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cjm_wales

My childhood Super Astute.

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I've owned this Super Astute since I was 13. It was given to me for Christmas in 1992, and was my first 'race grade' RC car, following on from a Madcap.

It's been in bits in various boxes since the mid 90s, and other than a previous failed attempt to race it back in 2002 - the gears couldn't handle a reasonably powerful brushed motor - it's sat idle for all this time. Back in 2009 I bought a Kamtec repro shell which I never took out of the packaging... I'll be prepping that later this week :)

Now I have more money than sense, I've decided I'll have a crack at getting it back up and running. Not just for street bashing, but for 'serious' vintage racing.

To this end, I intend to fit the 3d printed parts from ORB racing (on their way to me as I type :)), the full suite of Fibre-Lyte carbon fibre parts, Egress / Avante hi-caps that I found on the japanese auction site for 30 quid, and I'm also considering either the A&L lethal weapon transmission, or reverse engineering the existing gear set & having them 3d printed in super-strong plastic.

Electrics wise, I think a 17.5 in either blinky or boosted would probably be enough, unless I upgrade the transmission.

I'm also opting for a super shorty lipo pack & plan to design my own battery holder or adapt the existing one so I can mount the ESC and reciever in line behind the pack, keeping everything neat and compact.

Unfortunately the diff 'holder' or access hatch is cracked around the counter sinks. I might have to re-design that part too.

I'd be grateful for suggestions on turnbuckle options. The originals were always slop-tastic & I partly swapped it out for schumacher CAT turnbuckles and rod ends. The madcap kick up plate is pictured. I do have madcap uprights I could swap the original parts for, to get rid of the ridiculous bushings.

Annoyingly I'm missing one hinge pin from the front inboard wishbone mountings, and I'm having to use the madcap pin-screws to keep the wishbones attached.

Sorting through the bits:
20160313_102058_zpsluleraij.jpg

The piece that failed last time out - a definite weak link:
20160313_102300_zps4tw9buih.jpg

Stripping the superglue (what was I thinking?!) from the spur gear / slipper plate):
12439435_218024228564803_600039886215500

gearbox back on:
9170_218038301896729_2876516054846546735

lots of work to do still:
12932585_217947415239151_401566683153807

I'll be replacing all the original screws with hex hardware:
12920503_218038811896678_314088537781849

I've already emailed a 3d printing firm regarding the gear set. I intend to get the main shaft reduction gear, hex 'washer' plate, idler gear and diff casing re-engineered in modern high strength plastic.

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Looking forward to this one! The Super Astute was one heck of a car, from what I hear. I own an Astute sporting several Super Astute pieces, so I have at least some idea of how special it was.

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Hey looking forward to reading your restoration thread as I do my own. I'm on holiday this week so not been able to make much progress so this thread is giving my SA fix until I get home!

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More infos about 3D printed gears and housing?

My SA has a full set of ORB 3D printed stuff but never heard about transmission.

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More infos about 3D printed gears and housing?

My SA has a full set of ORB 3D printed stuff but never heard about transmission.

The first company I've sent an enquiry too has quoted me an hours' labour per gear (£62 quid).

I need to get my SketchUp skills up to scratch for gears, so I'll have a crack at designing them myself. I might even end up biting the bullet & buying a 3d printer!

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For this money I would have the steel iddle gear and delrin exa secondary gear.

But if you spend 100 $ you will have the Lethal Weapon 2 Belt Tranny with Slippery Clutch.

Max

The first company I've sent an enquiry too has quoted me an hours' labour per gear (£62 quid).

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For this money I would have the steel iddle gear and delrin exa secondary gear.

But if you spend 100 $ you will have the Lethal Weapon 2 Belt Tranny with Slippery Clutch.

Max

yeah, I just ordered one :)

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The super shorties have arrived. These will also be going in my TA04 vintage racer project in an effort to shed some weight.

They're ridiculous!

IMG_20160407_160954_zps0ramnt9g.jpg

Also arrived today: the UJs and a savox 1251MG low profile servo :)

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Really looking forward to this build thread!! The lethal weapon looks great, However I would be interested if you did get the OG gears made up fresh.

I think Wasp and RW made gear adapters for the Super Astute, this is the first one I have seen, EVER! Any chance of getting that Gear adepter 3D printed B):ph34r:

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Small update:

The A&L transmission is on its way, as is the fibre lyte carbon parts & egress Hi-cap dampers.

