OK, hands up, I'm completely new to the RC scene. My new GST arrived intact and huge on Friday 13th...hmmmm. Had done some research so I thought I was ready to get things ( the truck! ) moving on my own. Seems as though I've things to learn. Two main issues here folks. 1. How the heck do you get the transmitter - the lovely and I'm sure very excellent Skyion DSK - to communicate with the GST. I have to say I don't find the manual good for beginners at all. All CEN provide are a few books and charts showing how the truck fits together...fine if I want to repair it. It also includes a small booklet on the basic transmitter settings, but for someone with no experience it's not enough. For example on page 7 it states that the transmitter crystal must be paired with the receiver crystal. Now with a bit of work I might be able to work out the transmitter bit but sorry I looked all over the receiver pack and can't see where you would match the radio....in fact what are crystals??? 2. CEN supplied a few basic tools and they included what I presume is a glow plug....yellow base and metal shaft and a charger...please what is the charger for. I can’t see anything that it might fit into. Does the glow plug have to be charged or do I need to get an additional item which I haven't been supplied with. I realise I'm ridiculously basic in my queries but until I get some help the lovely (and it's lovely isn't it) truck will remain a feature on the kitchen floor. Good people guide me to GST glory!!! Thanks.

The crystsal will not be next to the battery, it will be in the reciever box sticking out of the reciver. The crystal is a part that carries the frequency. If you look at the crystal ,there will be a number on it just like the one in the radio. You should'nt need to do anything since the transmitter and reciver will both have the same crystals( same frequency). IF you look at the box with the antena coming out, that is where you will find the reciver crystal.

Well, firstly, the GST isnt a beginners truck, so be ready to have some questions

ok, the glow starter. I am assuming that you are talking about the things in the pictures below V

the steel shaft has a wide lip and a spring on it, pull the lip towards the yellow part and then press the end of the charger into the end of the shaft (as pictured) V

This is your glow starter, it is needed to warm up the glow plug to start the truck. It needs to charge for about 8 hours before you use it.

Did your truck come with a CEN Nitro handbook? If so, please read it thoroughly. Also check out http://www.cenracing.com/faq.html#cc

Read that page as well.


Radio crystals are these http://www.rc-airplane-world.com/ima...s/crystals.jpg

By "matching them" that just means that they both need to be the same frequency (same numbers on the tags) Which they SHOULD be, but it doesnt hurt to double check. Also make sure they are pressed in tight on the reciever and transmitter.

Just to clarify: look at the third pic below. V from left to right, There is the transmitter (pistol shape), reciever ( with the antenna), and reciever battery pack (usually referred to as reciever pack)

To make the radio system work, all you should have to do is install 4 AA batteries in the 4 cell battery holder, then, on the bottom of the truck there is a battery compartment. I am not sure if the wires will be routed correctly on the truck or not, but there should be a female wire end sticking into that compartment for you to plug the battery pack into.

Once you plug the batteries in, turn on the transmitter (batteries installed) and turn on the switch on the bottom of the truck, you should be able to move the throttle servo and steering servo be squeezing the trigger, or turning the wheel on the transmitter. (note: the wheels may not turn well with the truck on the ground due to its weight)

Good job Dustin!!! Just saved me some time.LOL Anyway, everything Dustin said + read, read, read everything you can about nitro engine tuning and dont be afraid to ask questions we are here to help. AND we are eager to help....

Good luck and have fun, and Oh BTW, welcome the boards and great choice of trucks(abit advanced for a beginner but great choice)

Yeah, thought Id give some info this time instead of you TRD. lol

Anywho, had to run near the end of typing that, so heres a bit more:

Like TRD says, Read and read some more.

I highly suggest that you take out the exploded view diagram that came with your truck and go trhough the truck systematically so that you can recognize the parts. Also, check that all of the screws are tight! Sometimes they are not from factory. And before you try starting it, I suggest double checking your gear mesh. 2 out of my 5 CEN RCs came with the gears improperly meshed.

by gear mesh, I mean how tightly the gears fit together. http://www.epi-eng.com/images/GBX-GearGeoTx.jpg
To check the mesh, take either a strip of the thick printer paper, or fold a piece of thin looseleaf paper in half. Then try to run the paper through the gears by spinning the gears. The paper should come out wrinkled, but not ripped. After a while you will be able to do it by eye, but this is the safest way.
If it needs adjusted, loosed the 4 bolts below the engine, and lside the engine so the gears are meshed properly and perfectly parallel. Make sure to use some medium or at least low strength locktite on the motor bolts.

After you've gone through all of this, FOLLOW THE PROPER BREAK IN PROCEDURE! Break in is very important on these engines. The procedure is in you nitro handbook, and online.

After break in, you may need to change the glowplug from running the engine rich, so change it if you need to.

THEN you can start tuning it. I suggest, as TRD said, READING a lot about tuning, and watch these youtube videos. (note: they are made by HPI and traxxas, so the procedure is slightly different than CENs, but its the same idea)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEGjE...elated&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSmMz...elated&search=

