TAG Coyote resurrection

[Dadio]

I'm thinking this is probably a Tag not SG Coyote based on the fact that it has TAG on the speedo , i think i got lucky with this one as its so complete , even the broken top arm and missing dog bone seen in the Ebay pictures were in the box that arrived , i was so chuffed to see a pack of two NIB top arms and the dog bone in there !
its not all good , there are a few stripped threads and it came with the plastic crown wheels on the diffs , but even that's not too bad as the diff gears are absolutely pristine .
I think this was a carpet car because it came with foam tires and very few scratches , i mean after cleaning the bumper has barely a mark on it
unfortunately all the shock collars have stripped threads and one is cracked altogether so I'm printing some more now . There's also little wear on the drive shafts ,outdrives , dogbones and prop shaft although it has got plain bushings in many places so i have those on order , another thing on order are a pair of turnbuckles for the new top arms , in think the new ones are of the later design as instead on M3 turnbuckles the new ones use M4 ones , strangely the rear already has the later top arms fitted .
Before.

inside the diff

[Dadio]

After a bit of a scrub .

[1300GT]

You've got an early Coyote there. The plastic crown and pinion gears look to be in really good nick. Surprising, as by all accounts the plastic gears should have shredded with the power of that 540.

[Dadio]

You've got an early Coyote there. The plastic crown and pinion gears look to be in really good nick. Surprising, as by all accounts the plastic gears should have shredded with the power of that 540.

I'm wondering if the gears were changed just prior to its retirement ,there was not a trace of debris or any lube at all inside the diff housings , the picture is of how it was when opened , the outside if the diff housings was dirty but after 30 years its got a right to be .
Looking at the rest of the car its been run but not as heavily as I at first thought , the lower arms have only the lightest scuffing on the underside and the tracks on the speed controller are still in good condition , the motor wires were rotten though and had been covered in insulating tape in vintage era so I'm thinking the motor may have been in something else ?

[XLR8]

So many interesting features on this car.
It uses pivot balls rather than pins on the suspension links. What do you think about that?
And the saddle pack battery; I've never seen one like it. Are you planning to run the car and, if so, what will you do for a battery?
Do you have a body in mind for the car?

[Dadio]

Pivot balls are quite common at the knuckle end but as you say not on the inner end of the arm , I guess I've known about this design a long time so its not so odd to me , for battery's I have two ideas , firstly The Component Shop is where I get most of my battery's and they will make packs to order if needed so I might try and get saddle NiMH sticks made , I probably also will make an adapter on the 3d printer to fit a of lipo saddle pack , sort of a cylinder at each end with compartment in the middle to take the lipo , the body is going to be an original replica that is already ordered , once the body arrives I'll measure up what kind of battery I can use .
The bearings arrived today for the diff out drives and wheel axles so they got fitted along with some lithium grease on the diff gears .

[naushad]

Nice. The later versions of the Coyote came with metal crown gears.

[Dadio]

Nice. The later versions of the Coyote came with metal crown gears.

I've seen them on sale in the past but sadly not now ,i do have another 2 NIB complete sets of the plastic diff gears coming with a parts bundle including wheels , tires , knuckles , rear hubs and an under tray.
I'll keep my eyes open for the metal crown wheels though.

[Dadio]

Just for the hell of it I tried charging the old battery that came with the car and unbelievably it seems to be taking a charge , it registered nothing on the initial discharge and on the first charge cycle it took 2400mah , it only became slightly warm so a lot of that was actual charge , I'm now running a second cycle so I'll see what is actually in there and what it takes , its only rated as a 1200mah and its a nicad so I'm not expecting much .
I also moved the front shocks to the front of the arms rather than behind as it came , not sure what's correct and I've found equal numbers of pictures either way .

[Dadio]

That battery on its second cycle discharged 1300 mah and charged 1500 mah , that's mad ! , i just had it running in the car and although its under no load it sounds good i'm finding it hard to believe that a 30+ year old battery that's rated as 1200 mah had done a measured discharge of 1300 mag , is it like wine or something ?
One thing i did notice was that it runs faster in reverse so the motor may be timed ? and i probably assembled the diffs back to front , at least i got the front and rear wheels going the same direction

[dinglem]

I'm guessing you have seen my Coyote thread.... as has been pointed out in the above comments the early cars came with weaker wishbones and the placcy diff gears, all of which were revised and strengthened on the later cars. The original shocks also popped off the retaining balls much more often than they should.

Really great cars though - one of the best looking out there in my opinion.

I'll be interested in seeing some piccies of the undertray you mention. Is it one for the original bodyshell and if so, is it new (could it be copied)?

[Dadio]

I may have over sold it as an "under tray" its just a strip of lexan that fills the width between the two chassis plates , its just there to close the under side a bit but its not like the more familiar trays that fit the body contour , i don't think they are the most common part but I've seen a few on sale , I'm sure it could be copied very easily as its just a flat bit of lexan .
I've obviously seen your build thread , its a very original take and very impressive build, I'm not sure yet weather I'm going for a very stock rebuild or something more adventurous , its the kind of chassis that leads the imagination but its early days yet.

[XLR8]

When I awoke from RC hibernation and started dragging my RC stuff out of the attic back in about 2014, I was surprised that my old matched SCE packs still accepted a charge and they actually performed very well - for a time. After maybe a dozen cycles, the began to die - some faster than others. They've been retired to the attic again.

[dinglem]

Ah ok, i know the lexan strip you mean now.... not quite what i was excitedly picturing!

[Dadio]

My motor mount is a bit warped, not sure whether its motor heat that did it or if its been stored with something on top of it for 30 years but I need to do something so I thought I could make an ally plate 2-3mm thick to back it with to bring it straight ( its really soft plastic and very flexible ) but for that I'd have to drill new holes through it to screw the place too... So I modeled up a replacement and printed it in carbon fibre nylon.