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dave.723

TA-02 SW wiggles / not going straight

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Hi Everyone,

I have just finished my Jägermeister TA-02 SW and took it out for a test drive.

The car is nice to drive and I like the pendulum effect when letting the gas of and going into a corner.

BUT the car is not driving straight - it wiggles when you drive a straight line. 

At first glance I would say the upper arms on the suspension have to much play and should be replaced with ball ends rods ... But I do not know if that is really the cause.

I hope some one could help me to fix this.

Many thanks!

David

 

 

 

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Hi David,

hav e the same car and run it with the original tires, too.

I am not sure, if I understand wiggle correctly: It drives to one side or another when not touching the steering wheel? Or when you go on throttle, the car pulls to one side? I read About a guy, who claimed such Problems in a german forum, too. Mine is fine, but I built a mid class servo in from the beginning, together with a Tamiya High torque servo saver, which helps centering the steering more exactly. You could check your front toe Settings first: I would recommend rather neutral or slight toe out in front. And check, if the rear ball diff is not setup too tight,

I switched in the meantime to radial tires, which give Overall more grip as the kit Slicks. But these can be sufficient after run in too, as the RC Kleinkram racing series shows, where the kit tires are mandatory.

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If I am understanding the phenomenon correctly, it sounds like an alignment issue. My M-05 did the same thing until I got the toe angles sorted. I would second the suggestion above of trying slight toe out at the front, and work from there. 

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The ta02, particularly current releases are hopelessly out of wack. Nothing is semetrical, so adjustable upper arms and a proper setup station is required (making all the links the same length is pointless the car is not straight to begin with) I noticed that if you used the factory upper arms in the FRP towers it was pretty sloppy, probably causing some of your wobblyness.

I set My black special 934 TA02 up with equal length rods all round and it was basically undriveable. Dropped it on the setup station and sure enough there was as much as 5 degrees difference in some places. To get the car “straight” my upper links varied by up to 3mm.

Most cheaper tamiyas are like this, they are not precision so using precision measured links achieves nothing sadly. The more expensive Tamiya kits tend to be precision but the current TA02 is probably the worst in terms of precision construction. 

Its a bit ironic the very people who don’t want/can’t afford a setup station are the ones that end up needing it. Luckily they can be had for about $60-70usd and you can use it on any car with the same size axle on or off road and all your cars from then on will actually drive properly! (No more steering one way better than the other) 

something like 

http://www.rcmart.com/universal-system-road-p-62026.html?cPath=456_1265

doesnt really matter if it says on/off road as long as the axles are the same the camber/caster parts will work almost any car with that axle size. All my Tamiya buggys fit on my on road set. 

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, Juls1 said:

The ta02, particularly current releases are hopelessly out of wack. Nothing is semetrical, so adjustable upper arms and a proper setup station is required (making all the links the same length is pointless the car is not straight to begin with) I noticed that if you used the factory upper arms in the FRP towers it was pretty sloppy, probably causing some of your wobblyness.

I set My black special 934 TA02 up with equal length rods all round and it was basically undriveable. Dropped it on the setup station and sure enough there was as much as 5 degrees difference in some places. To get the car “straight” my upper links varied by up to 3mm.

Most cheaper tamiyas are like this, they are not precision so using precision measured links achieves nothing sadly. The more expensive Tamiya kits tend to be precision but the current TA02 is probably the worst in terms of precision construction. 

Its a bit ironic the very people who don’t want/can’t afford a setup station are the ones that end up needing it. Luckily they can be had for about $60-70usd and you can use it on any car with the same size axle on or off road and all your cars from then on will actually drive properly! (No more steering one way better than the other) 

something like 

http://www.rcmart.com/universal-system-road-p-62026.html?cPath=456_1265

doesnt really matter if it says on/off road as long as the axles are the same the camber/caster parts will work almost any car with that axle size. All my Tamiya buggys fit on my on road set. 

 

 

 

Considering ive just ordered one of these, im not sure if reading this is is good or bad! At least im now aware :)

thanks.

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1 hour ago, Juls1 said:

The ta02, particularly current releases are hopelessly out of wack. Nothing is semetrical,...................

