Otis311

It's also difficult due to the amount of bump steer.

I bought my TD2 with the same thought in mind. I wanted to have something like an F1 car that could also drop off a curb and not get destroyed. Fortunately there are a wealth of smooth off road tires for groove/clay racing. I grabbed some DE Racing Phenom front and rear tires but am still trying to get some wheels to fit. The stock rear wheels are a little narrow and full width racing dish wheels don't fit the axles/hexes. Set up wise you would want to go as low as possible and maybe stiffen up the springs. Adjusting the rear suspension on the TD2 is pretty straight forward. For the front you would likely need to shorten the link rods and move the shock mount ball back to the rear position. These are things I have been meaning to try but haven't yet. Regardless, it is going to be difficult to control due to the lack of brakes on the front axle. 4WD buggies on road are a blast for sure.

This is puzzling. You have basically done all the necessary troubleshooting. The fact that it didn't work with either the throttle or steering channel is big. I have not had any problems with Hobbywing ESCs. I have at least a dozen of various brushed ones. It is possible that the ESC is defective though. It would be nice to know whether it works with other transmitters and if any other ESCs work with the transmitter you are currently using.

Some other things to experiment with are reversing the throttle direction on the transmitter and/or reversing the direction in the speed control settings. One thing I noticed in the ESC directions was that if the reverse setting in the ESC is not set to 100% the green light will not come on in reverse. Still doesn't explain why the green LED doesn't come on in at least one of the directions though.

Best I've found is the HUDY setup guide books. A little thin in places but a decent crash course. If you google them there are a couple PDFs, an on-road and an off-road. Their website is lackluster though.

Sure are a lot of parenthesis ( this symbol "( )" )

May need to just drill the head off with a ~3mm bit. Once the cover is removed there should be just enough thread to grab with some vise-grips.

The ball diff included with the TD2 is superb, sans the included plastic nut. Once broken in it is the smoothest diff I have ever had. And yes it is adjustable from the outside of the gearbox.

Is your ball diff tight enough? That grunting sound may be the ball diff barking.

Is your ball diff tight enough? That grunting sound may be the ball diff barking.

High turn, low Kv brushless motors are a relatively new phenomena. Tamiya is typically slow to react to trends on their lower end models. The entry level kits come with silver can motors as well, so they are designed around that motor to some extent. I have come to a point in this hobby where silver can motors are fast enough for my driving habits. Racing on the other hand is a different story. Modified classes would likely be running top of the line chassis. The thing with the TT chassis classes is that that they seem to follow strict motor rules in which case the playing field is even between all drivers.

You are attempting to apply one of the most difficult Tayima stickers. It is not impossible though. Like others have mentioned you need to heat them. I used to use a heat gun but I have since acquired a hot air workstation. Designed to be used on surface mount electronics they have a very focused nozzle and precise temperature adjustment.

Fortunately I had some older brothers to influence me in the early nineties. Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream NIN - Pretty Hate Machine Pearl Jam - Ten Same brothers had a Frog and a Falcon.

Cha-ching. I think I have everything needed to get this project completed. Already had some 5x8 bearings. Figured locking the diffs would be good for my needs which will be slow off-roading.

It would be nice if they made more full width hex rears too. The Dark Impact rears are pretty much full width but of course they are hard to find now. Fortunately for fronts you can use racing wheels. Rear racing wheels though have that very thick hub which is quite annoying.

May I ask what your reservations are with the Tamiya actuator set? Aside from the high cost of course. I suppose the simplest method of control would be an electronic speed control. The only thing is that it would not know the endpoints and you would have to be careful to stop when the limit is reached. The Tamiya set looks like it takes care of this with micro switches. This could all be done similarly with an Arduino and some programming.

Thanks for the input Saito. There's a lot to learn about this era of Clods. I got to work today. Tore into the gear boxes. They are mint and have a nice coating of ceramic grease so I'll just swap in ball bearings while apart. I was thinking it will be nice to put a 3 channel receiver in it and run the front and rear steering independently. There was just a wye in there as it was. Not much else to report. The Novak ESC and Trinity motor were the things dreams are made of when I was younger. Now I have them, I guess I've reached the pinnacle. That ESC is so heavy, 100 grams! Beats a servo and MSC any day though. Man there is just something about the orange and purple Novak.

