sigep93

I need wisdom, lots of it. My brother has tasked me with rehabbing his Heng Long Panther tank. He purchased it with metal tracks and gearbox. It has always had a shortage of power and can barely make it around his yard. When I charged up the battery and ran it in the house his right side tracks looked sloppy like they were droopy and not on correctly and that is when I noticed his rear idler wheel was very loose. I tightened it down and it loosened up again, I think the self tapping screw is stripped out because the whole idler wheel fell off after a few minutes. So besides a new battery, do I keep the gearbox and upgrade the motors (call it plan A) or buy a whole new transmission with the upgraded motors included (plan B). Plan A is much cheaper but am I going to regret it. Do I go with a metal idler wheel for the back with a bearing instead of a bushing? If so what is the best way to deal with the stripped out hole, I could epoxy it closed then drill a small hole in the middle and let the screw retap itself (plan A) or is it better to put a bolt through the hull of the tank that could keep everything tight (plan B) Plan A is easier but will it hold? The elephant in the post is the lack of parts and suppliers, I've been looking online for two days and I found lots of videos but not many sources. Where can I get this stuff?

maillemaker

If it's a Heng Long metal gearbox it is probably the zinc/pot metal gearbox. I had one and it wore out very fast. Replaced it with steel-geared version.

I also have had HL tanks where the idlers fall off. On mine it was because the direction of turn of the idler unscrewed the axle screw. I put some superglue in the hole and screwed it back in.

I've been dissatisfied with the idlers on most of my HL tanks as they are just screwed down. They don't have bushings or bearings and hence wobble a lot and tend to throw tracks particularly on my Jagdpanthers. So I have ordered a Hennetec tensioner that will hopefully give me more stable idlers.

The battery can be replaced with a larger capacity for longer runs.

There are many suppliers. Matomart is one I tend to use. I bought the Hennetec tensioner from Forgebear https://www.forgebeartanks.com

Steve

sigep93

OK, I think I'm going with the full motor and gearbox replacement.
How salty is the shipping from England?

maillemaker

You can buy steel motors from the USA, like Matomart, Imex.

sevoblast

You can get the HennTec idler here:

HT014 HennTec idler system for the HL Panther/Jagdpanther ? ETO armor

Shipped out of Maryland near DC.

Ex_Pat_Tanker

If it is the Panther A you have (aka the "Pantiger") then you will need the HL Tiger idler system, not the one intended for the Panther G / JagdPanther.

HT011 HennTec idler system for the HL Tiger 1 ? ETO armor

sevoblast

Thanks for that info. I've got that one in stock, too. Guess we need him to post a photo of the beast to make sure what it is.

sigep93

You guys rock. It is the Pantiger and the only way I discovered the differece was looking at the pattern on the metal idler wheels for sale. Everytime it said panther the wheel pattern was wrong and then I found a tiger wheel and it matched, then later I found a refernce to it at TankArmy.com. They actually had it listed as a PanTiger, same camo pattern and turret with the tracks on the front like a bumper.
Thanks again for all the wisdom.
Miles

sevoblast

It is actually a Tiger E, or Tiger 1, hull with a Panther turret on it. I don't have a photo at hand to look so I don't know if the turret is Panther D, Panther A, or Panther G.

Ex_Pat_Tanker

Its none of the above. Its a Panther A upper hull, widened and shortened to fit on a Tiger I chassis. The turret was suitably butchered to fit the elevation and BB unit from the Tiger - remember that the Tiger has a turret bin that can hold the elevation, the Panther turret had to be massively distorted to hold it all (the later Panther G has completely different mechanisms). The exhausts can be used for a scale model (on a HL Panther G), but the rest is of little accuracy.