) ... also, is waterproofing required for the motor? Thanks in advance.

Yes, it's been like that since I built it! It's a tricky one...

It's currently 13mm at the front -- trying to get it back down to 4mm ideally...

I don't think it isd threaded, and there is no spacer between the spring and the top to take off:

Thanks again Garry ... btw, how do I change the ride height? I've tried moving the shock arm to another "hole" but it hasn't made much difference, cannot see what else to adjust to lower the height apart from cutting the spring down in size a bit, and presumably that is not to be recommended. Just had a look at the tyres, they are "CS27"s...

The car: And the tools:

...and boy did it show. No tarmac track near me so used the local doctors' surgery car park as of course they're now empty on Saturdays. The car is fitted with a Trinity D3 10 turn motor coupled to an ageing 3000 NiMH pack. First few minutes very positive, still goes like the clappers and I'm still amazed by the quality and speed of braking. Had some very close shaves with the curbing and brushed it several times at near maximum speed. Then six m inutes into the run and the car did a David Coulthard - the front wheel went careering off into the distance! Spent the next 20 minutes hunting for the nut and washer amongst the normal car park debris and was surprised to find it. Thankfullly, I took along my toolkit "justincase" something untoward happened and fixed it relatively easily, although there was some damage to the hexagonal recessed part of the inside of the wheel, where the axle has gorged out bits of plastic. Some cutting and "persuasion" with pliers sorted it out. Managed to knacker the tyres of course with some suitably ridiculous drifting and sliding ... do tyres these days come in "hard" and "soft" compounds? Anyway, in spite of my mechanical failure ... I had a cracking time! PS: Will be taking considerably more care with the AM Speed Cyclone when it arrives

I might have to invest in a "sibling donor" then

Superb Garry, thanks very much. I'd like to download a complete manual for the SST from somewhere has mine as since vanished. But I have some more news: I am now the proud owner of a used -- but never raced -- Andy Moore Edition Cyclone ... purchased off eBay ... complete with cells, receiver, ESC and other spares. Cannot wait. This morning bought one of those really useful tool organiser boxes for just

Do you mean here, as labelled: It's very small and presumably I would have to turn it around its axis rather than around horizontally, if you see what I mean...

Okay ... worked out the camber-ometer ... the front right is running @ 1.0 and the front left @ 2.0 (possibly 2.5) ... something amiss here. Need to buy some new pliers tomorrow and "outscrew" the bit which adjusts the length of the steering arm (my current set are used to pick up dead rats taken out in the garden). I find the arms attached to the ball joint on the wheel extremely difficult to pull off for adjustment, is there an easier way to extend the arms to adjust camber?

Thanks guys -- the twitching happens in intervals ranging from 4" to 16" ... I did a test with the car on blocks and ran the throttle at full and there was no consistency as to when it happened. The motor is a modified Trinity "D3" ... and it still goes like the clappers.

I've decided to give the SST a full workout before jumping deep into new kit -- at least it'll determine if the cost is worth it to me! This afternoon I have been closely examining the car and everything seems to be in working order and I even painted a new bodyshell up for the occasion. Garry, you're right about programming the Flash 4 ... it is tricky but have managed to save a set-up for the steering successfully. I have two questions from today's work: 1. The car's steering servo occasionally suffers from a slight twitch, moving the wheels momentarily and therefore out of the straight-line running. Is this likely to be caused by interference or battery issues? The servo is powered by the main battery pack, rather than a seperate set of smaller nicads (which I still have somewhere) ... am I doing something wrong here? 2. The front ride height is 14mm and the rear 10.5mm ... what are your thoughts about this data? 3. I bought a camber measuring guage but have completely forgotten how to use it. It is shaped like a square piece of plastic which has gone slightly "warped". How do I measure camber with this? It is an HPI tool. 4. We moved into a house where the previous owners emmigrated to Australia, and two years on I am still finding new tools that this elderly chap has spent a lifetime accumulating. Today I discovered a Dremel drill and all the bits (the weird thing is I was about to buy one), plus one of those cross bolt spanner things for the wheels. Sometimes it does feel like an episode of Lost in this house...anyway, I need to seriously improve my car body making techniques and I suppose it is practice for me.

Thanks once again.

Thanks ... great pictures by the way...

Hi All, After my introduction on the general electric forum, I thought I'd move here for more detailed advice (thanks everyone for the brilliant advice and help so far). I'm settling for the XRAY T2'008 with a 10.5T motor marred to a LiPo battery and appropriate ESC. It's been a good few years since my experiences on the track (which were few and far between anyway!) and I'd be grateful for what spares I should think about taking in the event that something breaks on track. What's the most common issue during accidents? On a side note, with developing technologies and such is there likely to be any product to feed back telemetry data to the driver from the car ... motor RPM / tyre temperature / battery information?

Okay -- I have budgeted for a mximum of

Thanks ... sounds excellent.

No idea really ... make me an offer and we can go from there perhaps ... would be very keen to include the transmitter + speed controller + receiver...

Thanks -- wow, that's one expensive controller! I'm sure these controller will soon be geting back basic telemetry data from the cars as they race ... now there's an idea... One skill I must learn is to solder properly ... whenever I did it last time there seems to be huge blobs everywhere which either didn't stick the two items together properly or caused a huge mess. Are there any soldering tutorials around for RC cars?