TOPIC:

Here is a slightly belated update to this thread.

I used this silicone sealant called Dirko, that I bought at a car spares place. Seems to work well for assembly and come apart ok, although it sticks a bit to some of the old rubber parts that are slightly perished.




I used Loctite 641 on the won shafts & gearbox housing to hold the new bearings snug.

Fitted a Futaba Attack 2 channel 40Mhz RC with the Tamiya 101Bk ESC. The antenna wire is much shorter than the old Acoms one, so I drilled a small hole in the back of the radio box for the antenna to come out, and fitted the receiver there. That way the antenna wire almost reaches the top of the fixed antenna at the back of the car. Sold my old RC to another Tamiya-Base man.




One thing I noticed is that the new torsion bars I fitted seem less stiff than the old ones, and the rear suspension sits lower. The bars tend to work themselves loose from the sleeve, so I think I will glue them in with some 641 or threadlock. And I should probably replace most of the front suspension, axles & wheels, as its all a bit wobbly from wear

Use silicone grease anywhere where it might come in contact with plastic. Best way to buy it is "Food grade lubricant" or "Food safe silicone grease" - look at http\\RSWWW.com. I refuse to pay the rip-off prices that Tamiya & model shops charge for those tiny tubes of it! Bearings are all standard '1150' (11x5x4mm). As far as I'm aware, the re-release "Baja Champ" bits (UJs, suspension etc) will fit the old 80s SRBs

Thanks Ed, for the hint on the silicone grease to stop the sticking.

Yes, I'm sorted on the bearings & re-release stuff now.

Cheers

A trick for the floppy front end - remove the arms & turn the rods about 90 degrees (So when you do the grub screws up, they don't pull back into the same position). Then hold the car with the rods lowermost & give it a shake to get the rods out as far as they'll go (Or use pliers). Hold each rod out with a narrow knife blade whilst putting the arms back on. What you're aiming to do is get rid of the gap between the arm & the upright, & this in turn will make it all less sloppy. If there's wear in the plastic ball joint cups, cable tie the upper & lower arms together to keep it all engaged. This is also a good way to stop the arms from working loose on the shafts. The torsion bars for the rear suspension are alarmingly easy to bend. To increase springyness & ride height, disconnect the ends from the tube under the radio box, then twist the loose ends (Carefully) downward (Best done with the radio box removed). Reassemble & it should be fixed... This should also stop the torsion bars keep falling out of the rear wishbones (The bars should now be better engaged with the slot in the bottom of the radio box). Back in my racing days, we used to drill & tap the front of the gearbox & fit screws that bear on the bump stop tabs on the fronts of the rear wishones. This way you could adjust the ride height with the screws for better handling (Less rollover)

Thanks Eddrick.

I'm going to buy some new rods & tubes for the front end & a couple of new upper arms, then I'll tighten it all up.

Thinking of buying another offroad buggy at present so my son & I can have some races. Debating whether to get a Hotshot (for me to enjoy building) or something maybe a bit more bomb-proof that it doesn't matter if he crashes it...

I have had a few bad experiences of the Rough Rider taking off on its own recently. I am not totally convinced about using 27 or 41MHz systems anymore, so the next one will probably be 2GHz. On the other had, last time it did get rather wet (there was water in the radio box), so that might have affected it. What sort of 'reach' would you expect to get with this Futaba 41MHz system?

PaulG wrote:

...
Thinking of buying another offroad buggy at present so my son & I can have some races. Debating whether to get a Hotshot (for me to enjoy building) or something maybe a bit more bomb-proof that it doesn't matter if he crashes it...

The Hotshot is a fairly involved build, and quite interesting ... interesting how Tamiya added more and more bits to try and make the concept of monoshocks work, but ended up with suspension that doesn't really work, and has horrendous bump steer & feeble steering lock ... it's also a heavy old shed which makes it slow too.

Don't get me wrong, it's an iconic buggy, it's an involving build and I wouldn't want to get rid of mine, but it has some major flaws.

I can't help thinking that something else might be more suitable for your nipper ... I don't think anyone has ever regretted buying a lunchbox (or Pumpkin, I suppose you can also add the new Montero to the list), they're much simpler and cheaper than the Hotshot, and with a bit of ingenuity any 1/12 scale body (like all the cheap vacformed Kamtec offerings) will fit. The OE body posts are really the only bits that can be considered fragile

PaulG wrote:

...I have had a few bad experiences of the Rough Rider taking off on its own recently. I am not totally convinced about using 27 or 41MHz systems anymore, so the next one will probably be 2GHz. On the other had, last time it did get rather wet (there was water in the radio box), so that might have affected it. What sort of 'reach' would you expect to get with this Futaba 41MHz system?

If you've tried both 27mhz and 40mhz (so different TXs & RXs), it can only be the ESC or interference ... the ESC can ony really be tested by substitution, but that old motor is a prime suspect for causing interference (sparks at the brushes, bearings, missing capacitors) - modern motors won't fit without some modifications to the gearbox
Wrapping the RX antenna wire round a metal post is a great way of suffering interference too - I know it says to do it in the manual

Water I'm not sure about, my experience has been that a wet ESC will just stop working, wet RXs can cause servos to chatter, but to cause an ESC to provide continuos power ... ?

It could also be interference where you're running it - does it do it everywhere, or just in the one place?

Its gone off on its own a few times now, in different spots. I'll take it out again this weekend and try it on the soccer pitch (clay pitch). If it does it again, then maybe you are right and its a problem with the antenna arrangement or the motor. Historically the motor was fine, but that was almost 30 years ago...

I used to have the antenna wrapped around a plastic rear guard & now it is wrapped around a steel one. Perhaps that could be an issue?

The first time it went out of control was near a school building. It has happened twice there, so we stopped using it near the school and moved off down a backroad. There it still did it, and there is only one small building nearby, which may not even be occupied...

I'll let you know if it still does it further away from 'habitation'.

Rather than starting a new topic, I thought I'd bump this one.

I am looking for a reasonably priced source for SRB U/Js. They are GBP10-12 each on ebay which makes me sweat a bit (20-25 quid for a pair )
I thought about trying to source U/Js from an industrial source (I could easily contact suppliers like this through my business), but most are too big and the ones that look small enough are even more expensive.
There is this listing on ebay...

... but they are listed as for a CC-01. They look the same, but are they? Anyone know?
Any other ideas?

Ha, this old one - I must've spent weeks looking for cheaper alternative SRB UJs back in the 80s! At the time, the plastic Huco UJs were slightly cheaper, but nowhere near strong enough for aggressive driving!

Having made these things myself, believe me 10 quid each is unbelievably cheap.
I'm actually gobsmacked at how they can possibly be making any money selling them for $8.50! Is the shipping price to UK as well?

As for whether or not they'd fit an SRB - should do if they're proper Tamiya or an exact copy of. (Just compared my Mu to my Rough Rider ones)

OK, I've bitten the bullet and ordered two (GBP14.99 shipped!). I'll let you know what they are like.
The originals on my Scorcher are so worn that I am worried about them breaking. Comes from lack of mechanical sympathy and pulling wheelies as a teenager! From memory there is about 45 degrees of play between the two wheels!
Hopefully I'll have enough bits to start a rebuild over Christmas.

Next on the shopping list:
Radshape RC chassis (bling! )
Set of stainless fasteners
Some decent shocks
Kamtec radio box
ESC
Bodyshell (Kamtec Baja?)

Re item 3 on the list. Anyone get any suggestions for some non-leaky coil-over shocks (for reasonable money) for the SRB (front and rear)?