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TycoLover

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Everything posted by TycoLover

  1. That's a neat setup. In my case I'm trying to do sort of the bare minimum to make it a functioning car again... Not looking for a whole lot of improvement. I'd complain about the cost of the set on Shapeways, but I just spent most of my Saturday doing the cad work to be able to print a new front plate / bumper assembly, so I must not value my time much.
  2. It looks like we're sort of getting there, doesn't it?
  3. Either style of tire would be fine. I actually prefer the earlier knobby tires, even though that's not what originally came on my car. I think the Turbo Hopper tires are approximately the same height regardless of the version (the wheels are different, as is the tread). This all does thoroughly answer my question, though... Indeed the Tamiya 1/10 scale buggy rear tires are quite a bit taller than those on the Turbo Hopper. Appreciate the side-by-side @67CamaroSS. Thanks guys!
  4. Thanks for the suggestion. Yes, they are 3mm.
  5. By the way, not sure why some of my uploaded pictures are showing sideways. They don't show like that on my computer and I don't see a way to correct the orientation in the post.
  6. All put back together and ready for a test drive...
  7. I took some pics of the new part printing, but something went goofy with my phone. Anyway, here's the new arm in it's new home. There are a couple of weak spots in the print that could be improved, but it's a lot better than the nail-and-wire trick.
  8. So one thing I've learned about the distinction between "toy grade" stuff and "hobby grade" stuff, is that toys were never meant to be taken apart. The kingpin is pressed in, so to move the wheel and spindle to the new arm, it needs to be pressed out.
  9. The gearbox seems to be working better than I expected. It's started slipping, which I think is the spur gear slipping on the axle. I just pressed it in as a "mock up" but it was tight enough that I've been running it around that way. My plan has been to cross drill for another pin and then hold the gear against it with a collar. Comically, the steering was going really out of whack at intervals when I was running it around with the kids last night. I pulled the bottom plate off of the front end to be reminded of what I'd done so many years ago: I had to laugh. No wonder she was driving so terribly. After thinking it over for a day, I decided to take a crack at printing up a replacement. I can't see any very good way of repairing this arm.
  10. Here's about what this one looked like back in the old days: I'd forgotten that it was also missing the spare tire:
  11. My original car was a red standard "27" car with skinny wheels like the red one shown here: https://rctoymemories.com/2012/05/06/tyco-taiyo-turbo-hopper-1986/ It had a pistol-grip type transmitter, so I think maybe it wasn't the very first one, but if I were going to buy one as a collectible this would be the one I'd seek. The car I have now, yes, was a "heads-up" model that I bought from my sister as a replacement for the one I broke. I always hated the little head turning back and forth, and I think one of the first things I did was remove this and the associated linkage. You can still see the groove for the little arm, and the pivot for the head in my pic though. Interestingly, I haven't seen any of the "heads-up" models for sale on eBay. Does this mean they're more or less collectible I wonder? I think the little head, as well as the different tires, were constant reminders to me that this wasn't actually my original car... Funny, that I mentioned to my wife that original examples of the Turbo Hopper can be had in reasonable condition for (only) around $200. "Good Lord," she says, "They want $200 for that." These little ECX cars are light years more capable and sell for about $100.
  12. @KEV THE REV, I read over your work on upgrading to hobby grade electronics, and it was a neat project well executed. If I had a decent looking Turbo Hopper with faulty electronics I might do the same. In my case, the radio and front end are really the only thing original. The body is long gone (interested in some replacement or substitute). The thing drives terribly, but is about what I remember. From here, my to-do list: Get some sort of body on there... I'm actually thinking a mini-scale baja buggy (VW Beetle) might look cool. 3D print a front bumper. The original broke off long ago. Print a gear set in Nylon when the PLA ones inevitably fail. It's also geared too high, partially owing to the silly tall wheels, so also: Get some more reasonable rear wheels.
  13. Finally, some new shock mounts (so I didn't have to further cut or drill on the chassis) with the ECX shocks mounted. Also soldered in a new set of motor leads, charged up the most recent NiCad pack that I had and ran her around the garage a little, giggling like a little kid:
  14. And then printed the final PLA set. I'd intended to print these again in Nylon, but for now the PLA set with some silicone grease seem to be doing okay.
