[Have I Broke My Racing Car Already :(]

Did you build the diffs yourself? did you by any chance leave out the thrust bearing (looks like a two washers with ball bearings in between) happened to me before diff kept loosning by itself. Lotus

[Orion Core Stock Capacitors]

I did a race meeting last night, I fitted three .1uf capacitors one between + terminal and the can, one between the - terminal and the can, and one between the + terminal and the - terminal. The motor ran perfectly all night so happy days! were sorted and thanks for your help, Kieran.

[Orion Core Stock Capacitors]

Jossa, did you experience any problems when you lost yours?

[Orion Core Stock Capacitors]

Hello, I've been having a problem with glitching with my motor, it stutters, it splutters, it misses, get the picture! and when it does the steering goes crazy. On inspection I've noticed one of the smd capacitors is missing. I can see how this could interfere with the reciever but can this explain the stuttering of my motor? I've got some 0.1uf capacitors and my plan is to remove the one remaining capacitor and replace it with the capacitors I have. Does anyone know the capacitance of the Orion smd ones? thanks, Lotus.

[Ta05ns Setup Help!]

Here's how it went, we spent three hours there, most of that time was spent on Alans car. I drove Alans car and found it needed lots of concentration to keep it on the track, the back end was very loose and you had to wait until you were out of the corner before using full throttle otherwise it would swap ends. The first area we explored was Droop we made lots of adjustments but found they didn't make much of a difference but eventually settled on 5mm (on my droop gauge) Front, and 4.5mm on the rear. The next area was the diffs we firstly loosened the rear diff half a turn (no improvement) then the front Diff half a turn and found less snap oversteer.(these settings are about 1 full turn out from fully tight) The final area was the springs we started with Yellow front and Red rear, tried Red front and Red rear, (more oversteer) and finally Blue front and Red rear, this made the car much easier to drive, it still had a bit of oversteer but was a lot less nervous. The final settings were

Toe Front 1deg out, Rear 2deg in(each side) Camber front -3deg rear -2deg. Wheel base- 260mm, Track- 186mm, Droop front 4mm, Rear 4.5mm. Ground clearance, front 5mm, Rear 5.5mm. Spring front Blue (stiff) Rear Red (soft). Oil Front 400, rear 300. Piston, 3 holes. Diff front, Ball 1 turn out from tight, rear, ball one turn out from tight. Tyre KTR, Suspension mount, Front upper (3G carbon tower 4 holes), 3rd hole out from center. Front lower, (2 holes), inner one. Rear Upper (3G carbon tower 5 holes) 4th hole out from center. Rear Lower, (3 holes) center one. Anti roll bar, Front- light blue (soft). Rear none.

On Wed night we went to our local track Alan had a good night, he felt the car was a bit loose but I noticed by his lap times very few mistakes and some good lap times as well. I had motor trouble all night and didn't finish any of the heats, the motor was missing, glitching, and this would interfere with the steering making the car undriveable Ive tracked the problem down to a missing Capacitor on my Orion Core stock motor (tiny SMD Cap) I'm thinking of removing the other Cap and replacing them with 0.1uf capacitors I got for my older Tamiya motor. Does anyone know what capacitance the Orion ones are? That said I started last in the final and was leading by half a lap when a backmarker took me out and I spun off and ended under a stack of chairs, it took nearly 15 seconds to retrieve my car so I was unable to catch the winner (Alan) but I finished second with a spluttering motor. I was delighted with my car's handling it was very easy to drive but its possible the missing was acting as a kind of traction control. Hopefully the capacitor replacement will sort out my problems. Lotus

[Ta05ns Setup Help!]

We are heading down to our local community hall today for a few hours testing, the floor is timber but it hasent been sanded or polished for years, hope to try out new settings and to learn a bit about how setup changes effect the car. We'll see how it goes, Kieran.

[Ta05ns Setup Help!]

