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Tamiya TGS restoration

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I have not done a resto for many years. So pleased to say I just started my TGS 1/10th nitro restoration.

I am not 100% sure of the exact car. It’s got an FS-12s (single needle) engine with a 2003 Subaru Shell (Makinen and Lindstrom). The wheels are not Subaru though, they look like the TT-01 touring car Audi A4 Quattro wheels.

It has bearings in the drive train, bronze bushes on the diffs and plastic bushes in the wheel hubs. The Suspension, dogbones and arms look to be base standard TT-01.

It was filthy, but upon taking it apart most if not all the screws are in immaculate condition. I was also pleasantly surprised to only have one screw in the engine siezed up. There are signs of wear on the chassis bottom and partial wear in the dogbones but overall I am very happy with the condition - I expected much worse.

The engine again seems in OK condition, no sign of lean runs and no sign of running without an airfilter. However I will be replacing the bearings and servicing the carb, but again over all it looks ok. The pull start is in working condition so I will just leave that and only replace the cord if it breaks. Even the air filter sponges look in good serviceable condition.

The fuel tank primer is almost completely broken off. Not sure wether to try and fix it or just remove it and block the hole.

The radio gear was classic Tamiya 27mhz Cloned Futaba S3003 Servos. I will only use the servos as I have a 2.4ghz rx and a life rx pack for this.

Looking forward to getting this back together and running. Going for minimal parts replacement, engine bearings, rear engine gasket, replace the bronze bushes on the diffs with bearings, replace plastic bearings and that’s about it.

- Picture below is after cleaning all the plastic bits.

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- A couple of before shots...

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So I decided to fix the Fuel Pump Primer (Choke). It was hanging on by a thread, I first tried a little super glue, but no joy so I started a more drastic approach. Now I realise that this part is not necessary for the car to work hence my emboldened approach, however it is a nice idea to help stop hydro locking the engine this is as long as it does not leak and causing the engine to cut.

So I cut it off and started the fix. Now I should say I have tried these sorts of fixes before and usually mess it up. However, the idea is simple enough, join the two halves together with a screw. So with the Dremel on its slowest speed I drilled out the top half first. This went surprisingly well and after a little toolbox searching I found a small screw suitable for the job of connecting the two halves and fitting down the tiny hole. To pre-cut the thread I carefully screwed it in place making sure it did not burst out the side of the plastic. All good, checked the depth, drilled a little deeper, re-cut the thread and moved on to the remaineder of the pump still in the Fuel tank. This was a little tougher as I had to keep it pulled up high while pressing a drill down on top of it. I fashioned a solution using needle nose pliers, a hand clamp and some servo boxes. As I drilled I noticed the now weakend side walls of the pump rod where collapsing under the pressure from the pliers, but managed to finish off the hole! I then used the screw to pre-cut the hole threads again. When that was done and checked I now used the Dremel to cut the head off the screw and screwed it in to the top half of the pump, then I covered the tip of the screw in 5min epoxy and after fitting the washer and spring back on the pump screwed it up tight.

Checked the radio gear today all working well. I modded the switch harness from the old 4 cell battery holder to a JST plug for my 2cell life RX packs. All bound and ready to go. Also got the diff bearings today so will rebuild most of the car tonight. I have done the basic ride height mod as well, removing the areas on the front and rear chassis plates that stop the arms from getting full travel. I have also removed the plastic bits on the front lower arms that would hit the track (not sure what they where for) and finally fitted longer friction shocks - see explanation below.

I bought this car on ebay and the chap sent it to the wrong house and sent me the wrong car. Took a while to get it all sorted but he did and here I am with this. However while waiting I started googling and ended up buying a TT-02s! Now the TT-02s is an upgraded TT-02 but in the box they still give you some original TT-02 parts. So yesterday while I was still waiting on parts I built one of the friction shocks (the TT-02s has Mini CVA shocks). Turns out the TT-02 friction shocks are a few mm longer than the original TGS friction shocks so I will also use these to further increase the TGS ride height. The overall plan is that I will get it all running and if I like it and it shows promise then I will get a few upgraded bits - starting with proper CVA dampers for it. 

