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Running Fox

My childhood Tamiya Fox - a restoration project

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Hello

While moving piles of modelkits from the attic to my new 'mancave' I dug up my old Tamiya Fox.

I bought it om my 12th birthday (1988) and it was my first and only RC car.

It seemed in good shape, the radio still works even after a drop from the first floor (they did make things of quality these days did'nt they?). So i decided to buy new battery (Lipo? Nimh? whaaw things have changed since then) and it ran as 30 years ago. Time to take it apart and see in what shape it really is.

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The inside looks clean. The MSC needed lubrification badly

 

The dogbones needed claening (dust) and grease

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Aaawch. Splits in the rear upper and lower arms

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Time to order Novafox parts and take a break

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Edited by Running Fox
embedded pictures
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Nice. Buy a nimh battery and charger. I can highly recommend overlander batteries in the UK. Something around 3300mah won't be too heavy and will have loads of run time. Search on eBay for a tamiya tble-02s Electronic Speed Controller to replace the mechanical version and servo in your buggy. That will be about £40 well spent. The tble-02s ESC will run your old brushed kit motor but if you get into it then it can run modern brushless motors too. A 17.5t brushless would be really nice in that car.

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Ballrace it when you have it stripped if you intend to run it, only about £10-12

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tnx all

@ThunderDragonCy I've got 2 Nimh 3300 mah batteries already and discoverd that there's even a TBLE-02s around here (my sons re-re Hornet):D. Is a 17.5 brushless somewhat comparable to the standard 540? What pinion would you advise?

@Baddon she's ball bearing equipped except from the front wheels. Ordered some bearings from Tamico.de together with the new rear arms.

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56 minutes ago, Running Fox said:

tnx all

@ThunderDragonCy I've got 2 Nimh 3300 mah batteries already and discoverd that there's even a TBLE-02s around here (my sons re-re Hornet):D. Is a 17.5 brushless somewhat comparable to the standard 540? What pinion would you advise

17.5 is a little hotter than your kit motor but nothing mental. Stock pinion should be fine. Brushless have much more torque low down so it should take off quicker. 

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Let's proceed:

- a look inside the gearbox

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-the front train is in better shape than the rear: no cracks here

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The steering needed some adjustment. The servo works fine, but when trying to steer the wheels left& right by hand, its really stiff compared with a Hornet or Grasshopper (only cars arround). Once the steering is fully right or left it is sometimes hard to get those weels back the other way. But the servo has no problems with doing that.

Adjustment of the ball connectors and the D6 part (steering locker?) makes it slightly better. But perhaps that's just the way it is designed?

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The replacement parts (novafox) compared to the original ones.

Part R4 from the re release has PC on the interior, the origanl hasn't.

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While building up the rear again, I found out that there was friction between the lower arm on the right side and the spot where it was mounted on the gearbox.
Regardless whether the original or re release lower arm was used (must have missed that 30 years ago). At the left side everything was moving freely, but as you can see the right side even got stuck/stayed up when the whole thing was turned upside down.

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I filed down the mountingpiece on the gear box untill the lower arm could move freely. That was quite a lot work. Must have strained that former right lower arm a lot.

So here is the rear part of the car with refilled shocks and alloy wheelhubs (the plastic ones where broken) ready to be mounted

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So cool, thanks for sharing! Makes me kick myself for letting my Falcon languish in my parents garage until one day, it was gone, about two decades later. Also, I had the same transmitter, just seeing it brought back memories!

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some pictures of the rear suspension and transmission. The L-shape ot the upperarms avoid to much/any droop. I don't know whether that still is done this way in modern RC-cars. At least from the moment there are camber links, the shocks should to that work.

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The driveshafts have been lubricated with molybdenum grease, the screwpins have been greased and all ball bearings have been checked.

Don't these alloy wheel adapters look great? The fact they are more durable at least make me feel more confident the car may be more than a shelf queen in future.

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Let's move to the front of the car

All suspension arms look ok, used, but no cracks or splits

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Replaced the bushings with rubber sealed bearings, now I just have to get the toe right

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Here you can see the right and left steering link, worn but not damaged

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Quite neutral toe

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Some battle damage (here it comes ... the Victoira Ccross bit again) on the MSCcables after a crash with my nephews grasshopper.

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Well here he is: the running Fox

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The Running Fox's return to court
(tenniscourt that is after a quick drive on the parking lot)

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That’s looking fantastic considering it’s age! Nice work getting it up and running again. I’m in the middle of getting my 89 fox going again. It’s taken a much harder beating than yours and is badly scuffed up but was still running well. It’s all the electrics I’ve gotta replace. Got a new transmitter and the old receiver had male pins on the ends of the Servo and msc plugs. I’ve got a spare Lipo friendly esc to put in so off to buy a new Servo this morning and see if I can get her going again today. They were such a great looking car!

 

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On 2-1-2018 at 10:27 PM, Parkesy said:

That’s looking fantastic considering it’s age! Nice work getting it up and running again. I’m in the middle of getting my 89 fox going again. It’s taken a much harder beating than yours and is badly scuffed up but was still running well. It’s all the electrics I’ve gotta replace. Got a new transmitter and the old receiver had male pins on the ends of the Servo and msc plugs. I’ve got a spare Lipo friendly esc to put in so off to buy a new Servo this morning and see if I can get her going again today. They were such a great looking car!

 

They are!

Do post some pictures, Never get tired of seeing them.

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Will do! Had her going yesterday with a 30c 2s Lipo and she went great, but maaannn the old mabuchi motor got real hot! Not sure if it would have always got that hot and I only noticed now I was checking for it? Got a new kyosho g2x 20T lying around that will go in today 

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