Just home from another night's racing, my old problem of the motor stuttering and steering twitching came back tonight.(must be a wire loose in the reciver somewhere) The only changes I made to the car for tonight was increase rear droop from 2.4mm(6mm on my Droop guage) to 3.5mm(5mm on my droop guage) the thinking behind this was to increase weight transfer to the front wheels, which would reduce the understeer I was suffering last week. The difference this adjustment made was dramatic, the car now had oversteer, it was like when taking a right hand corner with the front right hand wheel glued to the track under trottle the car would rotate around that wheel quiet suddenly. For the second heat I turned out the front droop screws .25 of a turn (adding more droop) this inproved matters a bit but the stuttering problem started so I had to retire. For the third heat another .25 of a turn out, had a better race and finished second. In the final I made a clean break was nearly a lap ahead cruising when the stuttering came back so I had to pull over. I cant compare my laps times to last week as the track layout was slightly different, and tonight the track surface seemed to have a little dampness in it compared to last week. I also trued the comm and fitted new brushes so I might have had a little extra punch out of the corners which also might have changed the feel of the car. Kieran.

[Ta05ns Setup Help!]

Willy we run Schumacher Minipins on timber indoor and CS27s on tarmac indoor, what would be a good alternative to the CS27s, my son runs KTR G compound 23 they seem to be alright must try and make a comparison, kieran.

[Ta05ns Setup Help!]

Paul, I already have a Lathe with a diamond tip, I'm going to cut the comm on it befors the next night, I'm involved in an event for the full scale version this weekend so I wont get much time to do much. Kieran.

[Ta05 Gearing]

[Dazza when I was running my TA05 with the Tamiya pro stock motor I used a 24 T pinion and I reduced this to a 21t when I changed to the Orion Core Stock which revs a good bit higher, Kieran.

[Ta05ns Setup Help!]

Well mixed bag tonight, first of all I think we have made a big step forward, drivers that a few months ago were a long way ahead of us are now beatable, and this only dawned on me tonight. Tonight I was able to race, the car was easy enough to drive enabling me to think about my lines and what line to take to help get past someone in front, now the car was not perfect I still have power on understeer on right hand corners, but the car turns very well to the left. I now have almost no oversteer and that means almost no crashes and my lap times are also very good. Here is a breakdown of tonights racing.

1-Track was very dusty; cars were filthy by the end of the night.

2-Tyres, some of the drivers are evaluating treaded tyres v slicks, when its dusty like tonight treaded may be faster, I run slicks only. Some others were on treaded.

3-Batteries, Its becoming obvious we am starting to have battery problems, we have 7 batteries, all stick packs with Deans connectors, two 3000mah, two 3600mah, one 3700mah, one 3900mah and a 4200mah. I have noticed my car running slower on some batteries, so tonight before heading to the track I tested all the batteries, I connected a volt meter across them and then connected a headlamp bulb to see what they would deliver under load;

3000mah no load 8.17v with load 7.45v

3000mah no load 8.21v with load 7.49v

3600mah no load 8.30v with load 7.70v

3600mah no load 8.21v with load 7.41v

3700mah no load 8.14v with load 7.75v

3900mah no load 8.10v with load 7.66v

4200mah no load 8.15v with load 7.91v

The difference between the best 7.91v and the worst 7.41v is half a volt and with the current the motor draws this difference is most likely larger. The thing is I can feel a hugh difference between the best battery and the worst, the worst battery is slow off the line and very slow looking down the straight it also doesn't have enough power to slide the car. The strange thing is the weaker batteries seem to affect my car more than Alans, maybe I need to look at my motor and speed controller. I charge the batteries with an Orion delta peak charger and normally charge them at 3Amps. As they are stick packs I cannot discharge the cells individually so I have a discharger that discharges then down to 5.4volts.

I ran my weakest battery in the first race and finished second, the driver that won was running a Mi2 with a brushless setup and passed me down the straight like I was stopped but wasnt that far ahead in the end.

I refitted my front sway bar for the second race, had a couple of incidents and finished two laps down.

Third and final race was a good one, great battle between Alan two other drivers and me for the lead, my race finished half way through when my servo horn became detached. I removed the front swaybar again as I think it felt better in the first race.

Alan was again complaining of oversteer in the first race, for the second heat I refitted the front sway bar, and the third heat I tightened the rear diff, I also had a chat with him about throttle control and told him with the diff tight on the rear wheels he would have to be more careful with the throttle, he was having a great battle with us until his battery gave out. He couldn't say if the car was better or not because he was trying this gradual throttle application thing I had been telling him about, but he had a good race and was happy and I think he learned a valuable lesson. On our way home I was quizzing him about the handling of his car and from what I gathered he has loads of steering and the rear of the car just slides around, so I think we can afford to loose some grip at the front. Hey Paul when we organize our next big event maybe we can invite yourself and some friends or maybe your club over to race and make a weekend of it, what do you think? Highflyer as well but I think he would have a little further to come Stay well, Kieran.