684868913_ChokePumpLeverTop.thumb.jpg.3da1122147f0b91f1090a58d1d1d1e5b.jpg

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So I got on with the build last night. I have to say it was more challenging than you might think. While the gearbox and suspension arms are TT-01 the rest is TGS. The TGS itself as far as I can see was only ever sold as Expert Build so there is no build manual, only a parts explosion diagram. To make matters worse the chassis is split across two diagrams one majoring on the front half and one on the back. The good news is all the screws are detailed by size and shape, the bad news is trying to work out the order in which to assemble the car. I have already had a couple of re-starts.

I opened up the diffs expecting to see the plastic gears and found it had the metal set, not sure if this is good or bad but I re-greased them and resealed the diffs. I notice that there is a rough spot on one of the gears, I will need to investigate further tonight as I ran out of time yesterday. All the electrics fit nicely and there is plenty of room. 

Only other surprise was the state of the car, at first I thought it had been run lightly but now on closer inspection I can see its had a "good" life. I also think it was looked after as while the engine was gummed up, it was not seized, also the air filter was used as there is no sign of dust ingestion and finally while the bottom chassis plate is well scratched nothing seems bent. Its almost as if this was owned by a club racer, driven hard on tracks but well maintained. However I can't quite believe anyone would actually race these cars??? The mysteries of second hand RC.

Before we start the obligatory parts shot :)

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Quick picture of the difference in shock length between the TGS and the TT-02s (The s is longer)

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Finally the partial build

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So last night I had a good run at it and finished the model resto. Very pleased with the result and looking forward to seeing if we can get her started later today. 

Had a slight mishap with the fuel tank primer, I was fitting new fuel lines and completely forgot about the primer and snapped it off again. I've looked at it and feel confident that with a longer screw it should be OK. Thankfully the holes I drilled where far deeper than the original screw so fingers crossed it will all work out. However I am not going to do anything until I get the car started just in case there are other issues. 

I found out what the gear mesh problem was. The top part of one tooth on the diff had folded over into the adjacent groove. I removed it and all seems smooth. Ordered a new set of gears.

Unfortunately the servos are not centering well, they worked without any resistance but now they are both under load they are a little flakey. I will run it as is and if I like it then will source some higher torque servos. The servos are only accessible by removing the top cover which is very integrated to the entire car so will need to remove multiple parts to get them out - ughhh.

I have a good ride height, you can see below its around 22mm. My TT-02s is around 24mm and runs well where I plan to use the TGS. The wheels and tyres are Fasttrax Rally blocks, Tamiya Rally blocks seem very rare at the moment. The friction dampers are of course rubbish but again if I like the car I will get a set of the mini CVA dampers like I have on the TT-02s. 

In all her shining glory, I had one "warning" decal left over from my TT-02 build :)

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The brake and throttle system is nicely done, thankfully the radio I use has end point adjustment so the set up was a breeze.

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Ride Height

TGS

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TT-02s

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Fastrax Rally Blocks

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TGS Front Full Shot.JPG

Front Cut Away Plate.JPG

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Bit of a mixed bag today. Excited to get to the point where we get to start it.
 

All prepped, even did a vid.... the upshot is I did get it running which is great news and means the engine is at least able to run. However the fuel tank has more holes than a Gouda cheese :-). First the cap was leaking. It took me a while to realise there was a “fix” in it. There was an extra - broken - O’ring and some type of cellophane wrap plus the original Oring was not original or the right size. Anyhow I’ve fashioned together a proper seal. Next up there was a hole in the tank. My guess at the time the “choke” primer was snapped off this damage also happened. As luck would have it the hole was at the top of a protruding cylinder next to the “choke” so I was able to use fuel tube and a bung to seal it up. Finally the “Choke” also leaks. Right now I’ve left that as is, however it’s useless so has to go, just thinking how best to block it off. I also noticed that the fuel froths in the tank so I have added more rubber grommets to try and better isolate the tank from the engine.

