Lonestar

typed 0.6 but meant 0.8 pitch pretty darn close to 32DP but not the same thing, close to 1% difference Paul

Terry - are you purposedly mentionning that the pitch of the hotshot transmission is standard and not metric? Because in my books tamiya is a japanese company that uses metric pitch, the 0.6metric module on these old cars is pretty darn close to a 32DP but doesn't mesh 100% right - basically, it works, but it is sub-optimal and yields fast wear. Is the hotshot an exception that uses DP in the tamiya range ? Paul

Don't even think as being "competitive". it will still get seriously humiliated by any modern car on the racetrack... not even talking about the $350 carbon-fiber thoroughbreds, but even a Durgaldre would litterally run circles around it (given how tidy the boomer's turning radius is, haha) I mean on a track, in a 5mns race, the HS will do 16 laps, the boomer maybe 18, while the other will crack the 25 laps mark, all things being equal. So if you're expecting performance, brace yourself for a serious disappointment. Paul

regarding motor: All 540 motors have the same mounting holes, as long as you follow the instructions based on the pinion you're using you should be fine. regarding performance - Keep in mind this is an old lady, the transmission is much less efficient than more modern cars... performance would be about, say, 10% less than the same motor/battery/ESC combo in a modern car with a modern tranny - if you have an NiMH pack, yes indeed you should keep it discharged and charge it right before you run. Not sure how old your pack is but a partially charged pack or one that's been sitting on the shelf for even one day can feel seriously wimpy... discharge it fully, recharge, and run in the car when just warmed out of the charger (do you have a fast, delta-peak charger?) - MSC use an old, inefficient technology... unless you're a "True vintage" freak, get yourself an ESC. Pretty much every modern GBP20 esc will withstand a sport tuned motor. regarding internals In french, we say you just did "des carottes rapees" (grated carrot's in Shakespeare's language) which refers to the plastic bits you spotted. Something broke somewhere, your only solution is to disassemble the whole thing to see where the chewed plastic comes from. I lean towards main spur based on what you described... recheck gear mesh based on instructions If you want to run the badword out of that car, I would recommend you actually get a new car you can bash with no afterthoughts Paul

LOL @ the good ole brushless myth There's no need to run a brushless in there for that... i ran a plain jane silvercan for 4 hrs under 3V and consumption dropped from 1.7A to 1.4A just like that. So yes that's a solution, BUT it still doesn't beat a new gear that is properly molded, because a broken-in gear soon becomes a worn-out one Paul PS: do you know that if you put a brushless motor in your grasshopper it will go fast enough and spontaneously levitate to planet Mars??? just kidding... this "brushless magic" thing is getting hilarious hehe

Terry - you missed the key variable: wear. That killer 40Krpm motor will only be worth a sport-tuned-like 25Krpm once it's been run 3 packs with the wrong fdr in tall grass by the "enthusiast" who replaced the silvercan in his blazing star without giving a second thought to changing the pinion/spur... let alone putting the arm on a comm lathe. Paul

Update: no matter how much I would unscrew the bottom cap yesterday evening, the shocks would stick just the same... the bottom cap seemed to have the holes at the proper place, but then again even if this weren't the case, not much I can do about it... I'll just leave them as is. I'm a bit disappointed, as in my mind, the yellow Cva's I had on my Monster Beetle in 1987 were the absolut shizzit.... haaa, the damages of time and knowledge... hehe thanks all for the help Paul TA MArk - I only use pure silicon oil... the o-rings still swell, whether they're from MIP, yokomo, Schumacher or Hot Bodies/HPI (tried them all in the past years)

oh thanks - didn't know that... I assume this costs an arm and a leg, when you can find it I pulled the FD apart yesterday, and guess what, the bevel gears look about the same as the one featured on the other post. I tried trimming them, but after spending 5mn on 2 teeth and almost butchering them I figured out I might as well leave them alone. Anyway, I also monted the rims and tires, and they are anything but balanced... overall the transmission chain will be completely ****. Oh well. I'm a bit disappointed, but then again had I wanted a modern racer I wouldn't have built myself a FD Thanks all for the help! Paul

Mark interesting... so the o-rings used in these shocks actually loose volume when they wear out. On my modern cars, it's the other way around, o-rings swell with time and create more and more drag... I might use your trick of CA'ing carefully, good tip, thanks Paul

TTC? Paul

Hi guys i have a brand spanking nib 58294 F201 with the two bodies combo... and I'd like to trade it against a similarly brand spanking nib FW24 F201... anyone interested? thanks Paul

Mark good suggestion - let me take the bottom cartdridges apart, pull out the calipers and see what can be done. I'd rather file the spacers and make them slightly smaller than superglue the bottom caps, even just a bit Hopefully this isn't what Saiton experienced - I'll pull the car apart this weekend and try to fix the tranny at the same time thanks for the help yall Paul

