RC10Talk - The Net's Largest Vintage R/C Community

Hey guys, got a question for you. My buggy runs great for a while and then the power to the wheels just stop. It does go a little when I fidget with the trigger, the steering works still and there is a decent amount of juice left. I bought new Nicad batteries and a new Reedy Radon, is my speed controller (Novak T4) due for replacement? I guess I could upgrade to brushless and lithium batteries. Or I could just buy a new old school speed control. This buggy is just for bashing not racing. Thoughts?

as crazy as it sounds, when it does that- try flipping the connections at the receiver. Swap the servo and the speed control. Then see if you lose steering or throttle. Of course it will have to be off the ground for you to do this. The speed control shouldn't come and go when you fidget with the transmitter. It sounds to me more like a transmitter/receiver issue on the throttle channel. By flipping them, you will know for sure. I have a traxxas speed control with a blown BEC and it does wacky stuff like that, so it could be the speed control, just not a common thing with your symptoms.

Brushes being hung up are a common source of your problem as well, but the transmitter again wouldnt be able to overcome that- you would have to jolt the car or push it to get it to go.

I ended up getting a $20 Hobbywing ESC, fixed my problem so now have semi-updated electronics!

Hey, glad to learn that you have solved the problem. BTW, that esc looks exactly like those Associated installs in their brushed RTR's. I purchased a new brushed SC10 earlier in the year and the esc looks just like yours from HW. Not sure but I think it also supports lipo with a low-voltage cutoff feature. If you would swap that nimh for a lipo, you will swear that its running on 7-cells.

Yes! I did notice that it has jumpers to convert from NIMH and LIPO! That's pretty cool. I just wanted to get this thing running as a back yard basher. Next step is to build a B-6D club and take advantage of the included electronics! Really appreciate all the help from you guys!

You're right, if you're just play-bashing then run whatever is at hand. If you ever run on a closed circuit and are going for low lap times, however, it’s sometimes good to keep nimh packs to use as a tuning tool. For instance, on days when my track is super dry-slick, I’ve found that I can run more consistent and faster lap times if I swap from lipo to nimh. The car settles down and is actually more fun to drive under those conditions. Can you let us know your experiences with that brushed esc? I have never actually used mine; I immediately swapped the SC10 over to an old spare 550 brushless setup I had on-hand so the esc and the Radon motor are still new and in a box somewhere. I’ve been looking for the right vehicle to run them in.

I've built 3 ReRe's and still have 3 more (2 NIB). Each of the 3 I built had a bad topshaft. 2 had really lousy cases... AE was kind enough to send parts to replace the case, topshaft, and idler. I've since bought a couple of each anyway as spares. The first time I tried to just swap the topshaft... the 2nd I built w/ all the replaced parts... difference was night and day.

Also while you're at it... get some bits for a diff rebuild. With the brushless setup, I killed the diffs in both my 10T and ReRe at the VONATS and I ended up rebuilding them from new parts. On the 10T, I just rebuilt the old diff and it started having issues again a short time later.

The HW ESC runs great with the Radon, dare I say it runs better and faster than my Novak T4. I think the fact that it was 27 years old might have something to do with it.

Hey, great that it's working now and that it's actually faster with the new esc. I received an old T4 in a derelict RC10 ebay find a while back, cleaned it up to be a runner but found that it’s performance was rather underwhelming and it doesn’t respond smoothly to throttle inputs. I swapped motors but made no difference. Maybe some of these T4’s just go bad over time. I have an earlier Novak 4 in my Schumacher Cat and it runs fine.

I’m wanting a LiPo battery to use with both the RC10B6 club brushless and my rere brushed RC10. Any suggestions? Also what is a good charger? I literally have an Astroflight Nicad charger....

The jump in performance from the Novak T4 to the M5 back then was huge. I loved the M5 for stock racing. Think it had something to do with the FET technology they were using.

For LiPo charging for just "fun"... If you have a local LHS and/or Track, go see what they use/recommend. In the $60-75 there are a bunch of good chargers that will do LiPo, NiCd and NiMH of all different sizes. Right now if I was to buy something, I might look at this one which has good reviews, seems popular, and comes with the plugs, balance board, etc...
https://www.amazon.com/Combo-Special-Tenergy-Balance-Charger/dp/B00466PKE0

And don't forget a LiPO charging bag!!!

I don’t remember the M5, maybe it was around during my RC dark ages (post ’94 to about 2014)? I have a few Tekin esc from bitd; very reliable and performance was good.
I’ve been using cheap Zippy 4000 and 5200 2S lipos from HobbyKing and my charger is a Hitec X4-80. No real problems so far with either but I recently notice that display on station 2 on my charger goes berserk if it’s sat idle for a few hours. If I unplug it, it resets and is fine. I keep my lipos charged to 3.8 volts/cell (storage mode) and in the fridge when I’m not using them. BTW – I also have my old Astroflight charger. I would bet that nearly everyone who was into RC in the 80’s had one of these. haha

Since I couldn't find a black JConcepts motor plate either, I got a blue one before those run out as well. Looks pretty good if you ask me. I also got an RPM gear cover and dyed it black. Looks so much better dyed!

Well, it looks pretty good to me too. That RPM gear cover certainly does look good in black. Do you think you’ll try to replace that chipped left drive cup or will you just live with it?

Unfortunately I could only find the right side on the TA site, so if I ever get my hands on left side I will definitely change it out. Kind of scared to break open the tranny after all these years. For now it works fine. If the (9911) bones ever become available I’ll change those out and move the blue spacers back to the outside. I did get Lunsford pins to go with the tie rods and discovered the rear arms (6355B) are smaller on the Rere. I guess that is why they added the “B.” So I’m waiting for the new arms to put those pins in. I’m not using my Astroflight charger anymore, it fried one of my NiMH batteries, it was hissing liquid out of it. So I ordered a Goolsky Ultra Power that can charge anything.

I probably should upgrade to the V2 slipper but since I’m not going brushless anytime soon, there is no point right now.