Hey guys,

I'm new to the Nitro r/c cars but not new to the hobby. A few years back I raced a 4WD RS4-MT at a local hobby shop and also toyed with a RC10L in the parking lot near my house. My fiance has got me back into the hobby by giving me a CEN CT4-S for Christmas. I love the car so far, it's an incredible machine.. Back when I was in the hobby, 70+ mph cars were only for people like Kent Clausen and his sponsored super cars. Now it seems anyone can buy a ready to run car and achieve this incredible speed. The only problem for me is I'm used to building all of my cars from scratch and this model came completely built. I have no earthly idea how to take this thing apart and put it back together and the only instructions that came with the car was the aptly named exploded view. So yes, if the car were to explode and all the parts were to seperate, I now know what it would look like.

Here is my problem. I purchased a competition drive train upgrade for the CT4-S and I've got two belts, two 16T pullys, and a single sheet of instructions that basically is another exploded view. The directions are one sentence for each part... "Replace the rear pully, <picture>, replace the rear belt, <picture>, replace the front pully, etc..." I stared at this sheet, then the car, then the sheet, for 15 minutes and finally started unscrewing things. Off comes the disc brake lever, the rear chassis stiffiner, the engine + motor mount comes out, the e-clips holding the transmission in place, the side belt, the center pully brace, and finally I get to the 25T gear that I'm suppsed to replace... however, once I finally get that pully out (2 more e-clips and half a dozen screws later), the pin the goes through the axle the pully is on is too long to fit into the groove in the 16T pully. DAMN! Did I miss something? I didn't get any smaller pins in the package. There are no instructions so I have no idea if I have the right pully but from the exploded views it appears to be the correct pully. I counted the teeth, 25 teeth... ugh... 10 minutes later I decide that it is a lost cause without the extra pin and I don't want to leave my car in shambles so I reassemble all the parts in what I hope was the right order. Fortunately I had no screws, pins, clips, hoses, parts or belts left over when it went back together.

So here is my question! Are there any instructions available for this procedure other than what came with the kit? Am I missing a part or do I also need to go buy some smaller pins? My attempt took me 2 hours, and I did not get step 1 of the 4 completed. Am I going to have to dismantle most of the car to get these pullys and belts fitted?

Thanks guys!

Duncan Wannamaker
Greensboro, North Carolina

**UPDATE**

I found [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_2891450/anchors_2891450/mpage_1/key_Ct045/anchor/tm.htm#2891450]this[/link] post here after doing some more searching and it turns out the kit does not come with the pins and they need to be purchased seperatly. I purchased some 10mm pins from the LHS and installed the new pullys. Also, I am a dolt, there is a complete instruction manual that comes with the RTR kit that shows how to build the car from a kit. After an afternoon of dismantling the front and rear of the car to replace the belts and pullies the kit was installed. While I had the engine out I checked out the internals and everything is still smooth and shiny. There is a small amount of discoloration on the top of the piston but it seems to work alright. I put everything back together and went to the parking lot for a test run. Unfortunately, when I tried to start the engine the piston got stuck at top dead center. I removed the glow plug thinking that I had flooded the engine but it still wouldn't budge. After I got back home I took apart the engine again, and found that I had inserted the sleeve about 1 degree rotated and it wouldn't seat because of the fuel injector. There is a small slit in the cylinder aparently for the fuel injector. After reassembly I cranked the car up on my porch and it sounded great.

Earlier in the week I had changed the tires to foam with some larger back tires. With the new tires and smaller pullies the car really screams. Gets to second gear in a little over 1 second and handles much better with the tires. IMO this is a must have upgrade, unless you have access to a small airport runway to drive this car with the standard gearing. I guess thats the price you pay for having the fastest RTR car you can buy. The car has enough torque now to spin like a top, even with the extra traction of the foam tires!

Duncan

*BUMP -- Updated *

CEN, would it be possible in the future to include the 10mm pins with this kit. They are pretty cheap and would save people without a stockpile of these things a trip to the hobby shop.

Duncan