AYK Bobcat Project - All Suggestions and Help Welcome!

[Scatamonky]

Hi Folks, I'm a new member here and I'm hoping some of you can help me out. I was given this AYK Bobcat for my 13th birthday in 1990. I absolutely loved this car, it was stupidly fast.

My dad recently informed me that it was still in his shed so I have decided to try and restore it to its former glory with the help and advice of you fine folk.

The speed controller was always the weak link but I had a quick look on here last night and see that most cars come with an Electronic Speed controller instead now, a quick look on eBay quickly reveals that there are many different types so my first question is, which one do you recommend?

I gave the body to a friend ages ago to paint for me and after many months of waiting he then informed me that he lost it! I see however that Team Bluegroove are reproducing bodies now.

The pictures are of the car as soon as I got it home so they are complete with dust and cobwebs. I'm fairly handy with screwdrivers but I haven't even thought about RC cars in over 20 years so I'm still just trying to get familiar with the terminology you're all using!





































So there you are, I have tried to capture everything in the pics, I need to start doing some major research about everything, like getting a 12 volt charger to where to get the oil that goes in the shocks!

All help and advice will be greatly appreciated!

[DennisM]

Cool - it has everything even a bit of patina
Start by spraying everything with WD40 - perhaps not the rubber parts and the battery, but everything else.

Welcome to a little piece of RC heaven

Edit:
Take good care of the motor, these doesn´t show up every day.

[Jay Dub]

Love it. I always wanted one BITD. It does however appear that a cat may have peed on it . Have fun, the best part of the project is getting it restored. Running it is just a bonus. -Jeff

[Coelacanth]

Wow, that's some serious rust happening there! I might've thought it was stored under seawater for a decade if it weren't for the cobwebs all over it.

Anyway, your Bobcat will need a lot more TLC than my buddy's Buffalo that I recently finished restoring/modding. My resto thread might be helpful, and one major annoyance with these cars is their weird-ass way of mounting the rear wheels...they use a "knurled hub" system unlike anybody else, so upgrading to modern wheels & rubber is a real PITA. For a non-runner, or if you're only planning to run era-correct electronics, the old hub-biting-into-the-wheel-plastic should be fine.

Other problem areas are the very thin steering linkages and the front suspension--which didn't really work so good. The car will have severe bump-steer issues if the front tie-rods are installed a certain way. Maybe some of the info in these links will be helpful. Good luck, looking forward to your restoration!

http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=24843

http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=24393&start=12

[Scatamonky]

Thanks Guys, I live in Derry in Northern Ireland and I think the rust is due to our rather damp climate, the car has never been left outside or anything, and my dads neighbour has 4 or 5 cats so cat pee is a distinct possibility.

I'm really trying to decide what direction to go, keep it as original as possible or upgrade it as much as possible and enjoy all the advances from the last 20 years. I'm happy enough with most of the car, all with the exception of that dam speed controller. It had 2 forward speeds if I remember correctly (maybe 3) but it didn't always accelerate smoothly. Sometimes it lost power completely between second and third and then full power would jump in with a spark and the horrible noise of gears grinding in the gearbox! This just got steadily worse resulting in the burn marks you can see on the surface of the controller meaning it became less and less fun to drive and is also why I stopped driving it in the end.

Anyway, first things first, clean, clean, clean!

[Coelacanth]

As far as an ESC goes, here's a simple unit that will work for brushed & brushless motors, your old batteries or the newer ones. Yard out that old manual piece of crap.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dyanmite-FUZE-1-10-Sensored-Brushed-Brushless-FWD-REV-Speed-Control-ESC-DYN3780-/190991639519

If that motor is similar in condition to the rest of the car, I imagine you'll be replacing that too...let's wait and see, cross your fingers...

[RC10resto]

and one major annoyance with these cars is their weird-ass way of mounting the rear wheels...they use a "knurled hub" system unlike anybody else, so upgrading to modern wheels & rubber is a real PITA.

eh hmmmmm - same as Kyosho Scorpion

[RC10resto]

This car would be fun and challenging to restore if you are into that sort of thing. As far as running it, I would keep it period correct and just cruise it around lightly. Parts are hard to find and I don't think these things ever worked "raced" very well (could be wrong).

[Scatamonky]

Thanks for the link to the ESC Coelecanth, that's just the sort of advice I need. The old steam powered mechanical one was a constant PITA.

After about an hour or 2 I have the wheels off and cleaned, the rear shocks off, dismantled and working. One was completely seized and needed much persuasion with the vice grips. There were little spots of rust on the shaft so after some vigorous rubbing with sandpaper it too is working smoothly again.

Now for the bad news, I took off the rear swing arms and on one side the two little upright posts that they sit on are cracked. I will upload photos tomorrow but I'm gonna need replacements.

Also, every little screw is rusted or has the head rubbed off it, I'm assuming you can just buy bags of various lengths of these?

[markbt73]

You can do better than that for the screws:

http://www.rcscrewz.com/product_info.php/stainless-screw-kits-cars-trucks/ayk-vintage-screw-kits/p/ayk001-ayk-bobcat-stainless-steel-screw-kit/cPath/1_111/products_id/355
I love this place. 3 of my restored cars now use screw kits from them.

