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Just been getting my car ready after sitting for years. hooked up all my old electronics back in the car and i got some major engine glitching. When this happens the servo starts acting all crazy and motor acts all crazy. All batteries are new and fresh. It seems to get better when i hold and move the antenna on the car but still messes up in 15 or 20 seconds. I see a lot of sparks coming from the motor brush area when its glitching. There is 2 capacitors on the motor but they been on there for over 15 years. I looked at the brushes and they look ok. Could it be my 20 year old futaba magnum junior radio system or reciever. Where should i start to try to diagnose my problems. Every couple minutes it seems to work pretty good for 30 seconds or so then starts to mess up. Local hobby shop has a 2.4gh spectrum radio system for $60 so i might just start there if i cant figure it out by this weekend.

Look for possible wire breakage or possible shorts in the servo, speed control & radio wiring.
-Kevin

I had a bad crystal do something like that to me once with the same radio. If you have another motor, receiver, or radio (even borrow one) you could try one of those and see if there is any change. Good luck.

The on/off switch on Your hand set, is that a push button or a slide switch?
Your problems can be caused by lack of signal from the transmitter.

Do you switch out crystals? Had that happen a few weeks ago with a 27mhz. Thought I had the right frequency in there and it had a fit and a half. Put the right one in and it worked fine. Dumb mistake, but at the time I couldn't for the life of me figure it out.