Burned_out_motor

Beautiful vehicles, Nikko85! I like the drivers! I’m going to get tthe MF-01X back out there, eventually. I dropped a Tamiya torque tuned 130 motor into the toy Batmobile and repainted the Ripsaw tank toy. Awesome hobby, guys. Thanks.

100% agree with the above. I’m pretty good with model building and modifying RC toy grade vehicles. So - I’m kind of ashamed of myself for not building it from a kit in the first place. I think my “bump into the curb” did more damage than I thought. I believe it deformed the plastic in the gearbox where the bearings and axles fit. At the very least, I think need to order another gearbox and the proper bearings before I get the screwdriver out. And - yes, I was hoping it was just the pinion or motor mounts but, nope. I’d just tightened all that up when I installed the torque tuned motor. Pinion is on there good and tight. It’s the gears in the gearbox. When the 4WD and strong torque tuned motor went to a sudden stop, I believe it ruined the gearbox housing. The gears themselves are probably ok but they won’t likely stay in place. I’ll fix it….

Here’s another photo of the problem. Ah, I might just get the screwdriver out and go for it. I can’t admit defeat, yet!!!

UPDATE: Ok. If you run one of these into a curb, there’s a good chance the “counter gear” (and I suspect other gears) will get knocked out of place. I took the motor off, put that gear back in place by wedging a screwdriver in there (it wasn’t pretty), reassembled, ran it while holding it and noted it sounded bad, then it disengaged again. I knocked he whole gearbox apart so the only solution is a complete rebuild. I’m thinking about starting this project over with the exact kit, building a new one, then I’ll be able to upgrade and repair this one. I gotta take the whole thing apart. Sounds like fun. I’m gonna do it eventually. Lesson learned: PAY ATTENTION WHILE DRIVING!!!

I bet you’re right. This weekend, I’ll re-examine the grub screw. When I took it apart after the crash, it looked like it was still affixed securely but it probably wasn’t. Man, if that’s all it is, I’m gonna drive the heck out of it this weekend! And - I need a solution to the fragile plastic front bumper. I saw somebody made a front bumper out of foam for the MF01x chassis which I believe fit under the body shell. If the brittle front plastic bumper outside the shell were made of rubber, the car would look good and more durable. I’ll have to ponder this some more…

Just an update on my Rally Beetle newbie experience. 1. I added a torque tuned motor and a 23T pinion at the same time. The car is faster and has good acceleration.. It seems to be a good combination. It’s still barely faster than some of the toy RCs I’ve got. 2. None of the official Tamiya tires for an M chassis seem big enough. 3. One bump into a curb and the plastic bumper is done. 4. I drove it on wet pavement this weekend and just like a real car - better go slow! I had one finale impact and did something to the drivetrain. It’s not the pinion or spur gear. Today was a disaster. I’m gonna take a break for a while and will eventually take the car apart and see what I did to it. The motor spins but some gears in there aren’t meshing anymore. 100% my fault. 5. FYI - Don’t adjust the steering trim while going fast on wet pavement!!! That’s what caused the accident. Minutes before disaster! Wet Pavement Just wondering if any of you guys know what I did. I’m going to disassemble the car and find out but just wondering. I obviously knocked some gear out of place!

Well - that actually makes me feel better! The only “Expert Built” machine I’m ever going to own, is the one I build myself. I confess, I was being lazy when I ordered an RTR RC. I should’ve gone with a kit. Live and learn. Oh yeah, I already have one or two RC vehicles I want to build. First up after upgrading the Rally Beetle is the Fast Attack Vehicle rerelease!! I’ll send some videos of the Beetle once I get it up to par. I am happy with the appearance of this RC. Thanks everybody for the replies! More to come…

As much as I wanted to keep it stock, there’s no way. It’s really boring as is. Yes, I’m going to have to take a screwdriver and upgrade bearings as well, eventually. I bought four 53215 tires and four 51666 wheels with foam inserts before I even unboxed the car. I’m going to try those since I already have them. It’s kind of sad that the “Expert Built” 100% stock version is so lame. Ridiculously, laughably lame. I can foresee my building another MF01X chassis rally beetle from a kit. This time, doing it right, with the right parts, from the start. Maybe even going brushless.

I bought a Torque Tuned 540 motor, and a set of pinions (22t, 23t). It looks like an easy swap. I have Tamiya Cerra Grease and the tools. Now all I need is the time and energy to work on the car! I also intend to change the wheels and tires. Those stock rally block tires are excessively soft. It’s as if the car is riding on 4 flat tires. I bet just new harder tires would make the RC faster. Stay tuned.

