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Well I suppose you could pay more for a pinion if you buy one of those Swiss cheese Tamiya ones, but it's a bit of a daft thing to say when a set of "control" tyres is going to set them back a tenner :lol: . An RW steel pinion wil outlast the rest of the car in a silvercan powered Mini, so you'd only ever need to buy one.

The thing is, the kit is expressly designed to take different pinions, show me any racer worth his (or her) salt that doesn't understand the importance of correct gearing ?

Weeting is a very short, tight & twisty track, so lower gearing is appropriate. Someone commented that the M05 has more punch out of the corners, what twaddle, it has the same basic gear ratio as the M03, therefore it can only be the pinion (ignoring tyre sizes) and if it really does have a weight disadvantage, then by rights it should be slower out of the corners not faster. It corners better than the 03, but I believe that's because of the revised front suspension geometry, it's certainly not the gearing :blink: .

With pinions at £3 a pop, if they're that bothered, I'll buy them the pinion of their choice.

It seems the M05 has caused quite a stir, but moaning about pinions not being affordable is stupid when half of them are talking about buying a £120 M05 kit :blink:

And nobody has noticed that the Xpress tyre is 17% smaller diameter than the Tamiya standard 60D have they ?

To my mind, it sounds like there needs to be formal discussion with all the club members & a few myths dispelled.

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Well I suppose you could pay more for a pinion if you buy one of those Swiss cheese Tamiya ones, but it's a bit of a daft thing to say when a set of "control" tyres is going to set them back a tenner :lol: . An RW steel pinion wil outlast the rest of the car in a silvercan powered Mini, so you'd only ever need to buy one.

The thing is, the kit is expressly designed to take different pinions, show me any racer worth his (or her) salt that doesn't understand the importance of correct gearing ?

Weeting is a very short, tight & twisty track, so lower gearing is appropriate. Someone commented that the M05 has more punch out of the corners, what twaddle, it has the same basic gear ratio as the M03, therefore it can only be the pinion (ignoring tyre sizes) and if it really does have a weight disadvantage, then by rights it should be slower out of the corners not faster. It corners better than the 03, but I believe that's because of the revised front suspension geometry, it's certainly not the gearing :blink: .

With pinions at £3 a pop, if they're that bothered, I'll buy them the pinion of their choice.

It seems the M05 has caused quite a stir, but moaning about pinions not being affordable is stupid when half of them are talking about buying a £120 M05 kit :blink:

And nobody has noticed that the Xpress tyre is 17% smaller diameter than the Tamiya standard 60D have they ?

To my mind, it sounds like there needs to be formal discussion with all the club members & a few myths dispelled.

Agreed!

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Weeting is a very short, tight & twisty track, so lower gearing is appropriate. Someone commented that the M05 has more punch out of the corners, what twaddle, it has the same basic gear ratio as the M03, therefore it can only be the pinion (ignoring tyre sizes) and if it really does have a weight disadvantage, then by rights it should be slower out of the corners not faster. It corners better than the 03, but I believe that's because of the revised front suspension geometry, it's certainly not the gearing :blink: .

don't bag it before you try it but extra weight can be an advantage in mini racing

try leadding your m03 out to about 1350-1400g, add it at the front inside the bumper, gearbox cavities or under battery

then check your laptimes... ;-)

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don't bag it before you try it but extra weight can be an advantage in mini racing

try leadding your m03 out to about 1350-1400g, add it at the front inside the bumper, gearbox cavities or under battery

then check your laptimes... ;-)

Yeah I know a little extra weight can be an advantage, however the track we are talking about is only about 10m square & laptimes are in the 9 second range. The track layout get changed every week, but the space is pretty small, the marginal weight difference between the M03 & 05 is unlikely to make a massive difference on a circuit like this:

img19691_03072009113352_6.jpg

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don't bag it before you try it but extra weight can be an advantage in mini racing

try leadding your m03 out to about 1350-1400g, add it at the front inside the bumper, gearbox cavities or under battery

then check your laptimes... ;-)

Lead in the front?

I thought that it would be better leading the rear??

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Lead in the front?

I thought that it would be better leading the rear??

Wheelspin I expect could be the reason. Noticed that myself with the FF01 on it's second club outing last night. Thought the ball diff was loose but it was actually wheelspin - with a silver can 540, lol :blink: Still, finished 2nd in the A-final so there's hope for it yet :P

Might try some additive next time out as at the rate the rock hard kit tyres are wearing they'll last the season for sure, hehe :lol:

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Gents,

What shells are you all using on your Mini's?

Im after details of non Mini shells ideally please?

Thanks :)

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<3 Nissan Cube!!

I take it that there are very limited 239mm WB shells compared to the 210mm WB shells??

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Cheers fella, just wondered if anyone here had tried some of the Mardave shells etc etc?

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Cheers fella, just wondered if anyone here had tried some of the Mardave shells etc etc?

Ive seen Tigra, 206 and Moggy minor bodies on the M03 chassis. There pretty strong... Unless you step on them LOL!

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Cheers for that :)

Hey, just a thought....why dont that many indoor clubs seem to allow the use of foams on minis??

They are cheap, offer consistant grip and wear well. Am I missing an obvious reason?

Ta :(

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I take it that there are very limited 239mm WB shells compared to the 210mm WB shells??
every other mini chassis manufacturer sticks to the 210mm wheelbase, which is why there's loads of 210mm bodies.