But!!!! she runs and even did a few laps of the garden. My first Tamiya Nitro :-)... Tomorrow I’ll take it for a proper run in its pseudo fixed state.

Also got some proper adjustable rod balls and ends today and put them on the front this allows the full range of suspension travel. The original track rods are solid plastic held on by screws which prevented good articulation with the increased ride height. Now it gets full smooth travel.

 

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So the honeymoon is over :-)

over the past few day’s I’ve been able to get it started each day but it soon cuts out. I’ve sorted the fuel tank yet still nothing. Was down the flying club chatting to my mate who’s my go to for nitro problems and he reckons it’s poor compression., just enough to start once but then when it’s warm it can’t keep pressure.

ordered some bits will see if it helps.

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Good news it was the compression. Piston and liner arrived today, started on second pull and ran for three tanks. Break in recommendation was three tanks at half speed with cool down between, next two tanks are spurts of full power followed by idle. 
 

There is some fuel coming out of somewhere going to keep a close eye on the next couple of runs but it ran well and idled well so where ever it’s coming from it did not seem to affect it too much.

I ran it at my flying field and was pleasantly surprised at how the friction shocks coped, not that I will keep them but still surprised.

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Ive bought a couple of body shells recently, one unpainted Subaru 2004 ( https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=133939&id=133939 ) which is what the TGS-R was shipped with. Mine is a TGS but its close enough hehehe. I also bought a Killerbody Lancia Delta HF Integrale for the TT-02s I bought while waiting for this one to arrive.

Now I was a bit taken aback by the price of these bodyshells when I raced I used to have Mazda Protos bodies and these cost around £20-£25. Tamiya is not Protos, the Subaru was 65 Euro plus 15 Euro shipping (from the-border in holland) but it also came with gold wheels and on-road tyres but is unpainted and ideally requires 2 paints, one for the lexan shell and one for the hard plastic wing and side mirrors. The killerbody was £47 shipped, all painted, decalled up, cut out and has LED light buckets. So neither are cheap which made me think that the current bodyshell I have which I have been treating really badly up to now needs some TLC, so I will try and smarten it up and to re-inforce it over the next few days.

So far I have just re-cut the front window ventilation and also tidied up the roof hole. Now the roof hole is not normally seen. In this case its designed so that you can mount the bodyshell and start it with the shell on, the roof hole is for the glow plug igniter, the passenger window is also not normally removed but this has gone for access to the pullstart. The rear windows have also got cut outs but I have a plan for them and possibly the passenger window. Anyway here's a quick before and after shot, all that's been done is the front window and roof, the rest will follow.

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Doing a great job.

The FS-15SS will usually leak through the front bearing or the gasket on the backplate. If you didnt replace the gasket when the engine was apart then that may be the issue. The fuel tanks can get easily susceptible to cracks when the they get older. The hole next to the primer is for the electronic fuel indicator, it may of been opened for this before. I have one fitted to my TR-15t and you can see it in the pictures here:

https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=117848&id=117848

The o-ring on the tank is available as a spare but I have 20 or so spare lids (from broken tanks) so if you want one PM me your address and I will send you one.

The Factory finished bodies on the TGS range all came with the passenger window open. When I restored my TGS collection you couldnt always get an original and if I bought the body and painted it I left the window sealed.

The one you linked to in my showroom was just that an original and correct body, just not the TGS version with an open window. None of the TGS range had a glow starter hole, thats all been done by the previous owner.

These are great cars and I enjoyed doing them, shout if I can help with anything

IMG-6139.jpg

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I did not realise that was your model I was linking to,  although there are not exactly a lot of examples on TC :-) nice collection Btw. Thank you for the offer of a seal, I have actually got a great seal in the fuel cap, it’s the cracks in the tank that are the issue. Have you heard of an available alternative maybe a Kyosho or HPI that fits?

I found the leak from yesterday, it was the glow plug or more correctly the glow plug gasket. I am an OS man through and through, while I had my starting issues I cycled through about 4 plugs but each time I remove the plug I leave the brass gasket in place. However the plug that came with the model is not OS and the gasket did not fit hence the leak.