Quick Parking Lot Test Run 3 I don’t think the car is getting slower. I have noticed that a very fresh battery pack gives the car a boost of quickness for the first few minutes. I think in one of those clips I’d been running it for a while so could’ve been batteries. Hey, if it gets much slower, it’ll be going backwards, lol!! Its just the way this model was designed. High torque, best suited for skidding across a flat dirt surface like a dirt road, baseball diamond, or some other mild off-road surface. Like a real rally car, I suppose. I’m considering bigger wheels, a pinion with more teeth, & faster motor as suggested. No rush. I’m going to drive it around the parking lot some more for now. I don’t think anything’s in danger of breaking or wearing out like I was originally worried about.

Thanks for the info! The car is beautiful. Well built. Quiet. And embarrassingly SLOW! Haha! I look like I’m playing with one of my kids’ toys. Yeah - bigger pinion. I’ll try it, If I can get it up to speed with better gearing , maybe a better motor and bigger tires, I’d like to eventually take it to a local RC track. We’ve obviously got a little work to do first, haha! Here’s a clip - sorry for the poor camera angle in the first link. Car in action. Car in action - better angle.

Ok - I’m new to real RC…I didn’t realize a 7.4v NiMH battery fully charged should read up to 8.4v on the multimeter. So, when I measured all those batteries that have been in storage and they read 7.6v, I thought I was good to go, but that’s not the case. The batteries must have been really drained. I’m going to try the car out again. I’m still kind of laughing because the car couldn’t go fast enough to even come close to flipping over, bottoming out, melting bushings, or any of the stuff I was originally worried about.

Hello Tamiya Club! We finally had a dry sunny day so I decided to take the “Expert Built” Beetle Rally car to the parking lot for a spin. I intended to prepare a custom body (which I will still eventually do) but I just ran it as is. To my surprise, it came with a 7.2V NiCd battery. I also bought two NiMH 5000 MAh 7.2V batteries as spares. I tested the voltage of each battery and was surprised to find they all read over 7.2V! It’s a beautiful car. It runs smooth and quietly. Another surprise - it’s laughably SLOW! I know it’s designed for off-road “rally” racing and not an on-road racer, but, I own toys from my kids that go faster. I swapped battery packs, same result. One of the 5000mAh batteries lasted for 30 minutes. I packed up and went home before it ran out so I don’t think it’s batteries. I’m learning how to cycle the batteries with the charger, then I’m going to fully charge them and am go out again tomorrow. The car is awesome, I have no regrets, but it’s not going to go fast enough as-is to flip or wear out bearings or anything, lol!!! I’m going to keep learning about the batteries, pinions, and possible motor upgrades and see about getting it to go a little faster than a New Bright RC from Wal Mart! Today was funny.

Hey OnTheTrail! Thanks for the response! Christmas came and went! My Expert Built Beetle is beautiful! It’s still in the box and it looks so good I kind of hate to take it out. Once we’re a little bit into 2025 and I get some time, I intend to wash, paint, apply decals, etc to an extra body that I purchased. That stock pristine body will probably not get driven, it’s just too nice! Unless it gets destroyed, I hope to display the car when I’m not driving it. I decided I’m not swapping bushings or anything out as that defeats the purpose for my buying a ready to run model. I’ll change parts as needed. Just a body and wheels/tires swap. Yes, I am a total enthusiastic beginner. I love RC cars and it’s time to move up from toy grade. Unless you experts advise otherwise, I intend to order this charger: Charger And these batteries: NiMH Batteries

I don’t intend to put any bumpers or headlights on since I’ll likely roll the car a few times. (I’ll try to avoid doing that). Some runner up ideas that almost made it for the stunt body:

I just ordered a body shell, polycarbonate paint, stickers, wheels, foam & racing slicks. I’m spending a fortune on this and so far I don’t even have batteries or a charger, yet!!! I don’t care, lol!!! The idea is to have a “stunt body” and wheels to use and preserve the expert built stock body and wheels. I’m going to be running on concrete so I’m going for an on-road Beetle Fun Cup look and not quite the rally look. I looked at dozens of Beetle cup and rally photos. The light blue / flat black racer is what I’m going to try to make the model look like. I’ve never painted an RC shell before but I’ve painted quite a few model cars so I think this is going to work. Looking forward to Christmas, lol! I’ll post pics when I get all the parts and paints in and get something together.

The car showed up in record time, straight from Japan. The wife won’t let me open it until Christmas, lol! I’m 60 years old and feel like a 10 year old waiting until Christmas. What the heck, it’s fun. Here’s the plan upon opening the box: 1. Remove the body shell and stock wheels and rims for safekeeping. 2. Replace the body with a stripped down replacement “stunt body” that I’m going to buy and paint soon. 3. Install wheels and slicks suited for the parking lot where I intend to run it. The plan is to run it a lot, probably taking a tumble here and there, while preserving the expert built body. I’m probably going to just fix stuff as it breaks. That’s the way I’m going to learn. I do feel like a bit of a wimp for not building this from a kit. I’ll post pics of the custom stunt body when I get it and paint it.

