OCD

The old 53155 low-friction set is also an odd shade of red -- far more pink than the standard Tamiya red coating. It's my personal belief that Tamiya chose this color to be more fade-resistant and it just didn't go as planned If you look at the Surikarn next to anything that Tamiya has produced in red, you'll notice that Surikarns are always a bit of a unique "rose" color. I'll have to upload some photos later, but I also believe Tamiya were aware that the Surikarn didn't have any matching hop-up dampers, so they actually sold a very limited number of damper bodies with rose-colored caps. Now I know you're probably thinking "but didn't they offer the 49294 "red" TRF dampers already?". Well yes, but that set isn't the correct color for the Surikarn. The 49294 set is more of a deep red and doesn't at all exactly match the rose-colored chassis parts. I happen to have both versions in my collection and the difference is very obvious when seen in person.

Pink used to be Tamiya's choice of color for "limited items", and in person the TA03RS dampers look identical those in the 49100 pink/silver set. I always thought they gave you two different colors in order to differentiate the front and rear dampers for tuning purposes.

Sorry for asking but is it in the photo you posted? Me too. But maybe not a phase. More like... my primary objective lol. I created wrecks so gruesome that the life-flight helicopter had to be dispatched, but then only to collide! with the news helicopter that was attempting to report on the traffic situation below. Fire rained down on the traffic-stalled cars, and the entire emergency vehicle fleet was wiped out by the resulting explosion. Cars cut in half and turned inside out. Buses plunging off imaginary cliffs and being turned into pancakes. Floods. Fires. Mud slides. I destroyed Matchbox cars almost as fast as I received them. When pressed about what exactly happened them all, I'd just shrug my shoulders and say "must gotten lost" Needless to say it wasn't long before the parents decided they wouldn't be replacing them. Can't blame them really. Anyhow, due to my habit of reenacting horrific traffic accidents with nearly every toy I owned, my residual collection is pretty sparse. I had a dig through the carrying cases and recovered the few that I remember having as a kid. The "survivors" if you will. First off, my only Tomica "State Police" cruiser I still have. A 1975 Dodge Coronet Custom: For those of you not terribly familiar with Tomicas, they were really a cut above the rest. Far more scale than their counterparts (this one happens to be 1:74) and the wheels and axle design provided a bit of "spring suspension" action that feels great when you push them around. I still love Tomica cars A strong favorite; I was a big fan of racing stripes on this one, the Matchbox "Superfast" 1979 Porsche 928: My parents both owned variations of the Mk2 Celica and Supra, so naturally I had one of these, the Hot Wheels 1982 Toyota Supra: Lastly, and perhaps one of the more oddball cars in my collection of Matchboxes, the "Superfast" 1975 BMW 3.0 CSL: This was an odd one as there really weren't many BMW models offered in the US market at that time. Likely that my Dad had a sharp eye for the outliers. I coveted the this car enough to spare it from the fiery death-crash. And yes, the Sharpie lines around the front and rear windows were an early attempt at adding some "detail" to my scale models.

Wow, thanks for this follow-up. I'm really keen on stories involving this era of racing. Outside of the pictures in old magazines there's just not a lot of documentation about the hardware available at the time. That body does look super-thin, but it's still amazing to think of how much effort went into producing a shell that would be popular with a extremely narrow group of enthusiasts. I hate to imagine how few of those body sets were produced. Maybe in the double digits? And those Sonax decals are fantastic I had absolutely no idea they existed and would be delighted to find a set today... however unlikely that may be They really look like above-average quality, all things considered. Did you buy all of this new and do the build yourself? It's a very nice model at any rate!

Jeez this is such a rabbit hole Here's the bevel gears, naturally different part numbers for the 13 and 15 tooth versions Levant 9804384: https://www.tamiyausa.com/shop/7-digit-spare-parts/rc-gp-bevel-pinion-gear-43534/ TB01 50630: https://www.tamiyausa.com/shop/nitro-engine-spare-parts/rc-pinion-ring-gear-44002/ What caught my eye here is Tamiya has apparently designated the 13 tooth pinion as "GP", which to me indicates that the bevel was originally intended for the TG10 or Mad Bison, both of which use the TB01 platform AFAIK. I'm just unclear if the Levant uses a different gearbox than the TB01, but dead certain that the prop shaft assembly is entirely different in every way. So does all of this line up with what you have there? Like do you have all original parts that came with the chassis? Or are you using TB01 hop-ups or parts of any kind?

Well here's something interesting. The gearboxes of the TB01 and Levant have different part numbers: Levant 0004192: https://www.tamiyausa.com/shop/7-digit-spare-parts/rc-gp-a-parts-43522/ TB01 50800: https://www.tamiyausa.com/shop/nitro-engine-spare-parts/rc-tg10-gear-case/ Tamiya does this sometimes and the parts are the same, but I'm unsure in this case. Do you have any pics of what your chassis setup looks like currently?

For comparative purposes, here's the prop shaft setup in the TB01. It's really quite different from the TNS and Levant:

Well, I see what maybe looks like the TNS setup for the prop shaft and stub? (edit: I see the list now)

Ha, "manual"... Sadly just an exploded diagram ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I'm only seeing the page that I posted for you.

(edit: photo deleted) Nice Is there a part number list on the back?