I found this too. The wheelbase of my Lancia 037 was longer on one side than the other. I had to space out the rear arms differently on each side to get the wheels central in the arches.

I thought at first it was the shell that was out, but after much measuring it seems to be the chassis at fault.

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thanks for your replies.

My definition for wiggly: If I go straight the car drives in sort of a sinus curve. Left right left right. Sometimes it sheers out into one direction. I would say the tail and the front wiggles. So far I did toe out the front slightly but haven't had the time to test it.

I am a bit astonished that the ball end links are not included in the kit since so many upgrades already are and those links really look so unworthy. Using those washers to reduce the play. On a 40 anniversary release. Anyway. 

I am biased getting an alignment tool yet. I am not a racer. I like those old cars they do not have to be perfect. But going straight - hey. 

I also have a DF-01 (Rally Lancer) which goes straight. 

Now let's see if that toe out helps ... 

David

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I have an oldish Ta02sw porsche gt2 that i run and i dont get this (not that I notice) using the stock plastic body tub and arms.

Dont the jagermeister and black special kits come with the graphite chassis plates? Is this the issue?

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Have you sat the car up on a block ( or just hold it in the air with the body off ) and spun the wheels using the transmitter? 

Only asking as I’ve recently built a 40th anniversary Jagermeister too. The only run it’s had so far was a bit of drifting on the polished concrete shed floor at work. Although it did run in a straight line fine when I wanted it to, one of the back wheels turns as if it’s slightly buckled which then makes that back corner sort of jump up down/ vibrate under hard acceleration. 

Running it suspended in the air you can see the upper arm trying to shake itself loose.  I don’t think the self tapers on the upper arms are quite up to the job either and I’m planning on replacing them with something else, maybe a small bolt/screw with a nut on the end?

Also been meaning to just swap the back wheels over to see if the shake then transfer’s to the other side as a process of elimination. 

 

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I think the problem you describe there seems reasonably typical of the two piece wheels held together with tapping screws.

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Check the servo saver if your getting alternating drift from center. Or just eliminate it altogether. 

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Yesterday night I had the time to go out and test the toe out setting. Went to an underground parking. And I have to say it is much better to drive.

the back still wiggles a bit. But much better. Gonna do the ball end turnbuckles as soon as I make my next order ... :P

Many Thanks

David

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2 hours ago, dave.723 said:

Gonna do the ball end turnbuckles as soon as I make my next order

Personally I think you're wasting your time and money with this. The geometry will be different every time you put it on the guages.

Going by my Lancia TA02 chassis, it has very much been set up to mimick the handling of a 2 wheel drive car. Quite deliberately I think.

For 4 wheel drive touring cars that run on a track, the tight diff (or spool) is always at the front. The rear diff is usually set up as freely as possible.

The TA02 does it the other way around, in order to make the rear end fishtail like a rwd drive car would do, and then uses front toe-in and massive amounts of negative camber

to make it possible to drive it in a straight line.

 

I've fitted a medium capacity nickel battery in mine, and then put it on the guages with the stock geometry. I do have TRF shocks fitted rather than the standard items, but they're the same size.

The front toes-in by 2 degrees, (which is a lot) presumably to try and keep it straight-ish.

 

Here is the rear camber under max compression (chassis bottomed out).

P1010695_zpsrpfkbldh.jpg

Moving through to max droop

P1010696_zpsx8o9vxxd.jpg

 

So the left rear goes from -3 to -5.5 degrees through its travel, and the right rear goes from -2.5 to -5 through its travel.  Again, I'm assuming such extreme camber is to help the rear not to break

traction too easily.

 

The front camber under full compression (chassis bottomed out)

P1010697_zpsritwmwni.jpg

Moving through to max droop

P1010698_zps27t8sdb4.jpg

 

So the left front goes from -3 to -6 degrees, and the right front goes from -2 to -5.5 degrees.

 

So basically, all over the place. Even the slightest difference between battery weights, or the weight of any of the other electrical components, or even just the weight of the body means

you'll likely get a different reading every time.

 

Personally I'd just look at the possibility of swapping the diffs over for the biggest benefits to ease of straight line driving.

 

 

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