[Ta05ns Setup Help!]

This is a link to our clubs forum if anyone's interested http://www.fermoymodelcarclub.tk/ Kieran.

[Ta05ns Setup Help!]

Thanks Paul, I'm going to leave both set as they were last Saturday, (apart from tweak, droop, different length arms and tyres ) I think the pieces are starting to fall into place and the best part is I'm learning, I read your blog and noted how meticulous you were in your approach and how you only changed one thing at a time, this is where I have been going wrong, I've done a lot of reading but sometimes what you read doesnt make sense until you have gained a bit more experience, the proper tools are also important. I enjoy the whole technical aspect of RC cars and nailing the handling is one goal I want to achieve, I have headed to the track many times on a Wed night with the cars setup completely changed looking forward to seeing how the changes I have made will work out, more often than not disappointed, but not deterred. Where you changed one thing at a time I could not resist the temptation to change many things. I have also changed my car three times since I started racing last May/June a TA05 then a TA05R and now the MS. With the TA05 I constantly hopped up the car and was making setup changes even before I had even learnt to drive it properly. But then 50% of the enjoyment I get from RC racing comes from working on the car, mind you that percentage will most likely change if I get more competitive. There is only so much work can be done on the car so if the results dont start coming I think the interest will start to fade.

I live half ways between Cork and Limerick in Co. Cork, I race in Fermoy which is 20 miles from me, we travel to Dublin to race on timber in Lucan and Taney. Dublin model club race buggies outdoor during the summer and touring car indoor during the winter. Lucan model car club race touring cars outdoor during the summer and indoor on timber in the winter. Our club Fermoy Model Car Club race indoor on tarmac summer and winter but there are plans to build an off-road track during the summer. In our club we have about 25 members with 10 to 12 racing every Wed night. We have two classes Group A and Group B and the drivers stay in their group for the length of the championship. A couple of qualifying nights determine what class a driver will run in. Ive been in the B class since I started. Our race night is only two and a half hours long so there is not much time for work on the car. Are you still running the Yokomo or have you changed? We ran a one day event last year called the Munster GP which was a great success with drivers from all over Ireland attending, we all ran 27 turn but we had a separate 19turn race for the boys from Northern Ireland. Maybe we might be able to tempt some of you UK based drivers to come over for this years event, we might even make it a two day event! Enough of my ranting, regards Kieran.

[Ta05ns Setup Help!]

The Tweak station and Droop gauges arrived today, of course I was itching to check out both cars. My car the chassis was tweaked, I loosened the top deck twisted it back tightened it up and its perfect now. I also found my Droop settings were all over the shop, (local saying here meaning not all exactly the same ) I put the 10mm blocks under the front and rear chassis, slid the droop gauge under the hub and set them to six all round, it that how its done? (No instructions). Alans car was also twisted, reset his but something wasn't right, I then copped he has the short swing arms on the rear and one short on the front the other front arm was the same as the ones used in the TA05R and the MS. I had several sets of spare 05R and MS arms so I replaced the short ones with these. Any idea what effect this would have on handling? I will finish off rebuilding tomorrow night. The whole Tamiya spring thing is a bit confusing,

I have 53163 On-Road tuned spring set (4wd/fwd Touring & Rally Car) these come in -Red (soft) -Yellow (medium) -Blue (stiff)

I also have 53440 On- Road Tuned Hard Spring Set these come in Red (soft) -Yellow (medium) -Blue (stiff) and -White (extra stiff)

Now I may be imagining this but the second set appears to be harder than the equivalent colors in the first set. Alan's ESC does not have a punch rate adjustment. Kieran.

[Ta05ns Setup Help!]

Highflyer I bought the car off Ebay and it was two months old, I checked out everything and made sure everything was even but I never checked to see if the settings it had were stock, if it dosen't run well next Wed I'll might go back to the stock setup, thanks Kieran.

[Ta05ns Setup Help!]

