2 replies to this topic

[StotheH]

Hi guys, this is my first post on here.

The last time I touched an RC car was when I was about 13... so 17 years ago. I think it was a Hornet and it was probably pretty old at that point.

I picked up three cars at an auction the other day. The first is an original Frog, the second a Hotshot and the third is a TL-01 truck of some kind, I think it might be a Chinese copy from what I've read on here.

Anyway, I brought the cars home and started taking stock of what I'd got for my $25.

The Frog was mostly together but had no motor, it was in the box but stuffed. The whole car was filthy.
The front wheels were both pointing in different directions, the servo connector was clearly wrong.
The cars all came with controllers and batteries so I put one on to charge and dug out a ton of AA's. The MSC Servo worked but the steering servo was dodgy. I popped the cover off and one of the cogs was stripped. I replaced that servo with the steering servo from the TL01 truck. I also put in the servo connector... linkage... whatever they're called from the truck which, with a bit of tweeking, put the wheels in line.
So at this point I had a car with a good battery and working servo's but no motor. I picked up a Sport Tuned motor from my local hobby shop and put that in. Put everything together, turned it on and drove it round the back yard for a while!

Next the HotShot. This was clearly someone's favorite because it's been thrashed. It actually ran as soon as I connected everything up but soon became apparent that all was not well.
I crashed it into the fence during my initial, over excited, shakedown run and one of the front wheels popped off. When I put it on the bench and started really looking at the car I noticed at least a few broken bits.
It was the wheel knuckle that had given out, clearly a long time ago. It was cracked where the ball joints screw in and there was another in the box with stripped out threads.

I then noticed that the front shock had been wired together, one of the lower suspension arms was busted and had a bit of tin riveted in. I guess it got smashed into a fence or two before I got hold of it. I've got the hobby shop looking for parts but if anyone on here has a shock, or more importantly the front F arms parts, I'd love to get some new ones. I've seen the twin shock conversion kit for these models and I'll probably go that way as it looks like it'll be cheaper than getting a new shock.

The MSC on the Hotshot only works when flat out. There's no varying the speed. One of the contacts has a big wear mark on it but I don't know if that's the cause. I'd probably like to get an ESC for this car. The TL01 has one but I don't know if it's got a BEC and it seems to have some bugs. Can anyone tell me if it's ok to connect an ESC into the receiver units on these cars?

So lots of things to learn at this point. So far so good and I'm enjoying being able to fit the whole project onto the work bench (I'm used to working on motorbikes).

[mongoose1983]

Welcome to TC, and welcome back to the hobby!
First of all $25 for the cars was a great price.
I'd recommend you to have a look on eBay for used parts. Or if you post an ad here I'm sure some TCer will be glad to help.
Regarding ESCs, you can use them, but that depends on what kind of receiver the cars have. Be sure to check if they have BEC circuit, or post a picture of the cars (and receivers) and we will be able to tell for sure if they're compatible or not. Other thing that might be useful to you is to have a look at the original manuals. There are other websites that offers you that possibility. You can find them on Google. Check the "base".
I'm sure your return to the hobby will assure you a lot of fun.
Cheers!

[HunterZero]

Score! Great deal.

Note that both those cars have been re-released with minor revisions, and there are minor differences to some parts on the newer versions. Mostly the parts are interchangeable, but in some cases there are incompatibilities with the original cars.

If you need to check re-re parts compatibility, let us know which specific parts you need to replace and we can help you out with compatibility.

You're in luck though, the re-release Hot Shot F parts (front arms) and R parts (rear arms) and D parts (steering knuckles and red damper parts) aren't hard to get, and will work fine with the original car.

If they are not already ball raced, I would purchase a set of ball bearings for each. The Frog should need an extra 8x 1150 bearings in the wheel axles (it should come with 4x 1150 already in the gearbox). Hot Shot should need an extra 13x 1150 and 5x 850 (it should come with 4x 1150 in the diff output shafts in the gearboxes, and two thrust bearings in the prop joints).

If the receiver does not have a BEC circuit, that's OK as long as the ESC you choose has BEC. Look for an ESC that supplies 6V. Note that the Tamiya TEU101BK/TEU104BK don't have BEC. You can still use these if you can get the stand-alone external BEC unit (I have this in my Frog), or I think the Hot Shot speed controller comes with a BEC unit, you could snip that and wire a plug to it to use it between the receiver and the TEU101BK power plug.

- James