I think the blocker to progress will be the D1 parts (rear wishbone hinge pin mounting blocks). I ordered a pair from pargu over a fortnight ago & I had a response from them to say they haven't even made them yet! It could be another 3-4 weeks, which is frankly shocking.

I've emailed ORB racing to see if they have any D1 parts in stock. I should have just ordered from him to begin with! the parts he's sent out already look superb and took less than a week to arrive...

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A slow afternoon.

I decided to bin the original turnbuckles (good for nothing but the bin really) & go with schumacher items (the same as on my KF2, easy to adjust!).

it took a while to get everything together and I will admit it was pretty frustrating. I've got no idea why Tamiya went for such an over-engineered design for the front suspension! I have all the madcap bits but the knuckle arms are a different design with ball ends that look like they'd break in a strong breeze.

I still might go with the madcap uprights. Simplicity is underrated.

I got there eventually though, thanks in part to a pair of cougar SV2 captive ball joints I had sat in my pit box. I also had to get inventive with the steering assembly as it was fouling easily & not giving full lock.

And I have no idea where my front bumper is!

20160415_172653_zpsfgrstdv3.jpg

Then I realised that the lovely, logical turnbuckle mounting from the front of the tower would foul the shocks! So I changed them around.

20160415_192732_zpsmovig9mv.jpg

20160415_192739_zpsgzvscs8j.jpg

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Tamiya did a carbon-reinforced front upright for the F103 which is a slightly different shape and height, but overall very similar design (and it's black so it looks better too!) Tamiya part 54154.

Keep up the good work.

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I used 54154 on my Astute - there's a close up pic of it on my build thread which is not that far down from this one if you want to take a look.

Question - is that front shock tower mount a special? The standard Super Astute part doesn't have that reinforcement bar higher up that your part has?

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On 4/19/2016 at 8:16 PM, DeBruce said:

I used 54154 on my Astute - there's a close up pic of it on my build thread which is not that far down from this one if you want to take a look.

Question - is that front shock tower mount a special? The standard Super Astute part doesn't have that reinforcement bar higher up that your part has?

The tower is apparently their standard item - it is significantly different from the original FRP item as you rightly point out.

I think it's possible to achieve the same damper geometry with it, but my repro shell won't fit, which means I've had to chop off the nose, annoyingly. It was also a tight fit with the 3d printed bulkhead. Hopefully my Hi-Caps will be arriving today, and all the additional turnbuckle ends arrived from Schumacher last week, so tonight it should be mostly finished, pending the electrics fit & painting the bodyshell :)

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The Fiberlyte tower for the Astute/Super Astute is different from the original one.

I believe simply because the first customer sent them a custom design of the tower and now it is remained that one.

If you send a new design they will build it for you, simply.

 

Max

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One of my Super Astute's has the same carbon tower, I just squeeze the nose through the opening, no problem

This one is a real bitzer, Madcap bulkhead, Dyna Storm lower arms all round .

 

IMG_1432.JPG

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I'll muddle on with the shell I have for now.

My hi caps arrived from japan last night - they're actually brand new and still in the original packaging, which was a pleasant surprise!

Does anyone have any ideas what oils to run? I was thinking 40wt front & 30wt rear.

Another spanner in the works are my star dish wheels. They appear to be ever-so-slightly less than 2.2 inches in diameter. You have to love Tamiya and their quirks.....

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I used 30 front and 60 rear on the Astute and it worked fine on the track.

Number of holes? 3 front and 2 or 3 rear if I remember well.

 

Max

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51 minutes ago, kontemax said:

I used 30 front and 60 rear on the Astute and it worked fine on the track.

Number of holes? 3 front and 2 or 3 rear if I remember well.

 

Max

I don't suppose you have part numbers for the Losi springs you run mate?

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This is my Astute when I ran it on the track, now retired, sorry for my low English skill.

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=2182&sid=24

As you can see I used original Hi-Cap springs on front end, they were very soft, and Losi's yellow springs at rear (they are medium stiffness). You can also see that the model ground clearance is big because the car is without battery. Keep in mind that the Ni-Mh battery of the era were more heavy than the actual Li-Po batteries, especially the short ones so my set up probably is too stiff today.

Keep also in mind that we use very rough tracks, dirty, dusty, bumpy and with low grip so my set up wasn't good for a flat grippy and fast track with big jumps.

 

Max

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Re-reading all these threads while I rebuild my Astute. 

 

Any updates on this?

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