Ok, here's how it went. Alans car we set up as Paul suggested, I didn't get a chance to drive it but watching it, it seemed to be pretty well sorted, it turned in well and there didn't appear to be any understeer on the exit, But! I had a talk with him about overdriving as that was what I think he was doing he was crashing a lot. When he was calm he could put a few laps together that were very fast and more than a match for those around him and his lap times were right up there, but then he'd make a mistake and then it was crash after crash, it looked to me that he was driving at 100% with nothing in reserve, trottle application was full on or off and sometimes the trottle application was so early in the corner he would have a massive power slide on the exit but keep the trottle full open as he fish tailed down the straight. (which often ended with the rear of the car clipping the hose and spinning) What advice do you give to an 11 year old, he has the raw talent to be good at this but doesn't know his limit, doesn't know how much to slow down to be able to run without crashing. Or is it possible its the car's fault? that his car is not easy to drive? He qualified 5th in group C and stopped half way through when the ESC lead came loose from the reciever. My car was greatly improved, most of this improvement was due to the front ball diff, I ran the yellow springs on the front and white on the back I still had understeer so I changed to Red on the front and Yellow on the back this improved things slightly and for the last heat and final I removed the front stabliser but I dont think that made much of a difference. I qualified on pole for the D final and had an easy win. Overall an improvement on the last time we were there but still a long way to go. The track was very tight and technical the polished floor was very slippery and even the A drivers (some who are factory drivers) were getting caught out. We are going to leave the setups as there are for next Wed night to see how the cars run on our home track. Regards, Kieran.

[Ta05ns Setup Help!]

I have a Hudy setup system, Toe, Camber, Castor and steering throw. With the front tracking, I have never taken any notice of wether the front wheels are straight or not, I usually set one wheel on the 0deg line of the Hudy and set the other 1deg out. I have at an earlier build made sure both steering arms are the same length and when adjusting the tracking adjusting both arms equal amounts. If the car does not run straight I just adjust the steering trim to center it. My transmitter is very basic and has no steering turn limit. The tyre additive I have is Muchmore Blue Sap. The oversteer my son had on Wed night I've been thinking might have been caused by on over tight rear diff, am I right in thinking if the rear diff is tighter than the front it would oversteer under power more? The understeer I had on Wed night could that have been caused by a front diff tighter than the rear, I've loosened the front diff on my car by half a turn, we'll see how it goes, regards, Kieran.

[Ta05ns Setup Help!]

Thanks Paul, I am going to set Alans car as you suggest, we are running Minipins on Saturday but no tyre additive is allowed. What is this tyre cleaner you have mentioned? also can you suggest a way to take away some of my understeer, do you know the Tamiya viscosity rating I have 200, 300, and 400, also 60wt and 90wt, regards, Kieran.

[Ta05ns Setup Help!]

Thanks for the reply's lads, I'm just home from a night's racing and the good news is my motor appears to be sorted, my new brush springs arrived and they appeared to be much stiffer than the ones that were in the motor. I also noticed the insulation on the servo to receiver lead had been stripped away I think it may have been rubbing on the end of the center shaft and if it was it could have been causing the interference also when the motor used to start spluttering the steering would get very erratic, but I was blaming the one way for that.

Handling, this is a reply I gave to a fellow racer in another forum,

(Its difficult to say, we held an event last Sept where we cleaned the track (brushed and vacuum cleaned) at that time I was running a TA05R, because the grip level was better than we usually have I found the car much easier to drive and I was able to concentrate on "racing" instead of the usual not crashing! I know a lot of my problems may be my driving ability, but I'm not yet ready to accept I'm ****. Our track is very inconsistent, one night it can be damp, the next dirty the grip levels are always different, also the surface is smooth in some areas and course in others, it will properly improve as the Summer comes but last year I always had major understeer with my standard TA05 but I now know where I was going wrong with my setup, and I was also very much a novice. When we race on timber we have a much more consistent track, it is easier to feel changes when setup changes are made, but since I have got the MS I've ran it with the one way and the car has been very difficult, it takes 100% of my concentration just to stop spinning, entry into corners are knife edge but if I get the entry ok once I get on the power the car will turn well under power and is fairly predictable. What I cant handle is a nervous car I just need a car that is neutral, it doesnt need to be fast that can come later.