Anyway tonight I ran the last of the “run in” runs plus managed an initial tuning run and the engine was dry - no sign of any leaks. However not so the tank, one of the tiny pin head holes was leaking fuel. I am going to try and seal it by sticking something over it with epoxy.

Apart from that, engine wise it was all good. I’ll try and get a vid sometime, today I was at an old industrial estate and was not comfortable as the engine noise was echoing off the buildings and I was sure I would be asked to leave. But next time I will be back off road at my flying club where it’s fine to run nitro.

 

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A few early observations. 

Handling - Friction Dampers: On-Road industrial estate dusty, tarmac, brand new set of Tamiya 1/10th Radial Tyres. I had lots of pre-comp on the front to promote understeer and none on the back to promote grip. That said it was still twitchy so I dialled in around 35% expo on the radio which calmed it down. I still had the back spin out in aggressive moves - as expected. It was a bit nervous at speed through the corners again with no damping action the faster you go the more unstable - bouncy you get, but over all it was working, 80% of the "laps" where good fun racing.

Handling Off Road - will update when run, the three early runs where all low speed "run in" runs. It was bouncy even then. I will be using Tamiya CVA dampers when they arrive.

Update 20/06/2020: see vids below but overall surprisingly good. Did roll 3 times and also bet bouncy in sections but it was able to run off road at an acceptable pace.

Drive Train - At times, I got "gear crunch" I have read a bit about diff slip on the TT-01 and TT-02 range and can only assume this is what I was hearing. I now realise the car is well used, coupled with the fact the original TGS bearings are bronze bushes not bearings on the Diffs (potential for more wear on gearbox bearing housings) so I am going to shim the front and rear diffs.

4WD - This seems to work really well, a little burst of power really helps balance the car in corners when its upset and aside form the odd gear crunch it actually feels very solid, pulling hard out of corners.

Throttle control - Throttle is a bit poor, mostly down to the fact the control rods are fitted to the servo horns and levers via "z" bends and not with rod ends and ball joints, coupled with the age and usage of the car - rounded out holes. This leads to poor return to idle, leaving the engine idling high until you dab the brake. I think this should be an easy fix.

Brake Control - Brakes work OK, I am not tightening them right up as the brake material is attached to the brake arm and if it wears out you potentially need a whole new arm as opposed to a new set of pads. Under breaking however the car is prone to moving left and  right, I suspect this is down to the friction shocks not being very balanced/smooth upsetting the car.

Engine - Starts within 3-6 pulls, idles well, no stalls while getting the bodyshell fitted and snap pins located. Its only a single needle carburettor, no mixture control or low end needle. This essentially means you have only one tune for the entire throttle range. So if you tune for perfect low end idle you can find the top end leans out and vice versa. Not sure I will ever squeeze the last drop of performance out of it as I will be mostly running off road but that said right now all is good. I am running 25% nitro with an OS #6 hot plug so able to keep it on the rich side with adequate performance. I plan to do a timed lap against my Stock TT-02s in the near future. 

General - The exhaust on mine is facing down and the underside of the car is very dirty. I have decided to rotate it around and will have it protrude out the side of the car - more like my Losi 8ight buggy set up. Ill add a small section of rubber pipe over the exhaust exit pipe to help prevent the exhaust melting the bodyshell and should also help to blow the burned oil/nitro further from the car. 

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5 hours ago, hedge said:

A few early observations. 

Handling - Friction Dampers: On-Road industrial estate dusty, tarmac, brand new set of Tamiya 1/10th Radial Tyres. I had lots of pre-comp on the front to promote understeer and none on the back to promote grip. That said it was still twitchy so I dialled in around 35% expo on the radio which calmed it down. I still had the back spin out in aggressive moves - as expected. It was a bit nervous at speed through the corners again with no damping action the faster you go the more unstable - bouncy you get, but over all it was working, 80% of the "laps" where good fun racing.

