TOPIC:

Lately I have been knackered, but today I wanted to something else that I have been wanting to do for a long time.

I have this Nikko Bison F10 that I had for 15 years or so doing nothing.
My intension the whole time have been to fit modern ish radio gear so I can enjoy this.

Today was the day,
Pulled out from the box.
This has seen better days, so perfect for some restomods.

The wing mount is broken, so I do need to fix that

The circuit board needs to go..

Removed

The servo on these uses the same type of servo saver as Tamiya, but with a flat spot on the servo output instead of splines.
Nikko made it easy for us to use the stock servo saver witth the servo bit from Tamiya added.

The chassis has a void where the servo sit, with a body mount clamp fitted over it.
In the end I had to grind down these ribbs at the bottom to make my servo fit.
I kept the front grabbing wall that hugs the servo, but trimmed the battery tray to fit it length wise at the rear. Servo fits very snug.

At fitst I tried the servo this way with the splines at top (stock is at bottom), but the steering had too much toe in.

I fitted the servo as stock.
Because of this I also had to cut a hole so the servo saver would clear the bottom of the chassis.
Servo wires was in the way, so I made a new hole for them in the bottom plate of the servo case, so the wires is pointing rearwards instead of straight down.

Hole in the chassis for the servo saver is not a problem as it is about 3mm thick at that spot, and this reinforecement plate is on the underside.

I raided the partsbin and fitted a TEU101BK esc and a Traxxas 27mhz receiver.
As the on off switch on these never fails, I ended using this instead of the orginal one that is fitted up high right in front of the wing.

With the top cover refitted there is no clue that the stock radio gear is swapped out.
I still have to fit new connectors on the stock motor wires and make a adapter as I have in the past fitted Deans connector to the Tamiya esc.

Body back on.

Since it now is much lighter than orginally, due the missing 4x AA batteries for the receiver, the springs are very heavy.
I have either to fit weights or replace the springs if I can find some suitable.

Look forward to drive this. Don't think I have driven it. Might had a faulty circuit board when I got my hands on it.


Needs new tires, complete Hornet wheels fits right on, so I have to order a set later.

After I finished the motor wires and found a suitable transmitter and crystals it was time to test drive.

Worked ok, springs are far too stiff, so need to add weight (really don't want to), or finder some lighter springs from my parts bin.
Steering is better than stock, but speed is slow on 7.2V. Going to test on 2a lipo later.
Motor got very hot, might be because of the increased capasity of the modern battert vs the 1200mah etc back in the day.
Transmission spins freely, so do the front wheels, which is very good.
Diff also works good too.
Tires do not work that good uneven surfaces due them beaing nearly bald, will upgrade to Hornet tires later, or rater a complete wheels set.

All in all, very happy how it works.


I looked through ebay last night, and F10 parts and vehicles has gotten a tad expensive since last time I checked.
Complete cars run 300 quid + for a good one.
Since my cage is broken I looked to see if there was one, 30 quid or so for cage itself and nearly the same for shipping....!!!
Think I gonna reglue the wing mount for now.

 

Wow that circuit board.....

I like how they mounted the resistors vertically to save space.  Where I can I like to do same, but more for aesthetic reasons 

Tires on this is really bald atm.
Had aa pair of new 2.2 tires I bought a while ago that was very cheap. But no wheels to mount them on.
Solution: Take some 2.2 truck wheels and narrow them like this..


Very simple to do.
Take a wheelaxle and mount it like normal and then use a drill like a lathe.
Hacksaw was my method..
Had only two of these Traxxas wheels so perfect for this task.


Fitted.
Tires has same diameter as the orginal tires.


A few days ago I fitted these pogo stick that I belive came from the Bush Devil with a different ball end and some springs I had laying around.
Pressfitment screws at the gearbox end was ripped out and missing, so I epoxy'd some 4mm set screws to the transmission cases.
These replace the stock one that the naighbour kid managed to lose while he was test driving it a while ago.


Happy to report the wheels held up fine.
Rear spoiler not so much.. Those vere first glued with abs glue then epoxy'd on. 
Still broke off so next time it will be screwed on by a bracket of some sort...

Servo saver seems to be slipping on the servo. Need to order the Tamiya 51000 hi-torque one.

 

Since it was 29c outside today and 28 inside of my apartment with windows open in each end, I had to escape to the mancave which is a tad cooler.

Swapped out my hybrid Nikko/Tamiya servo saver for a Tamiya Hi Torque one (#51000) as I had to trim the car every 10m.


And finally I sequred the wing.
No CA glue or epoxy would keep the broken part of the cage with wing mount to the cage how much I tried.
So this time I made a plate that screwed to the cage and the spoiler to the plate.


A bit hack job really, but I got tired of the wing falling off each time it was driven





Now it's ready for some run time again.
Not this week with 28-30c! Mr.Caprinut working no good in the heat lol