rich_f

If you're stripping the teeth of the spur gear with a sport tuned (and not driving full speed into solid walls, or landing huge jumps with the throttle on full) then I suggest there's either something wrong with the motor mount, or you've mounted the motor in the wrong holes for the chosen pinion size, or you've got the wrong pitch pinion gear. Which pinion are you using, what pitch, how many teeth and in which holes are you mounting the motor?

What exactly gets broken? The teeth on the spur? The teeth on the counter gear? Something else? I used to race my top force with an 11 turn brushed motor and no gearbox reinforcement, on tracks with jumps, and never had any problems with the gears, let alone any broken ones. I broke an aluminium prop shaft once, and bent some titanium rear damper mount screws, but never gears. Like the other members have suggested, it sounds like you've got an issue somewhere else causing your breakages. Are you using an aftermarket aluminium motor mount? Have you made sure you are using the correct mounting holes for the chosen pinion? Are you using the 'modified' motor mount, which allows the use of larger pinions to the original/standard version? (in this case, the mounting hole positions are not the same as the standard one)

Here's one with a pretty clear depiction of how to wire it up and good explanations of how it works. Regarding current limitation, you just need to choose one with low drain source resistance and high drain current rating - this is all explained on that page linked above. A quick search of RS shows you can get them with current ratings over 100 amps and on-resistance in the milliohms. I wonder if you could do something simpler to prevent putting the cells in the wrong way though, something like modifying the shape of the battery holder and the cells so they can only fit in one way around. The same would have to be done with the charger too, though. Having said that, if you're happy they will be able to put the cells in the charger the correct way around, then maybe they'll be fine doing the same with the battery holder in the car?

A post in this thread suggests that reversing the polarity will cause the tble-02s esc to fail, though seemingly repairably. I guess you'll have to try to make it as foolproof as you can with markings and colour-coding, which it sounds like you've got covered. If you were really worried, you could add reverse polarity protection with a low-resistance p-channel mosfet (instructions can be found online).

That holder looks better than the one with the spindly spring contacts, especially since you've beefed it up a bit with that thicker bridging wire. Any bottleneck now is the relatively small contact patch of each cell on the contacts. The only comment I have now is what about reverse polarity protection? It looks like someone could easily put the cells in the wrong way around. I'm not familiar with that esc but I've known others to fail immediately upon connecting a battery the wrong way.

The old 4-hole silver can that came as standard with Kits in the 90's is pretty similar in spec to a sport tuned and they are practically free - people apparently throw them away.

This is incorrect - as I said before, the TA-02 ones are different, the rest are the same. In other words, TA-01 uprights (traditionally, the red ones) are the same as manta ray, top force. TA-02 uprights (traditionally blue) are different, as in they are narrower in track width and use different bearing sizes. They also look different - they are smooth and don't have the strengthening 'ridges' running horizontally right out to the outer face like the TA-01/DF-01 ones do.

Normal blue TA-02 uprights are different, the rest are the same.

I would guess that tamiya (or any esc manufacturer) puts a conservative number on their turn limit, especially for the cheap mass produced stuff like the ones they put in every kit as standard. Electronic components have a tolerance range and 2 seemingly identical escs might handle a hotter motor better or worse than the other. Also, they have to cater for multiple driving styles and even climates - if you're using your car in 40 degree temperatures, you won't get away with as hot a motor as the same esc in 10 temperatures, for example. For these reasons, I would guess they state a conservative limit. Also for these reasons, just because someone else gets away with a motor with fewer turns than the limit specifies, it doesn't mean you will too. Conversely, I have seen 101s overheat running a sport tuned during 5-minute races. Have you tried? Or is it an assumption based on the different rpm in forward and reverse directions? When they are in and running, they can't not be going the same rpm, since they will be coupled through the contact with the ground...

Use a brush and some matt or satin black acrylic model paint on the outside? Since it will be the only paint on the outside, you can safely wipe it off and redo it as many times as you like until you get it looking right. Or how about some matt black (or maybe satin black) electrical tape cut to shape? You can get a soft stretchy kind that will conform to the curves nicely.

Looking at pics of the WR-01 (which I'd never seen until just now) it looks like it uses TL-01 uprights, which use the same bearings and kingpins as the TA-01 uprights. So if you're buying TA-01 uprights to replace them, then no, you won't need new bearings. Whether the uprights themselves will fit or not, I can't help you there. (It's the TA-02 uprights that have the odd-sized bearings)

Just for information, the optimum length of an antenna is inversely proportional to the frequency it needs to operate at, and since 2.4 GHz is about 100 times larger than 27MHz, the antenna can be 100 times smaller. The optimum length of a 27MHz antenna is actually over a couple of meters for a quarter-wave monopole, so a few centimetres is optimal for 2.4GHz. (this might be why 27MHz transmitters needed 8 x AA batteries vs. the 4 x AA used in 2.4GHz transmitters - it is impractical to have a 2+ metre long antenna so they are forced to use a smaller one, which is less optimal in terms of efficiency. With 2.4GHz, a few cm is the optimal length, so most efficient, therefore less power is needed for equivalent performance to the 27MHz) There will be an antenna, but it is only a few cm long and is on the inside (like in the phone I'm using to reply to this message 😁) Me too, except with acoms - never owned anything fancy and people still laugh at my 30+ year-old techniplus at races 🙄

Hmm that's odd. Their website says standard delivery (via royal mail and/or hermes) on orders under £10 is £3.95... Maybe something to do with sending hazardous material (pressurised paint can). You can get the correct level of shine without using an airbrush, or spray can. There are many very good brush-on metallic-looking model paints with varying amounts of sheen, and if it really is a mirror finish you are after, the Molotow chrome pen is excellent. Don't even need a brush for that one.