Handling Off Road - will update when run, the three early runs where all low speed "run in" runs. It was bouncy even then. I will be using Tamiya CVA dampers when they arrive.

Drive Train - At times, I got "gear crunch" I have read a bit about diff slip on the TT-01 and TT-02 range and can only assume this is what I was hearing. I now realise the car is well used, coupled with the fact the original TGS bearings are bronze bushes not bearings on the Diffs (potential for more wear on gearbox bearing housings) so I am going to shim the front and rear diffs.

4WD - This seems to work really well, a little burst of power really helps balance the car in corners when its upset and aside form the odd gear crunch it actually feels very solid, pulling hard out of corners.

Throttle control - Throttle is a bit poor, mostly down to the fact the control rods are fitted to the servo horns and levers via "z" bends and not with rod ends and ball joints, coupled with the age and usage of the car - rounded out holes. This leads to poor return to idle, leaving the engine idling high until you dab the brake. I think this should be an easy fix.

Brake Control - Brakes work OK, I am not tightening them right up as the brake material is attached to the brake arm and if it wears out you potentially need a whole new arm as opposed to a new set of pads. Under breaking however the car is prone to moving left and  right, I suspect this is down to the friction shocks not being very balanced/smooth upsetting the car.

Engine - Starts within 3-6 pulls, idles well, no stalls while getting the bodyshell fitted and snap pins located. Its only a single needle carburettor, no mixture control or low end needle. This essentially means you have only one tune for the entire throttle range. So if you tune for perfect low end idle you can find the top end leans out and vice versa. Not sure I will ever squeeze the last drop of performance out of it as I will be mostly running off road but that said right now all is good. I am running 25% nitro with an OS #6 hot plug so able to keep it on the rich side with adequate performance. I plan to do a timed lap against my Stock TT-02s in the near future. 

General - The exhaust on mine is facing down and the underside of the car is very dirty. I have decided to rotate it around and will have it protrude out the side of the car - more like my Losi 8ight buggy set up. Ill add a small section of rubber pipe over the exhaust exit pipe to help prevent the exhaust melting the bodyshell and should also help to blow the burned oil/nitro further from the car. 

The TGS drivetrains are very sloppy at best. There are quite a few mods from the TT-01 range that work well. The alloy centre driveshaft and bearings all round coupled with shims help loads. Any oil filled shocks will be a huge improvement on the friction shocks. The FS-12SW engines on the TGS-R  are exactly the same as the FS-12SS you have apart from one thing. The carb. The carb on the SW has more ability to be adjusted so if you can find one the ability to tune will be greater. The throttle connection was also swapped to a ball and socket.

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35 minutes ago, acprc said:

The FS-12SW engines on the TGS-R  are exactly the same as the FS-12SS you have apart from one thing. The carb. The carb on the SW has more ability to be adjusted so if you can find one the ability to tune will be greater. 

I was trying to figure out who's engine it is. I see reference to the OS .12 CV but looking at the manual for the 12 cv while it has the piston with the hole, the rest is all different. All the carbs have mixture control screws and are fitted using the more modern clamp method as opposed to the old Philips screws into the carb body. I have an old Hobby King Nitro bike and that has a few OS parts. If I remember correctly I use an HPI two needle carb, might strip it out and see if it fits.

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1 hour ago, hedge said:

I was trying to figure out who's engine it is. I see reference to the OS .12 CV but looking at the manual for the 12 cv while it has the piston with the hole, the rest is all different. All the carbs have mixture control screws and are fitted using the more modern clamp method as opposed to the old Philips screws into the carb body. I have an old Hobby King Nitro bike and that has a few OS parts. If I remember correctly I use an HPI two needle carb, might strip it out and see if it fits.

OS I believe or at least developed with them. The OS (No 5 I think) recoil is identical. The original TR-15t and FS-12LT and FS-15LT are Toki, lots of the later FD engines and the FR-32 are Force and then a few other and OS inbetween

 

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So the rain stopped and the flying club beckoned.... Ive seen a few vids on Youtube of TGS's and most of them are limited to backend flipping out on tarmac type runs so I wanted to do a track style run.

