rc12e - how to get started with it

[JosephS]

I picked up 12e and I'm waiting for it to be shipped out.
Looking at the manual it seems pretty complete.

Is there anything that is hard to find on this car from the pictures? I don't know much about these but I am assuming that this is a common car with no special rarity. I need to use what's there to keep costs down. I'm hoping I can get by with no more than $10-$20 and the parts I have on hand. The idea is to clean this up and run it as is on a 6 cell nimh battery I already have.

Looking at the receiver it appears that it was part of this set

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/378309/Futaba-Fp-2e.html?page=3#manual

The manual reads like removable crystals were in use. It's labeled at 72.320

I see a variety of Futaba 72 mhz transmitter modules, that look like the ones in my Magnum SR and the Futaba Magnum AM FP-T2PD. Can I just pick up a 72mhz module and crystal set?

Would anything bad happen to the transmitter or receiver if I tried 75mhz crystals in a 72 mhz tuned system?

The car has fp-18 servos in the picture. http://www.rcfaq.com/ANSWERS/RADIO/FutabaServoChart.htm
27 oz/in

[morrisey0]

I wouldn't think of an E as a common car. They are usually available, but no one near as much as Ls.

Sure you don't want to restore that one and get something a little less desirable to run around? FTW makes a chassis plate, and the rest looks like it would clean up nice.

[JosephS]

I wouldn't think of an E as a common car. They are usually available, but no one near as much as Ls.

Sure you don't want to restore that one and get something a little less desirable to run around? FTW makes a chassis plate, and the rest looks like it would clean up nice.

I wasn't planning on running it much, I have my DS. It looked rugged enough that a new scratch or two could go unnoticed. It was the lowest priced compete 1/12 pan car on e-bay at the time.

[JosephS]

Showed up today

Looks like it’s in ok condition. It was well packed. The box was nicer than I was expecting.

I hooked up the electronics to my bench power supply. No signs of life from the radio equipment but the motor spun up. It was happy at 3-5 volts and not as happy at 5+

Does anybody have experience with these old radios? I was expecting the servos to twitch if powered on. Any tips?

The wiring looks like a nice job. I may just make a duplicate radio plate and take the old electronics out as is.

Which pins on these old connectors are positive ,negative and signal? Should the servos come it like if powered up?

Manual Link

FP-R2G schematic

[JosephS]

After a very through clean it looks pretty great.

I’ll leave things as they are. No need to sand the chassis or anything of the sort.

The old radio tray was drilled up and had a burn mark on it. I cut a new tray out of kydex. I haven’t figured out where to place the servo.

I also went to the hardware store and bought a bag of new screws.

The bushings are shot and high friction. I may want to rehabilitate them, but that’s for later

[JosephS]

The steering rods are tricky. I thought I accidentally bent them on removal, so I straightened them out. Installing the straighter rods gives maybe 5 degrees of toe out, that are just too long.

Am I making a common mistake with these ? Do they need to be bent to make straight steering?

Once I tried to mount the body I discovered had put the front arms on wrong. I had them with a short wheel base as opposed to the way they should have been. I still needed to bend the rds, but it made much more sense.

Does anyone recognize the body on this car? It looks like it was a pre-cut/pre-painted shell. The quality is very good in terms of masking and cuts. As well the paint is basically perfect with no drips runs or any other issues.

I took some novus plastic polish to the body and it really stands out now. There was a very small amount of red paint over spray over the body. With that polished off it really looks vibrant.

[JosephS]

[JosephS]

I took the time to restore the front bushings and the motor bushings with brought this to life.

[JosephS]

Fitting electronics today.

This was not the esc I was planning on using, but it’s the first brushed unit I found working.

the car moved forward. So progress.

Making this wiring look neat may require some planning.

[helbnd1]

I believe your front wheels are inside out.

[JosephS]

I believe your front wheels are inside out.

Thanks.

[morrisey0]

That sticks out to everyone that has built a 12 because everyone has done it!

[JosephS]

It seems that I'm going to need to repave my driveway to drive this car. The ground clearance is minimal with those screws head sticking out of the chassis. I can see why the flat countersunk screws would have been a trick upgrade.

It helped me find the high spots on my wood floor by getting hung up inside.

What is the ground clearance supposed to be? Maybe the tires are worn down?

[Frankentruck]

What is the ground clearance supposed to be? Maybe the tires are worn down?

The ground clearance back in the day was the minimum you could get away with without scraping/dragging (getting slowed down. On road oan cars are meant for smooth surface needing minimal clearance.

The downside of truing the foam tires to provide minimum ground clearance was that when they started to wear there would be even less ground clearance. Rear axle height adjusters on the 12i and 12L helped with getting more useful life out of tires.

[1911Colt]

Did you get an answer to the Futaba G plug configuration question you posed earlier? This is what I believe it is. To be sure, though, just use an ohmmeter on the servo side.