Hi there saito np with the long answer, there's valuable info in there. Yes I agree, the overall design is a massive improvement vs. the hotshot based cars (boomy, bigwig and such). I race RC cars competitively and I expect my vintage/rere runners to reach the same level of preparation as my racers... I have myself spent already quite a bit of time disassembling this tranny before I posted here, but it never came to my mind that the gear molds were so out of whack. Coming from Tamiya, it's a bit of a shame indeed. To note, I noticed the rear gearbox was dragging like crazy even before I mounted it on the chassis (and hooked up the central shaft). I guess I'll disassemble it again, file the gears, and break it in again for another 5hrs or so with a good ole siklvercan. After that, I'll run the **** out of this thing Paul

ooooh how interesting... indeed this tranny is the noisiest I've ever EVER seen on any car!!! And this could very, very well be why. Thanks a lot for pointing this out... For info - I've broken it in with a 540 under 3V for 4 hrs... feels better but still not there. Will look into the link in detail - THANKS A LOT!!! Paul

Saito, interesting - I guess I'll have to check mine. If that's the case indeed, not much that can be done, I guess. Dudewalker, errrr, I thought I was the one asking the questions I just finished building that re-re, the brand spanking new o-rings come straight out of the parts bag. Please tell us what you have in mind? Thanks guys, Paul

last year's projects - marui hunter - done but body - Monster beetle - DONE! - Robbe rainbow (vintage sailboat) - DONE! - TLT-based crawler - 90% there - M03 racer - done - and already sold - TT01 rallye - done - and sold too - keep the racecar (hot bodies cyclone) in 100% shape for regular racing - on-going and the most time consuming of them all! this year's projects no-miss'es: - keep the racecar (hot bodies cyclone) in 100% shape for regular racing - on-going and the most time consuming of them all! - Build my FT B4 - Buy and build an 8th scaler (MBX6 or D8, the jury is still out) to start running this spring - finish the hunter's body - finish the crawler (Russ... waiting on ya ) Icing on the cake: - restore yokomo YRF2-SP - restore decked out astute (A&L tranny, hi-caps, tamiya adspec system with the LCD chronometer built in) - restore and run my newly acquired Trx-1 basher let's see how much of it i can achieve Paul

Hi guys if you are monitoring the other thread, you prolly know which car I'm talking about I just completed a re-re that has the legendary four yellow CVA's... The last set of this I had build were in 1987 on my monster beetle, but I didn't know much about shock building back in the days... I'm a bit more knowledgeable now, but still the shocks feel like ****, they stick like if there was no tomorrow. By "stick", I mean that they don't rebound - at all - when there is no spring to push them. Because they aren't "aerated" shocks, I expect the compressed air above the CV membrane to push the shaft/pistons back out once the shocks are actionned. Well, in my case, they desperately stay on their position. To be completely honest, they require a lot of force to get compressed, even without the springs on, what I mean here is that there is more "friction" than there is "hydraulics". I did trim the pistons properly and even sanded them a bit. I did use AE green slime on the o-rings I did trim the cartridge's plastic washers properly I build them to have rebound, ie screwed the top-cap on with the shaft fully out Basically, I know how to build RC car shocks but there is something fundamentally wrong with these... Is it inherent to the CVA design, ie everything is binding a bit in the cartdridge to ensure properly leak-proof-ness? Thanks Paul

Hi guys I'm kinda done building my re-re FD. Everything has been carefully assembled, it's actually a much better build than I was thinking, suspension is much tighter than the hotshot-based cars, and the car feels solid on the workbench. Actually, I'm beginning to think that with hi-cap shocks, proper turnbuckles and double-deck chassis it could have been a decent club racing car in its time. One thing bothers me though - the transmission seems to be binding, especially in the rear gearbox. I mean, it turns, but there is no freewheeling whatsoever. Is it just a matter of breaking the gears in? Are they all like this or is it just mine? Thanks for the help, Paul

Titanium screw sets only make sense for overweight cars which need to be brought down to the lower limit Properly designed racecars don't need them... just eye-candy

Hi there if your car is a runner, how about ditching the stock servo saver and mounting a kimbrough instead? This is the first needed hopup on 99% of all the tamiya range Paul

doesn't make sense indeed... if only because the barebones baldre is cheaper than the dark impact. This is defo the other way around. I say, pick up the phone and call that shop Paul

I have to admit I had to add some threadlock to mine too... it would just unscrew by hand... Paul

good to hear that. I recall the thorp diff is very sensitive to tightening, it takes just 1/8th of a turn to go from too tight to slippy. Here are a few pics of my thorp gear on my MB, recently featured on a website here's the link to the full set of pics and the article http://www.overrc.com/vintage/autos/tamiya...sterbeetle.html < a bit of bragging never hurts > Paul

This thread is getting VERY interesting... wonder how much of these hopped up babies will see the track? Paul

Interesting - I was wondering the diffs as well... in the end what I read makes me think the TFEvo is just a hopped up TF, no structural changes, like different wheelbase or such... So in the end, if you add HiCaps and a 1way to a TF (or a diff up front to a TFE ) it should drive pretty much like the Evo. No slipper either... mmmh. Paul