I considered this also, but if you have a look at the Levant pics posted in the other thread, you can see a closer view of the gearbox. To my eye, the Levant gearbox looks almost identical to the TB01 version. It's really perplexing. Maybe it's possible that the difference is taken up by just shimming-out the pinion? The difference between 13 and 15 teeth isn't that much, and the bevel shape might make it even easier to adapt it in this manner. Also might explain why the Levant shaft isn't backwards-compatible with the 15 tooth pinion.Thoughts? @TwistedxSlayer -- Have you checked to be certain you have the correct Levant prop shaft? Is the Levant shaft the exact same length as the TB01? A smaller beveled pinion would need to be closer to the ring gear, which would possibly require slightly longer prop shaft. Man, it sure would be handy having a manual right now. Not offering a one just because it's a RTR is poor form on Tamiya's part

Like I said, there will be a learning curve, but I think you got this Are you going to do heat shrink as well? From experience, it makes the insulation bit a lot easier. A cheap heat gun or micro torch would be the only tool you really need.

This is the problem then? I mean, if you're trying to fit the 15 tooth bevel to the Levant prop shaft, you yourself stated that they aren't compatible So to be perfectly clear, I've gleaned that: You have a Levant that the rear diff and bevel are not meshing properly You are using the original Levant prop shaft You are using the Levant 13 tooth bevel that is compatible with the Levant prop shaft? Sorry I haven't been any help so far, but I'm having trouble understanding exactly which components we are even discussing. Hopefully someone else who has explicit knowledge of the Levant can step in and help

So you're using the TB01 D-shaped shaft then? So I'm reading this as D-shaped like the TB01, but a different D-shape?

TBH it sounds like there's something different about the the Levant prop shaft that isn't compatible with the TB01 15 tooth bevel gear. Just to be clear, this is a Levant chassis you are working on? Or a TB01?

Yeah, I'm starting to learn some things about the Levant... Your thread from 2017 was helpful

Is it possible that since the Levant has a slipper clutch sandwiched in between the prop and gearbox, there's significantly different dimensions as compared to the TB01?

Pics of the prop shaft? I know there's a splined and non-splined versions. I'm going to go and have a look at the manuals to familiarize myself edit: not finding a manual online for the Levant since it's a RTR

I didn't realize there were two sets of bevel and crown gears available for the chassis That's a really interesting piece of trivia for me. I guess the Levant probably needed a taller diff gear to make up for the larger wheels. So presumably the issue is the 13T bevel won't mesh with the standard diff? Or is there something I'm missing? Just use a 15t bevel with the standard TB01 on road differential, no?

Why yes, I believe I those are the ones and they look quite nice with that body. if you don't mind me asking, what is that body anyhow? Do I see the 1/8 scale Sonax Tabac decals with an aftermarket 1/10 Mercedes body? I'm intrigued! I actually saw another TC member post a set of these wheels that they had located on eBay UK, which tragically is blocked from view here in the 'States. Kills me that after more than a decade of hunting for them they appear for sale from a place I'm forbidden to see. Although I'm still certain another NIP set will appear somewhere, someday. Fingers crossed anyhow

I'd say it's extremely likely you have, given that even the best of us have probably overheated and ruined a component at some point along the way. It takes practice, so you're going to have some failures. At least now you have some extra LEDs to practice with. I'm with you on the need for the warm LEDs over the "white" ones that are actually a rather unrealistic blue color. I've fab'd up more than a few sets of them for TLU's and opted to use standard warm LEDs that weren't prewired. If you want to save yourself the pain of soldering raw components, then I'd seek out whatever bulbs come both prewired and without a resistor. Either way, you got this!

The banks I deal with don't care if a *service provider* disagrees with the charge reversal that their customer initiated, and that's exactly what PayPal is: a service provider and not a bank as they'd like us to believe. The bank reversed the charge because I disputed the withdraw. If PayPal doesn't like it, it's their responsibility to claw the money back from the seller, who is also their client. It is not my bank's problem, and PayPal is beholden to what the banks demand from them. Not the other way around. Although I'm sure things are a bit different for you on the other side of the pond, I'd actually expected it to be more likely in your favor since Europe seems to have better consumer protections.

All LED bulbs require some type of voltage/current regulation, whether it be resistors, multiple bulbs wired in series, or a self-regulating power supply like the TLU01. The TLU01 is a self-regulated power supply. The setup DOES NOT require resistors for the LEDs -- If you use those that are prewired with resistors, they will have too much resistance for the TLU01 to do its job. Doesn't matter if they are rated for 6V, 12v, or 24v, if the current rating is higher than your power supply is rated for, they aren't going to work. If you look closely at the LEDs in the last link you posted, you can see the outline where there are resistors soldered inline. Maybe it's a stock photo, but I would make very sure whether they have resistors or not. Maybe you can ask the seller?

I have a NIB set for sale. PM me if you're interested.

You bought 9V-12v again? Those aren't going to work for you -- you need something that operates on 5V~6V. Pretty much any pre-wired LED that's made for automotive applications is going to have too high of resistance to work correctly with the TLU. I'm not sure where you are looking but I thought eBay might have the lower voltage WITHOUT resistors. Also, I agree with @waterbok in regards to overheating the LED leads -- it doesn't take more than a split second too long and you've fried the bulb's internals. Soldering these kind of junctions requires a little practice, so the pre-wired items would probably be the better choice for you.