I've done two vids, should have been three but I managed to snap the exhaust feed off the fuel tank just before the 3rd! Woiuld love to have combined them, with TT-02 overlayed with TGS but dont have the video editing skills, imho I think the TGS is quicker but its very close! The TT-02 is definitely smoother although it does suffer electric issues, not hitting top speed in the early laps not sure if its ESC or motor, my guess is crap in the motor.

The first vid is the TGS, the next is the TT-02, both share the same body shell, look for the smoke :). Both are stock except for adding ride height. The track is my imagination but is a classic "M" shape. Back straight, into start of the M then follow the letter shape followed by back down the main straight and do it all again. 

Of the two cars the TT-02s has oil filled dampers whereas the TGS has friction shocks. The TT-02 has off-road style tyres but I think the rally blocks on the TGS are better.  You can see - if you can bear to watch the TGS vid all the way through - that the TGS rolls over a couple/three times, i think this is down to the friction shocks, its also very "very" bouncy down the first part "/" of the M compared to the TT-02s.

The exhaust deflected all the crap away from the car so all good and much cleaner but it did come undone so needs work. Dirt ingress, the TGS faired much better than the TT-02s because the TGS is semi sealed. Enjoy if you can bear to watch it all:)

TGS

 

TT-02s

 

 

 

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So now for the upgrades :)

But just to close this chapter a couple of closing points. The final comparison of the two cars, one a brand new TT-02s the other this used TGS. Cost to run as shown above TGS £150, TT-02s without bodyshell or a transmitter £180.

The fuel tank has been a problem from the start and is one of the few items that are hard to find or unavailable. The current state of repairs are as below

1) Fuel cap seal using a piece of cut rubber hose. Very strong seal now
2) The "Choke" is screwed together and non functional - but at least it does not leak
3) The plastic nipple snapped off. The metal nipple is my made up replacement
4) Multiple tiny cracks caused this whole area to leak. I tried to plastic weld it and ended up epoxying this rubber foam pad on top

 

Fueltank.thumb.jpg.0e0e3aa4d8627c352a5bed58aeae8a27.jpg

I have ordered an alternative that I believe will fit... we will see. Until then I will continue with the repairs.

 

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Mhmmm.. so much fun watching your video. Nitro is simply so much more close to reality then electro...

How do you do without choke? Dripping some nitro into the carb?

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13 minutes ago, Collin said:

Mhmmm.. so much fun watching your video. Nitro is simply so much more close to reality then electro...

How do you do without choke? Dripping some nitro into the carb?

Yeah, I love nitro stuff :)

Regarding starting I do what I do with all my other nitros, block the exhaust and turn over, this forms a vacuum and pulls the fuel through into the carb.

I managed to do a "video in video" and my goodness it is so very very close between the two - but the nitro just sounds so much cooler :wub:

 

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Cleaned up and repaired the body plus mounted the new fuel tank.

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Wanted to test the fuel tank before recommending it. Worked and fits well I got around a 10min run time with it. Need a small adaptor to fit it I knocked it up from carbon with a dremel in a few mins.

It’s a Kyosho FW-06 fuel tank, as of 2020 in uk readily available.

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So I've added oil shocks they are the Tamiya 53619 mini CVAs, I was expecting them to be the same as my TT-02s but they are not they are bigger which improves their action a little. I have shimmed each dif with a 0.3mm shim only on the gear side to try and force better contact. Ive got some 2 degree toe in rear hubs to help with the high speed straight runs. I added adjustable upper arms so I can have some camber to help with cornering. Lastly I added the speed up gear set this takes the gear ratio from around 10.x to 8.x so much more speed :) 

I am very lucky to have a very good off-road astro turf track just 20 mins from where I live so thought I would pop along with the Tamiya TGS. I also had a new engine to "run in" in my Losi 8ight buggy. When I turned up I was first surprise to see two old racing mates who I had not seen for about 10 years (soon followed by a third! its in the blood lol). The second surprise was this little dirt rally track, seems that rallying is popular and the club have built this little multi terrain rally track, its mostly dirt/dust but has concrete, astro turf and gravel.

rallytrack.png.b950d82825f49996f808166cfc88591e.png  

Its very tight and my little Tamiya was not really set up for it. I needed a bit more steering and also to stiffen the rear to make it more flickable - I will be back for this and hopefully get a vid. For those that do facebook I found this...