I’ll be honest, I have an obsession with VW Beetles racing in any category. And it’s all because of…… THIS: Look at those custom rims! Yes it started for me with this classic movie. I’m not committed enough to buy or make a real one, but I’m 100% OK with racing an RC version someday!

Yes, that sounds like what I read about the motor sliding earlier. Thank you! Well, it looks like I should get to work on the thing as soon as it gets here. I might buy the bearings now even though I’m clueless as to how to install them. Oil filled shocks, new motor pinion, threadlock, etc. And yesI might put on a replacement body and preserve the expert built body. Heck, I might as well remove the motor and run it at 3volts for a while break it in and to seat the brushes I

Thanks for that information. I’m thinking more and more about this and I might just do some of those upgrades immediately. Especially the pinion gear replacement! Bearings too. I’ve got time to read and watch videos on how to do it. My goal is just to get it setup and reliable. The fun I’ve gotten out of toy grade RC cars is to drive them hard and fast around the parking lot, skidding, doing donuts, and stuff like that. I don’t intend to jump anything with the rally beetle. Just aggressive driving that wears down tires. Install New pinion install oil filled shocks install steel bearings Get a good charger Get more wheels and tires. I’ll give it a try!

Thanks, Jugglar! I probably misunderstood the motor issue. It was in another post about the various pros and cons of this particular chassis. I’ve got big plans for this RC. While I’m waiting, I’m considering buying a replacement body, stickers, and a body detail set and make a slightly differently painted body. Maybe ordering some different tires, would be fun, too. I plan on running it on an asphalt parking lot near my house. When it arrives, I might remove and store the expert built body, & stock wheels and use what I’ve ordered and prepared. I’ll try to be careful but it’s going to take a tumble or two, I’m sure. I'm going to need a good balance charger, batteries, and parts. This is going to be awesome!!!

Hello Tamiya Club! I am a guy who knows very little about hobby grade RC. I really like the look of the Tamiya Beetle Rally car. I’ve seen it over the years but have been hesitant to buy a kit because I don’t have confidence in my assembly skills or parts knowledge yet. Once I saw that an Expert Built version existed, I decided to buy it. The chassis doesn’t seem to be very desirable from what I’ve read but that’s what I’ve got. Here are a few questions about the MF-01X chassis that I have after reading other posts: 1. The vehicle comes with plastic bearings that several posters have stated should immediately upgraded to metal bearings. (This advice comes from builders who are building the Beetle from a kit). What will happen if I just run the car with those plastic bearings? Are they going to wear out and damage other gears or parts? Should I immediately upgrade this car? Can I just run it as-is? 2. There seems to be an issue with rear suspension hitting part of the chassis. I’ve seen YouTube builders Dremel plastic off, or change parts. Aside l from the car not performing optimally, what if I just left that as-is and drove it until I learn how to remedy it? 3. I just saw a post about the motor maybe sliding off? Pinion problems? Oh man - I just want to run it when it gets here. That’s why I bought an EB version. I guess the big question is: Can I run this MF-01X chassis as it comes, without damaging anything? Or should I start working on bearings, clearances, oil shocks, and motor mount issues immediately, then run it? Its going to take a while for it to arrive. And my wife doesn’t want me to open it until Christmas, lol! I have a little buyers remorse after reading up on the MF-01X chassis but I love the look of that car so much, I just want to run it. I look forward to your thoughts and opinions.

Disregard my earlier post. I’m just going to build it stock when I do get a kit. No motor upgrades - the more I think about it, the more I don’t want to do it. I hope to build the 2011 version or the new one when it comes out, soon. I got a toy grade version to hold me over. Looking forward to building the kit, assembly and everything. (Not related) I also repainted another RC Ripsaw tank Army green just because it’s fun to paint stuff in military colors!

I really like military-type RC vehicles and am waiting for the Fast Attack Vehicle to be re-released. In the meantime, I’ve been painting and racing my “Ripsaw” tanks. (See pic). The tanks are cool but they just don’t go fast enough. I want SPEED for my next RC project! If I were to get a 2011 re-release Fast Attack Vehicle, can it be upgraded to a brushless motor? In another forum post, somebody mentioned this motor might fit in place of the stock 540: Brushless Tamiya Motor I’ve never heard of anybody actually doing it, though. It looks like a brushless 540 is hard to come by. Every one is “Sold Out”! Brushless 540 Motors The Fast Attack Vehicle is a vintage RC that’s not designed for brushless but I really like it and want one that performs. Has anybody upgraded FAV? Would the extra speed and torque make it unmanageable? Would it destroy the gearing?