  15. Confident I could print gears that would work, at least for a short while, I mocked up the 2nd stage:
  16. I'd lost the rear springs and one side of the "shocks". We'd recently upgraded a pair of shocks on one of the boys' ECX cars, so I robbed the old ones for the Turbo Hopper. At this point I was confident that it would work, so I mocked it up with those shocks just sitting in their new home:
  17. Here's my first attempt at an intermediate gear out of PLA. I just wanted to be sure I could get the gear mesh approximately right before I added the 2nd stage:
  18. My first Amazon order: 4mm stainless rod for Axle 3mm stainless rod for shaft for intermediate gear 4mm x 7mm bearings for axle My plan was as follows: 3D print something to retain the motor (original cap is lost). Mount the axle bearings. Cut the axle to length. Cross drill the axle for 1.5mm pins (this would be tough). Thread the axle for the 4mm nuts. 3D print a set of gears (suspect PLA won't work well, but I may be able to do nylon). Fix broken "shock" mount. Modify to use ECX 1/18 shocks. I wish I'd taken more photos along the way @KEV THE REV, but I'll post the ones I have. I wasn't sure any of this would work until I was able to cross-drill the driveshaft. That was the piece I was most nervous about. Here's the retainer for the motor (step 1):
  19. The first order of business was to put the rear-end of the car back together. I started at my local hobby shop with the shell of a rear end, looking for rod to be used as axle shafts, gears that might be approximately right, bearings, tires, etc. They were, sadly, much more interested in looking up parts for current models. I did pick up a set of 12mm wheel hexes, and some 4mm nuts as a starting point. The rest I would need to order online or make. Much of this work, by the way, was aided tremendously by this excellent write-up by @Live Steam Mad:
  20. I remember a trip to the hobby shop with my broken original car, hoping for some repair parts. The proprietor looked down his nose at my "toy" and advised that I should get a "real" RC car. I was bummed, and this soured me on hobby shops for a while. I did learn, though, that with these cars I was pretty much on my own. Last week, after a bit of racing around in the street with my boys and their "real" cars, I pulled the carcass of the old Turbo Hopper out of the box where it's been for a couple of decades. From a purely economic standpoint it's junk. I have the chassis, the fairly intact front end, and the housing for the gearbox. The rear axle and wheels are long gone... I think they were destroyed in the effort to get them apart. I faced a decision: If this is really junk, then I should throw it in the trash and quit wasting precious storage space. If it's not, then do something with it. As I'm contemplating this, the boys come out and start asking questions. "Cool, Dad, is this your old car?" "Oh wow look at that neat old transmitter." My mind was made up. I go into this knowing full well that for less money I could just buy a way nicer car. This is purely sentimental...
  21. Around Christmas time, my Wife let it be known that she'd rather see our two boys spend their time messing with RC cars than playing video games, and I was duly authorized to spend "some money" to facilitate this. I'm thrilled, but I'm also not sure if she and I have the same idea of what constitutes "some money." We've bought them a couple of 1/18th scale ECX cars to get started, and then a Traxxas Bandit. We've been having fun tinkering, and it got me thinking about the Tyco Turbo Hopper that I'd received as a Christmas Present maybe in the 4th grade or so. I ran that thing all around the back yard and street and house and basement. A year or so later, my sister got the "heads up" version, which had a little driver that turned his head in the direction the wheels were turning. She drove it a little, but wasn't as enchanted by it as I was with mine. Maybe a year after that, the "Turbo" feature got the better of me as I was tearing around the driveway and I obliterated the front end of my car against the base of the chimney. Devastated, I offered to buy my Sister's car for, I think, $30. I ran that car around for the next hand full of years until, maybe around '95, the gears gave out. I remember having a heck of a time getting the wheels off and the gearbox apart, only for the opportunity to examine the stripped gears with no way to replace them. The major parts went in a box and I've been toting them around with me ever since...
  22. Thanks for the replies @KEV THE REV and @Exit13. The original wheels and tires looked a lot like the ones on the Harley Bandit. Maybe a little narrower, but that would be close enough for what I'm doing. My real question is what is the diameter / height on those tires vs the ones on the Grasshopper in @Exit13's post? I'm not expecting anything I buy today to fit. The axle itself for my car is long gone (I think I bent it when trying to get the wheels off 25 years ago). I've made a replacement out of 4mm stainless rod, cross-drilled it to accept pins and 12mm hexes, threaded for 4mm nuts, and mounted it with 2.2 inch Traxxas buggy tires, but these look totally silly. I'm 3d printing parts to replace broken ones and make it run. I can print up hubs to mount Tamiya wheels, but I'm afraid they're close to the same size as the Traxxas ones. They're a whole lot easier to get than the Tyco stuff though. I was planning to do a thread on my whole project in "Other Makes." Figured you guys would get a kick out of it. I had the old Turbo Hopper running around the garage yesterday for the first time in 25 years or so.
  23. Hi all, I'm looking for some suitable rear tires for my Tyco Turbo Hopper. This reddit says that they're the same as those on Tamiya Super Champ/Fighting Buggy, Grasshopper, and Hornet: I suspect that's wrong, though. Those are 1/10 scale cars, where the hopper was 1/16. Anyway, could one of you guys that owns those Tamiya models take some measurements on the rear tires? If they're approximately right then I'll get some and put them on the Tyco. Thanks!
  24. I know this thread is a few months old, but I remember rounding out my wheel hexes 25 years ago trying to get the gearbox apart on my Turbo Hopper, so this tugged at my heart strings a little. They look like nuts, but they aren't! In case you haven't found it, or for anybody else who comes to this thread with the same question, @Live Steam Mad gives a good overview of tearing down this gearbox (including removing the wheels) in his thread: It sounds like he never did get it back together successfully, though... The hexes are pressed on to the axle.
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