About 15 years ago my old boss gave me this monster truck when one of my paychecks was light. Best I can tell it is some version of ESP Clodzilla. Figured it is about time I gave it a little restoration. Maybe re-grease the gearboxes and add ball bearings if needed, steel pinions too. One of the shock ends broke while sitting so I'll need to address that. Maybe get a new Quicrun 880 ESC. It has an old Novak Super Rooster in it now. The Trinity 16 turn motors are basically unused. It has a couple Hitec metal gear servos. I think the whole truck is basically unused. Anybody know what version of Clodzilla this is?

My brother put some metal screen in his. I like to think the 1/10th scale driver and co-driver found the engine ran too hot in the desert and they needed more air flow.

What motor does it currently have?

If I had to guess what is happening I would say that the battery voltage gets so low during the high draw that it's not actually the low voltage cutoff but the ESC just shutting off due to very low voltage. Since it doesn't have a mechanical power switch, rather a soft button type switch, it doesn't turn back on after the battery voltage stabilizes. The low voltage warning on this ESC is just reduced power output. My crawler just drives noticeably slower. I have used cutoffs with NiMH batteries mostly just so I don't have to recharge them as much and since at that point the car is driving slower anyway. It's usually because I have the ESC setup for lithium and just don't bother changing it with different chemistry batteries. Do you know what setting you have the low voltage cut-off set to? From the 1080 manual: "3. Cutoff Voltage Sets the voltage at which the ESC lowers or removes power to the motor in order to either keep the battery at a safe minimum voltage (for LiPo batteries). The ESC monitors the battery voltage all the time; it will immediately cut off the output when the voltage goes below the cutoff threshold. The RED LED will flash a short, single flash that repeats (☆-, ☆-, ☆-) to indicate the low-voltage cutoff protection is activated. Option 1: Disabled. The ESC does not cut the power off due to low voltage. Please pay attention to the power change of your vehicle. In general, the battery voltage gets pretty low when your vehicle is severely losing power, then you should stop using that pack. Option 2: Auto (Low). Low cutoff voltage, difficult to get the LVC protection activated, is applicable to batteries with poor discharge capability. The corresponding cutoff voltage is 3.0V/Cell for Lipo battery and 4.5V for whole NiMH pack. Option 3: Auto (Medium). Medium cutoff voltage, prone to getting the LVC Protection activated, is applicable to batteries with ordinary discharge capability. The corresponding cutoff voltage is 3.2V/Cell for Lipo battery and 5.0V for whole NiMH pack. Option 4: Auto (High). High cutoff voltage, very prone to getting the LVC Protection activated, is applicable to packs with great discharge capability. The corresponding cutoff voltage is 3.4V/Cell for Lipo battery and 5.5V for whole NiMH pack."

I know what you mean. The pre applied stuff on threads offers just enough resistance to prevent movement. A lot of times when I remove a screw that had blue loctite on it will have the dried residual and it is enough to clog up the threads and hold when reassembled. I don't know if the thread lock "crayons" offer a similar solution. Anyway, I have been using Pacer Technology Z-42 Blue Thread Locker forever and it has served me well.

Two different protractors gave the same angle of just over 14 degrees. That is the angle between the tub bottom and the front swing arm pins. Quite visibly less than my BBX, DT-03 and TRF201, Funny I never really noticed until today. I have driven my Sand Viper more than any car I own too.

Yes this exactly! I have a favorite pair of needle nose plies with just the right tip. I was pretty bummed out when my puppy ate them but I was able to replace the handle. I also have a favorite small flat head screw driver that is perfect for jamming in one of the exposed holes of the installed e-clip. Just a slight twist and they pop off. Dog has not had access to this, yet. One thing to note with the e-clips is that, like washers, they have two different sides. Due to the manufacturing process (stamping), one side is sharp and square and the other side is rounded. When I install them I try to have the sharp square side in the position to be accessible as it is more effective for the flat head screwdriver to hook onto.

Like mentioned already, possibly soap residue. I dilute the dish soap, like 4 to 1 water to soap. Straight soap on a dry body is very difficult to remove. After rinsing well (excessively and you know it will be good when your fingers are literally squeaking across the the surface) I will dry with a paper towel. Mask the windows with very clean hands and try not to touch anything. Finally blow it out with a compressor immediately prior to paining to remove dust/dog fur. I have sprayed in every weather condition possible from arctic to tropic and have never had any severe problems. The paint is always warm and well shaken though. I guess there is always the possibility of a bad can. You never know how old a can could be from a store too.