Do-it-yourself Help on RC Cars

If you nitro car engine runs fine but does not move that means something in the drive train has come in lose. Best option would be to first check the rear wheels. Ensure in the rear wheels if the nuts that fixes them to the axel are in place. If nuts are loose then axel may keep moving in its place but the wheels may not get the enough gear to move.

If rear wheels and their attachment to axel is okay then it would be a good idea to check the inward drive shafts to the differential case. If there are universal joints at the differential case, they are attached with small screw sets. These screw sets might be one of the reasons that they may give problem with the moving of the car. The set screws hold the drive joint onto the small stub shafts that protrude from the case. If these shafts are loosened then the stub shaft will spin but the drive joint will not. The set screw shall need to be on to that flat portion of the shaft to align the same with the drive joint. To get access to the set screw it may be required to dissemble the suspensions a little.

Moving along these lines; mostly the car starts working fine. But if the problem still persists, it might be possibility that the main gear needs to be inspected. Inspect the main gear to ensure that it is tight on the shaft. When a slipper clutch is loose, the main gear will turn but the power will not be transferred to the gear box. This can be easily seen when the engine is operating. If you view that the gears turn but the shaft does not then it means that the slipper clutch is loose. The main gear needs to be tightened on the shaft and the problem shall be solved.

These suggestions work best with the gas powered model cars. But they are not limited to them only. Applying the above inspection rules may solve problems with most of the cards and the wheels may set rolling.

These problems occur mostly with gas powered remote control racing cars. This is due to the reason that the vibration of the engine tends to loosen the nuts, bolts or screwing of the chassis etc. this loosening might give some problem although the initial working model might have been picture perfect. But after a speed run some check back are always due to avoid such problems.

It would in the best interest of the car model and for the driver also to always give a one and half hour inspection to the model after every four hours of run. This maintenance always keeps the model set right and ready to speed up. Usually Nitro based models require fairly high degree of maintenance to the vehicle. This is due to the reason that Nitro Remote Control car go 1/8th scale off-road single speed average 30-40 MPH. 2-Speed averages to be 40-50 MPH. Trucks average 25-35 MPH. Speeds can be variable depending upon environmental conditions, motor size, tuning, gearing, clutch bell size, etc.

So taking care of Nitro engines might not be such a great task but a regular maintenance along with regular care should do wonders.
aNot everyone is a engineering geek and even if one is then sometimes a quick tip or a helping advice is always welcome. We all want some kind of help on how to keep all unwanted particles coming into your car. A simple remedy to the same can be securing your air filter. Anther option can be to buy du-bro body clip retainers and make sure that they remain clipped and do not get loose.

Sometimes your car may act fancy. Like if you turn on your car, it keeps steering to one side. This may happen even if you keep the wheels straight. A good idea in this case would be to give a check if your car has a "steering trim" knob/wheel/button option. If there is none then may be adjusting steering servo armature length should do the trick.

A lot of dirt gets accumulated under the chassis and the most to get affected are the screw heads. To get clean and sparkling screw heads under the chassis, spray denatured alcohol on screw heads and then pick the dirt with the help of paper clip. It is an effective way to clean your screw heads that are packed with dirt enough so that your hex driver can have enough meat to grab on. It is recommended to use denatured alcohol as it seems to work better than the simple green or motor cleaner.

Compressed air also works better for cleaning NTC3after a good day bashing. But an old sock always does the trick to clean your car sparkling and shining. The soft wool or cotton wipes off the dirt like magic. But one has to be sure not leave any lose socks thread going into the car. A small painter brush always cleans unreachable areas and cleans them gently. To wipe of sticky mud under the chassis or on the body of the car using a toothbrush to brush it off also helps. But make sure not to scratch you car paint with a too hard brush bristles.

Keeping spare starter batteries and giving a rain check on your tx, rx, glow starts before going out with your car also helps. This is a must when your batteries or lights etc have been in use for a while.

If you want an alternative way out to shut down the engine in comparison to du-bro exhaust plug you can use a pencil to plug the exhaust to shut down the engine fast. Everyone uses the cable tie trick to fasten the bec plug together so they do not get disconnected accidentally. But this does not seem practical because every time you have to cut the tie and use a new one to recharge the cells. To overcome this problem, a simple solution is to replace the cable ties with the twist tie that holds your rx antenna. They are reusable and do the job perfectly.

Drilling your tires on the outside edge in the middle, instead of the rim, keeps the dust and other crap out of your tires. They'll stay in balance a lot longer as crud gets thrown out as you drive. If you drill the rims, then every bit o crap will stay in your wheel.

To make your own chassis, blank circuit board or an aluminum plate does a great job. Use vise grips to clamp the original chassis to the blank material and drill all your holes by drilling straight through the existing holes on the original chassis. You'll get everything to mount up nice that way! If you bother that the circuit board might be too light. No fret!. It is more or less like a fiber glass board and work well as top plate on bigger cars too.