[Coelacanth]

and one major annoyance with these cars is their weird-ass way of mounting the rear wheels...they use a "knurled hub" system unlike anybody else, so upgrading to modern wheels & rubber is a real PITA.

eh hmmmmm - same as Kyosho Scorpion

I've never been lucky enough to own a Scorpion....maybe someday!

RCScrewz sells nice screw sets, but my problem with them is (at least for a Canadian perspective), they will only ship with tracking at a much higher cost than el-cheapo small parcel mail. I personally think it's ludicrous to charge almost triple the $8 or whatever shipping cost to include insurance and tracking...on a frickin' $20 item. Furthermore, the last set I bought from them took nearly 4 weeks to arrive, negating any benefit whatsoever of the extra shipping cost. The tracking offered was useless, too. All it would tell me was that the item was shipped out. No mention of where it was, what depots it arrived at/left from...NOTHING. Just that it had left the shipper. It irked me that I had to pay triple the shipping cost for a tiny, cheap item and saw no benefit to me, the customer, for doing so.

But if you can buy multiple screw sets, for yourself and a buddy or two, it makes it more worthwhile.

[Scatamonky]

Thanks MarkBt73 - again, that's exactly what I'm looking for, but there is bound to be a hobby shop or RC specialist shop here in the UK that does the same thing?

There is quite a bit I need to get, my shopping list so far is as follows:

Screw Kit

New 7.2 Volt battery (Nicad or Lipo?) I need to investigate this further.

Will my Magnum 360L motor take more than 7.2 volts?

Will my Magnum 360L motor even work?

What should I replace it with if it doesn't? Brushed or Brushless?

Do all these things have to be established before buying an ESC?

What type of shock oil should I buy?

I need a long 8 AA battery holder for my Transmitter

I need a rectangular 4 AA battery holder to power my servos.

Once I have these I need to make sure that my transmitter and servos even work, and if they don't...

I need a new transmitter, receiver and servos!

And I also think its time I got another Dremmel, great little tools for cleaning, polishing and cutting and some metal polish!


Well that's everything so far, I am now going to hit Google hard and fast to see if there is a UK based store where I can get all this!!!!

[DennisM]

Thanks MarkBt73 - again, that's exactly what I'm looking for, but there is bound to be a hobby shop or RC specialist shop here in the UK that does the same thing?

There is quite a bit I need to get, my shopping list so far is as follows:

Screw Kit

New 7.2 Volt battery (Nicad or Lipo?) I need to investigate this further. / I´d buy Lipo and keep the old Nicad for display use

Will my Magnum 360L motor take more than 7.2 volts? / Yes, it´ll take 7.4 lipo volts without a problem

Will my Magnum 360L motor even work? / If cleaned and overhauled - it shouldn´t be a problem to get it running

What should I replace it with if it doesn't? Brushed or Brushless? / This buggy will end up as a display model, so just stick to the original motor - shouldn´t be a problem to run a mild brushless in it

Do all these things have to be established before buying an ESC? / No, You can buy a combined ESC that will take both brushed and brushless.

What type of shock oil should I buy?

I need a long 8 AA battery holder for my Transmitter / No, You´ll need a cheap Hong Kong 2,4 ghz - just keep the old for display purpose

I need a rectangular 4 AA battery holder to power my servos./ Same as above - if You buy a ESC, it´ll have built in power feature for Your new 2,4 ghz transmitter

Once I have these I need to make sure that my transmitter and servos even work, and if they don't...

I need a new transmitter, receiver and servos!

And I also think its time I got another Dremmel, great little tools for cleaning, polishing and cutting and some metal polish!


Well that's everything so far, I am now going to hit Google hard and fast to see if there is a UK based store where I can get all this!!!!

This was my take on things. As for the shock oil, there´s no reason to fill them unless You rebuild them with new o-rings and polish the shock shafts. Otherwise, chances are that, they´ll drain over night. A good place to start, would be a medium oil.

[Scatamonky]

Let me see if I understand you - again, I apologise for my ignorance but I'm trying to catch up on everything the last 20 years has changed and improved.

So If I upgrade to an ESC (which I'm definitely going to do) it draws power from the big 7.2 volt battery and distributes that to the receiver and the servos?

So I don't need the 4 AA battery's in the car anymore?

[DennisM]

Yes the ESC eliminates the MSC and it´s cohearing servo + the 4-cell powerpack. The ESC plugs in the reciever where the servo for the MSC used to go. The one plug from the ESC will both provide the receiver with power and the signals to the ESC comming from the receiver.
If You buy a new 2,4 ghz transmitter/receiver set this will all be plug´n´play against the ESC.
If You chose to keep the old transmitter/receiver, You might need a BEC (battery eliminator circuit).
This all depends on the marking on the receiver (BEC).

Today there´s a thing called an UBEC, which is the same as the BEC but universal - which means it´ll turn most of todays lipo cell configurations into a 6 volt receiver power supply.

Most of the "old" BEC´s on the other hand, could only handle up to 7 cells Nicad or Nimh - 8,4 volts.