Silver-Can

You might also want to look at the steering linkage mod when the time comes. The kit supplied rod from servo horn to steering arm/attachment isn't the best.

I'm looking forward to FPV racing myself...stick a little camera in the cab, grab your goggles and off you go. Winner is last racer puking 🤢😁

@Avante2001R 100% agree re schumacher cars. I have 3 (all cougar iterations). I have raced them all at club and regional level (not that I'm any good 🤪) and they are phenomenal. I can still get parts for my cougar 2000 at very reasonable prices. They are robust, handle fabulously and use excellent materials. Don't get me wrong, I really like tamiya, particularly the 80s and 90s stuff but in terms of support and performance, tamiya can't really hold a candle to schumacher stuff (or pretty much any other rc company that has been going for a comparable length of time). It seems to me tamiya's more recent stuff - ie new stuff - is either trying to cater to a niche that has been largely serviced by competitors, or simply no longer exists.

Yeah I looked at a couple of random ones a week or so ago but they were a little, erm, advanced for me! It's something I used to be interested in as a young 'un and my son's interest has rekindled my own 😁. And yeah, I can imagine he's got a few tasty buggies too 😲😳

[Wayyyy off topic but...] Ooooh I'm supposed to be building a 20x10 foot layout for my eldest next year. Might have to check this guy's channel out for hints and tips. Also really like Schumacher buggies too (I have 3 of em). Anyway - carry on (ducks below parapet).

Looks to me like the connectors on the end of your esc (female) are designed to connect with male 'banana' plug connectors - which aren't fitted to your motor. Pretty sure the gold coloured bits sticking out the end of your motor are actually connectors. If you used a pair of pliers, they should come off. The idea would be to remove the female connectors off your esc and then solder the wire ends to the connectors that fit directly onto your motor. You would solder the wires horizontally (relative to the end of the motor) and it is much easier (imo) to solder the wires with the motor connectors/plugs in situ.

Yeah I got lucky with my front bar. Managed to grab one for reasonable money 5 or 6 years ago, not long after the fox was re re'd. I've cracked the gearbox casing in the past too and had to replace the gears.

I don't think they're a direct drop in. I think you may need the nova front top arms too (as well as the actual sway bar and attendant bits and pieces) but I could be wrong. To be honest, I removed the sway bar off my nova and replaced it with the original period unit. Seems to work better (and looks way cooler 😎). Not sure how easy either of these will be to come by at the minute though. Does improve front end handling though.

With the motor in place, when you spin one of the wheels does it feel smooth and the other wheel rotate in the opposite direction? As @slimleeroy says, it might be a foreign object in the motor. Either that or the motor is fubared. Do you have a spare 540 motor you could swap and try?

Have you got the correct pitch pinion. Should be 0.8 mod. Have you set the spacer correctly? Have you tried removing the motor and free wheeling it? Does it still make the noise? If not, the gearbox is sound (or at least not the culprit here). If it still makes this noise when just free wheeling, then there is probably an issue within the gearbox. You could also try removing wheels and dog bones too to rule those out. What ever you do, do one thing at a time otherwise you'll not know precisely where the issue lies. I have a novafox and not really come across this with this particular model.

Just to add my 2p worth...when I first got back into the hobby some 10 years ago I got a re re hotshot and a basket case hornet, mechanically sound but rough around the edges. My abiding memory of the hornet is that it was fast, but squirrally if you know what I mean. It is a very light car, especially compared to a 4wd, so it doesn't take much to send it on it's way. I had a sports tuned in mine running nimh batteries (that liked to fall out) and it was plenty quick enough. Unfortunately, on anything approaching a bumpy surface it was more luck than judgment as to which direction the car would point. The issue is the rear suspension tends to 'bounce' over lumps and bumps, rather than actually absorbing them, resulting in the back end kicking up and swinging the front end off the line you were actually driving. Ultimately, I found this too frustrating. I still have the hotshot, but not the hornet (and the hotshot is no great performer tbh). The Hornet is great for what it is/was, but ultimately there are better performing cars for similar, or even less money. But then, I know what it's like when your kids have their heart set on something! As others have said, there are ways of addressing some of its shortcomings ie 3D printed parts, but then, you might as well have a better performing car from the get-go. I really like the dt03 linked earlier in the thread dressed up as a hornet. Stick some functional spotlights on it (i like spotlights on my buggies 😁) and you would have a good performing buggy that closely resembled an iconic looking buggy. I think whatever you end up choosing, the experience of building and running together will eclipse what it is you're building and running 🙂

Big shout out to @topforcein who sorted this for me. Arrived today in tip top condition. A true gent and credit to our club. Once again, many thanks mate 👍

I have a bearhawk which has an almost identical gearbox to the blizters (and other interchangable parts). I found that adding some diff putty helps keep the rear end in check. But yeah - they are somewhat tail happy.

PM incoming...🙂

Do you know whether that has end point adjustment (EPA)? This is what you would use to limit the throw of the servo, as coolhands suggested, to get that sweet spot between just too much and just too little. Typically it is expressed as a figure between 0-120 with 0 being minimum and 120 maximum. Failing that, I'm not sure what else you could do to limit the servo travel, other than using a different servo. Sorry...