Unfortunately not, but even with postage it comes out much less than your original quote of £15. It's still expensive though, even at £6.99, especially for the small task you want it for. If I were you I think I'd get a small pot of brush paint like humbrol which can be bought with postage for under £3, or less if you can manage to find a physical shop open who sells it.

That's an outrageous price. It's £6.99 from emodels.co.uk

Rather than make a female battery compartment in the car, could you splice in another battery connector (e.g., a tamiya connector assuming that's what's on the esc at the moment) in parallel to the regular contacts? You'd have to attach it internally and have it exiting the battery at the opposite end to allow it to be plugged into the original charger. So the carer would charge the battery using the original contacts and original charger, and then they'd remove it and put it in the car and use the other connector to connect to the esc. That deWalt battery looks like it would fit in a tt01 without much trouble. Might need part of the wider end part filing off.

The point is that the people who will be charging the batteries won't be able to use a proper rc charger, so he's looking for methods to charge that are extremely simple - it is not necessarily to use 18650 cells. This was just an idea as they are simple to charge for the layperson.

Really?! With the overnight slow charger I got with my first rc, the battery never got more than warm to the touch. Even the 30 clockwork one with the dial didn't get it got enough to melt anything. Personally I think the batteries themselves will be fine (and yes if you wire them in series as I suspect you will, the lipo cut-off if the esc has one will be fine - necessary in fact. You don't want them to go completely flat) but the holder is the problem. Sure you can replace the spindly wires, but the thin spring contacts remain. They have a very small contact surface with the battery so are not ideal and could get hot. I'm not sure how confident you are with electronics, but you could solder up a 2-cell pack (get cells with the tabs on) and somehow wire in a USB power pack charging circuit board (you can buy them from poundland and remove the circuit board) so it can be charged using a regular phone charger. You'd have the rc power connector separate. Two 18650s are smaller than a normal rc battery so there would be room to put it in an enclosure with the USB charging socket exposed at an accessible point so that it doesn't even need to be removed from the car. Not entirely sure how this would work as you'd have the cells wired in series and in parallel, so you'd have to put in something to break the series connection when the charger is connected and break the parallel connection when disconnected, like a high current mosfet or relay. (there may be other, better ways to do this, I'm not an electronics engineer, but using a phone charger like this would be pretty simple to use if it worked) Alternatively you might be able to find some 18650 holders that are rated to a higher current.

I'm sure it will make the car go but I can't imagine those spindly wire spring terminals will pass much current and could get hot and deform the plastic holder. What's the difference between getting his carers to charge the 18650s vs., say, an old NiMH charger where you just plug the battery pack in and press a button - 20 minutes later it beeps and you disconnect it, or easier still, the old slow chargers where you plug them in and they just trickle charge overnight? They usually come with tamiya connectors which are foolproof and easy to use. Obviously you are limited to using NiMH batteries but these would arguably be a better choice anyway as lithium batteries like to be treated a certain way or they degrade. NiMH batteries on the other hand can take lots of abuse in my experience.

No, you use one of the two that come with the hi-torque servo saver, which may not exactly match the kit one in terms of size, but I've never had a problem with the kits I've used them on.

No they are a different size again.

Have a search for 'rc stealth mounts'. This should give you an idea of what's available. There are magnetic ones and other designs by the looks of it. I've not got any myself - I just put up with the holes and a small amount of mount sticking through.

Try applying the load that your 1:1 car usually deals with on a daily basis to your 1:10 car (even with oil/grease) and see how long they last! RC cars take a miniscule fraction of the load of a full size car - it may only be 1/10th the length but it is 1/1000th the volume, mass, weight. They cannot be compared in this way as the loads are so different. Nobody in their right mind would consider running real car (or any heavy machinery) without lube in the bearings, but I haven't oiled the bearings in my rc cars - ever, except maybe after cleaning them and then only with very light oil like gt85. Nor do I use any grease on the gears. You absolutely don't need it. The only oil I use regularly is on the bushings in motors without ball bearings, and grease inside diffs when building them. This is my experience anyway, using my cars in club racing on and off for the past 20 years.

Yes - it appears some people are giving advice for affixing lenses, while others are giving advice for light buckets. The OP mentions double-sided tape, so I imagine that means light buckets. (I only have a couple of cars with light buckets but they both use tape to hold them to the body). And since they are usually affixed to a painted section of the inside of the body, you have to be careful that the adhesive you use doesn't affect the paint - otherwise you might see it from the outside of the body.

Yes sorry - when you said he'd need longer shafts I assumed you meant drive shafts (dogbones) and not wheel axles, which I forgot to mention. The wheel axles for the ta01 front uprights are the same as the ta01/ta02 rears, hence the need to change the bearings. Kingpins are the gold-coloured ones for the ta01, m03 (early - they changed the design for the m variant), tl01 and many others probably. 53141 is the lightweight version. Not sure what the standard ones are but you may have some spare standard gold ones from another kit. If you don't feel like you want the hassle or expense of changing the uprights, bearings, kingpins and wheel axles, you could get 5mm extra width by using larger offset wheels, or even by using larger wheel hexes with a shallow wheel nut.