Its easy when sitting in a car to tell what its doing as you can feel it through the seat of your pants, its not so easy when youre standing on a bench watching a car and when all your brain power is being used to stay on the track leaving nothing for analyzing what the car is doing.

Its also possible my droop settings are not correct, I've been setting my ride height and droop using a stack of washers, I make a stack of washers 5mm high and adjust the ride height until the car clears them, I then make a stack 8mm high (3mm droop) sit the car on top of them and adjust the droop screws until the wheel just makes contact with the ground. A bit crude! But I have a droop gauge, block and ride height gauge and a Tweak Station on the way so I can hopefully make more accurate measurements.)

I had noticed the different ride height others were using, so tonight I went to the track with 5mm front and 5mm rear, now I dont know if it was that or the front ball diff or the new bottle of tyre additive or the motor running right or the lack of wires rubbing the shaft or the fact the track was washed last week, but I had a completely new car I ended up getting two thirds and a second, now the car felt slow but the lap times were good, I had too much grip on the back and I was suffering serious understeer under power on the exit of the corners, the motor didnt seem to have the power to break the rear traction no matter how I chucked it into the corners. But the car was easy to drive which meant I wasnt making mistakes. I tried putting stiffer springs in the rear, (marginal improvement) and lowered the front by half a turn on the collars.

My sons car was a different story, he had massive oversteer, at first it was undrivable it was like it was pivoting around the front wheels, I improved this by tightening the front diff, but car was still very loose, I tried disconnecting the rear swaybar but he felt it made it worse. We will be racing on wood next Saturday so the story will continue there; I would appreciate any suggestions before then, regards Kieran.

[Ta05ns Setup Help!]

Hello, my son and I race TA05s at our local track, mine is a TA05MS and my son has a TA05 with a 3 racing Carbon chassis, we are the only Tamiya runners in a sea of Schumachers. We are only racing 10 months but have already acquired quiet a selection of TA05s including a TA05R that my son had before changing to the carbon chassis car and then I ran it before getting the MS. I love the whole technical side of RC racing and to that end have read tons of stuff relating to setup etc. but I still cant say Im happy with the handling of my car, my son is only 11 and he just drives around any problems with handling. I know a lot of my problems are self inflicted as I try different things but maybe some of ye out there may suggest things for me to try.

We race at a couple of venues, our local track is in a school gym, it has a tarmac surface that is usually very dusty (football pitch beside it and the hall is used for changing) so its usually very slippery, we run stock 27 turn or 13.5 brushless the tyre of choice is Take Off cc27, the track has mostly tight corners with one long straight 20mtrs approx. The other tracks we run on are polished wooden floors on which we run Schumacher 20mm yellow Mini Pins, these tracks are very tight and technical. When I got the MS it came with a front one way, and I also fitted a one way to my sons for him to try weve done two events on wood and a couple on our local track and we struggled, one of the experienced drivers last weekend told us front one ways are a no no on wood and would say it wouldnt suit our local track either. Ive taken out the one ways and replaced them with standard ball diffs which we will try next Wed night. My latest settings are.. ride height- 5.5 front 5.0 rear. Droop front 2.5mm rear 3.0mm, front toe 1deg out, rear 3deg each side in. camber 1.75deg all round, Tamiya trf shocks three holes, Tamiya soft yellow springs and tamiya soft 400 shock oil, and soft black stabilizer bars front and back. I run a Orion pro stock co27 motor that I had a transmission ratio of 7.50 but I changed it for the last wooden floor event to 8.29 Ive also been having motor problems, it started when I bought both motors for our cars and couldnt get them to run right and eventually figured I had too low a gear ratio that was not allowing the motor to rev, but lately the problem seems to have come back, basically the motor misses or splutters, or stops mid rev for a split second this coupled to a one way on timber makes for a very unstable car to drive, one of the experienced drivers recons the brush springs are losing their tension and this gets worse as the motor heats up, Ive ordered new springs, but last Wed night I ran with the springs bent to provide more pressure on the brushes but it still didnt run right. This is a long first post and I hope somebody out there can suggest some things for us to try, so we can prove that our beloved Tamiyas are a force to be reckoned with, thanks in advance for any replies, Kiki.