Always found RCMart lists the biggest selection of mini bodies. An awful lot of them are too low to fit over an M03 as they are made for the 4wd and pan car mini chassis, but they should go on an M05 no problem.

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every other mini chassis manufacturer sticks to the 210mm wheelbase, which is why there's loads of 210mm bodies.

Always found RCMart lists the biggest selection of mini bodies. An awful lot of them are too low to fit over an M03 as they are made for the 4wd and pan car mini chassis, but they should go on an M05 no problem.

Cheers Terry :)

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Hey, just a thought....why dont that many indoor clubs seem to allow the use of foams on minis??

They are cheap, offer consistant grip and wear well. Am I missing an obvious reason?

One big obvious reason, when most of the clubs started running a mini class the Xpress foams weren't available at all, and have only recently been available in the UK. Allowing foams would mean no one can be near competitive with the kit tyres and would have to buy a set of foams instead, not a good idea when it is supposed to be a cheap class.

You will also notice most clubs restrict tyres to Tamiyas range, and quite often just to the treaded radials, to prevent the need to try lots of different makes to see what works best.

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Ok i have fixed the pinion meshing problem. It's the RW Pinions i ordered from Demon power products, they are a fraction bigger than the standard Tamiya alloy one. I have a feeling they may have sent me the wrong ones. Am i right in thinking i need 0.6 pitch for the M03/M05?

I have just fitted a 16t RW racing pinion from Demon

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I have just fitted a 16t RW racing pinion from Demon and the car sounds terrible - much like yours did - I did notice when I slid the motor back in that it didnt line up as well as I expected - duff batch of pinions? Or are they just the wrong size? They are marked up as .6 Tamiya replacements??

Mine arrived in just a clear bag with no label, am currently emailing them to arrange returning them for replacement/refund.

It must either be a duff batch or they are sending the wrong ones out at the moment. Just ordered some more from Apex to see if they can do better.

Ian and me stripped the M05 to find that one of the gears had chewed teeth (might explain the noise) but new gearset in and it is now as quiet running as Ian's.

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I've had some like that from Demon and some in sealed bags with top tags,but I've not had any issues with either, except one & that was user error:

When I first rebuilt the M03 with an 18t pinion I didn't realise the order of the mounting holes was odd (20-16-18, but who ever reads the manual :blink: ) & screwed it together using the middle holes. Needless to say it was very tight & sounded awful, fortunately I noticed before it did any harm. The M05 is the same in this respect.

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Mine arrived in just a clear bag with no label, am currently emailing them to arrange returning them for replacement/refund.

It must either be a duff batch or they are sending the wrong ones out at the moment. Just ordered some more from Apex to see if they can do better.

Ian and me stripped the M05 to find that one of the gears had chewed teeth (might explain the noise) but new gearset in and it is now as quiet running as Ian's.

Yes mine were in clear bags too - will have a play around with it - last thing I want to do is screw up the gears in the M01 - not as easy to come by.

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I'm still trying to figure out how I went from a badly behaved piece of junk to a very sweet handling car & back again in the space of 3 meetings ?

Last night I tore the whole thing down again;

Having totally dismantled the front end, it was still unclear where the problem lay. I cleaned each part up as I removed it. The front hubs seemed fine, sure there was slop in them, but nothing horrendous. I pulled the bearings, two were perfect, one was a little noisy but ran okay & one was very gritty. I blasted it several times, but couldn't clean it out, so I put a new one in. The drive cups aren't showing any signs of wear despite not being fully hardened ones & the universals are like new.

Next the turnbuckles, they were scarred from the motor edge & looking fairly second hand, but still perfectly functional. Nothing especially unusual, nothing bent or broken in there, so I turned to the servo & saver (Hitec BB with a Kimbrough saver), AHA!!. The saver was flopping around on the servo output shaft, but the screw was tight ? OK, strip it down & pack some M2 washers under the head to tighten it up - definitely better.

The servo itself was flapping about like a paper kite, it seemed to be a combination of the posts & the chassis rails flexing. I rebuilt them with longer socket screws & penny washers, flipped the servo mounts round to push the servo forward slightly too, giving me a fraction more clearance. I also put a spacer between the back of the servo & the chassis rail to prevent the servo pivoting on it's mount which seems to have stiffened the whole shooting match up no end.

Then I noticed the right hand inner ball end adjuster was actually catching on the servo itself at full left lock - this seemed to be where some of the binding was coming from. I twisted the rod end slightly & it cleared, WOOHOO!! It's not perfect, but it should do me at least for one heat. Failing that, I'll fit shorter ball ends to the saver which should give me enough clearance.

I refitted the motor with the 16t pinion, there was still a little binding between the steering knuckle and the motor edge, so I pulled the motor again & fitted the 18t pinion, it's better but I may have to move the ball studs to the forward holes to get enough clearance. That should also allow me to refit the 16t pinion if necessary. Gear mesh looks perfect with both pinions, I know the 16t was ok, but I'm yet to run it with the 18t.

The whole front end is back together now & looks good enough, I've set it up with a little toe in, like I had before when it drove really well. I'm still mounting the transponder & trying to route the wire neatly. Once that's done I'll get it screwed back together & see how it behaves.

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Great pics.

I cannot believe how poor quality the fast gear set is for the M05. Me and my mate both bought a set and were destroyed within the first 5 minutes of a qualifying race. The mess it makes in the casing is a nightmare to clean out.

Won't be getting anymore of those.

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