 

Back to the main buggy track, now this always a test of build and capability. Below is a YouTube of the track to give you some idea. I ran my very modified SRB around it last year and within 5 mins had stripped the gear box - no slipper clutch!

 

So  I blasted my Losi around for a bit. Its such a lovely controlled buggy and even though I rarely run at tracks anymore its so well behaved and set up it just helps get you around. Now the TGS. So what I was not expecting was the speed increase. I am not saying it was as fast as the 1/8th buggys but it certainly was no slouch and with the dampers and the 2degree toe hubs it tracked lovely and straight down the main straight. First corner no worries, it was a medium large banked corner again all lumps and bumps being soaked up very well. The the first jump, its a triple and with the Losi you punch it on the first and fly effortlessly over all three, landing (if you do it properly) on the down slope of the third. Well TGS dont fly!!!! Its a shame but there was no jump-ability at all, its just flips end over end. That said I had a lot of fun driving the track and driving over the jumps and was constantly surprised and happy at how well it handled and the speed it had on the flatter parts of the track. Below are a few shots of both cars, if you've never seen 1/8th buggys they fly very very well. They tend to take off with the front end pointing skyward and then using the throttle to point higher or the breaks to point the nose earthward you can fly the car through the air and land on all four wheels. I dont know what about the Scooby made it so poor, but I will think about it and I should be back at this track over summer for another go.

At a glance they are not that much different in size with the bodyshells in place

1619733922_BodyOnTopDown.thumb.jpg.e1bb07aefafccee0c24f7240fb013160.jpg

Bodies off the difference is more clear

704025923_BodyOffTopDown.thumb.jpg.03a6721c07dd448125d42ec4b75c1d58.jpg

 

But when you look at the shocks and the suspension arms their is a world of difference

Front 

945939357_FrontShocks.thumb.jpg.15e58e9b3b0a1ca6d1365a9feaf3c111.jpg

Rears are massive

687020744_RearShocks.thumb.jpg.25e25a408f91308b31d39e6d23e2b454.jpg

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I think I know where I am headed with this now. First fix the suspension - working on it. Then something like this....

608107288_TGS_EscortMKII.png.f135b05845feec32cc03633bde7ab611.png

 

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So I've been waiting on some parts this week. I had identified the issue in the stock TT-01 that when I raised the ride height I was no longer getting full suspension travel. Cant be bothered to put stock parts back on but my best guess is Ride Height 24mm Suspension Travel between 16-18mm.

I have now solved it, needed two parts

1) TT-01 Type E  Chassis A parts for the upper damper mount.
There are two fixing holes and the outer upper one is the best. However this still did not give full movement - se e video below.

2) TT-01D (Drift) B Parts for the lower front and rear arms.
These again have two mounting holes and its the outer hole you want

This vid shows the front with both parts and the rear with the Type E parts only. I did not do a full before and after with stock TT-01 parts but it was worse!

First the rear with just the TT-01 Type e mount, then the front with both TT-01E and TT-01D parts!

You can just make out the optional holes.

577910414_ShockTowerLowerArms.thumb.JPG.30e6cbeab04bbe0592ba4fdb626a586f.JPG

 

 

 The other issue I faced was the car quit with what sounded like a pretty bad issue. I've stripped it down but only two things really caught my eye

1) Was the nut holding the flywheel on was not very tight. 

2) The connecting rod had a lot of slop around the cam shaft. 

I've ordered a new Rod you can see the slop below, not sure if this was the culprit or if its simply a loose nut. The final vid shows the last 2 laps, just enough to get your ear into the sound then you can hear the noise as it stops on the bottom straight just after the corner.

 

Engine Quits

 

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