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJFsJAxNoRg

Thank you for those long and very helpful replies. They helped to solve some difficulties and possibly poised others. Firstly in my post I mentioned that I was not able to make the transmitter 'communicate' with the truck. After careful step by step process of elimination it turned out that one of the female terminals at the plug leading from the battery pack on the truck was a bit faulty so I had to gently remove it and manipulate it. I replaced it as best I could, switched on the transmitter and bingo....'she lives'......or at least the front wheels gave a little wiggle and responded to twists of the wheel. Great stuff..success. So now I wanted to start the breaking in process but as I live 5-8 hours ahead many of you guys, I only picked up the tip on how to charge the glow plug this morning and I'm afraid it'll be on charge until I go to bed tonight. So I was looking at the CEN forum on how to break in etc. I don't want to run 6 tanks of fuel through it too lean so again I have to rely on one on one info here. Am I correct in thinking that the top end adjustment screw is the brass one on the LHS of the air filter and the idle adjustment is the black one directly under the air filter? While the CEN site does describe what the two screws do and when to lean out and vice versa the fuel they don't specifically tell 'nervous newbies' like me how many turns this way or that is the optimum for break in or am I supposed to turn counter clockwise to make it as rich as possible without cutting out. One last thing...for now at least. The site also mentions the carburetor...and I quote..."Turning the mixture screws clockwise will "lean" the air/fuel mixture. This will increase power and increase engine temperature. Turning the screws to the left counter-clockwise will "richen" the air/fuel mixture. This will cool the engine and make it last longer. When adjusting the idle screw, turning to the left will lower the idle and right will raise the idle. Remember to open the carburetor a little whenever you tighten the idle screw to prevent breaking off the tip of the screw" Now this time I really did study those charts and I couldn't see any carburetor mentioned so over to you on this one or do they mean the brass screw I mentioned previously? If I can get this sorted I'll be well on the way to sucking diesel, or should that be nitro which BTW is more expensive than ...well nearly everything but that’s a story for another day. Cheers.

Souwester, here is a pice that muight help on needle location. However your truck prolly does not have a mid range so you can ignore that one but the basic layout is the same for almost nitro engines..

EDIT ADDED:Great find on the video's Dustin, they will make my life much easier!!!

This engine is tight when new... tips for break in...

- read the instructions, plus..
- put a band-aid on your first & second figures.
- don't do it on concrete, you'll get a sore knee.
- be careful not to flood the engine. try a few quick pulls before you prime the engine to see how hard it is. you need to pull it quickly, but not too far out. if it gets harder to pull you've probably flooded it and should remove the excess fuel.
- on mine, I adjust the throttle trim until the carb barely starts to move (1mm?) which helps start a cold engine, but warning: if it doesn't start in a couple pulls you'll probably be flooded. once going for a minute, be sure to turn the trim back to normal.
- the factory settings should be ok for break in, I don't remember mine getting much hotter than 120-150 F
- I replaced the default plug after the 5th tank to OS#8
- don't be too concerned with length of time your glow lighter is attached - they warn about buring out the plug but i've yet to see it happen, but it will drain the battery - it may need charging again for tank #2, multimeter helps to check it's charged and spares wouldn't go astray just incase. 8 hours charge is only the first one, after that a couple of hours will do.
- if you flood the engine, to remove the plug, loosen it with the wrench then pick up the truck at the front until its vertical or a bit over and proceed to remove the plug, this way the washer will come out with the plug and you won't need to fish it out - with the added advantage that dirt is less likely to fall into the top! After a day out (and cooled down), I squirt wd40 onto the plug to clear any dirt from the plug before removing it. Use this procedure to insert the plug too and the damn washer won't fall in.


Craig.

I'm with you Souwester,

I just got my GST and I've had plenty of electric RC cars/trucks but this was the first Nitro truck I've owned and there's a huge learning curve heh.

First and foremost I would go out and purchase some Mechanix Wear gloves, or whatever you like, I got the $14.99 ones from Autozone. That'll help with the break-in and they're handy for tuning and not burning yourself.

As for getting it running...

* Gloves of some kind..
* Fuel - I run Werk's Racing 30%, but from what I've heard Byron's is good too.
* Batteries - Get an RX Pack for you receiver, I would recommend a Venom 1200mah pack with red "JST" connector and a charger for it. Also don't forget about your radio too.
* After-run Oil or WD40.
* IR temp gun.
* Air filters and filter oil - You won't need them until it's broken in but you need to make sure you always run a clean and oiled filter in your GST.
* Tools - I find the included wrenches are helpful, but lacking. You may want to get some hex wrenches to make things easier, but again you don't need them yet really.

Also a tip after it's broken in and running strong, check the left side (looking down on it front facing away from you) wheel hubs, those two nuts like to loosen themselves because their threads aren't inverted. I had a front wheel come off the other day, just had to find the blue hex nut and tighten it back down and all was good.

I hope that helps, and congrats on the purchase of a bad @#$ truck!

wow guys...i can't think of anything else to say...

ok...one thing...after a hard run or 3 go over the screws...like dude said...if you don't keep up you'll lose a tire or worse...

good luck this truck rocks

Duuuuude.... SWEET!

Does my name look like Dude, dood?

Dood...

Dood.

ok...

like the person before me said....

Oh I almost forgot you're going to want 2 extra glow plugs on hand, while it's running rich you'll burn them out like 1 per day or so. Another tip, if you kill the motor by pinching the fuel line, or when you run your truck and it runs out of fuel don't rev the motor, let it idle it's way dead and it'll save your glow plugs..

I still don't like the "plug your finger over the hot exhaust port" method of killing an engine either, but that's just me.. [8D]

Glad to see I'm not the only one finding things a challenge, but to be honest it's half the reason I decided to dip my toe into the RC world and also after planning a wedding MOST things are a doddle but this isn't!!

OK update. Well I've worked out what should be happening and when. Glow plug is working and glow heater is working as I tested them - many times. I'm using Byron's fuel so that can't be an issue. The CEN site states that 99% of starting probs are with plugs/heaters but not here. So possibly flooded. Well did as Craig from Oz suggested and 'drained' any excess fuel via plug hole and tried again. I cannot get it to even cough or pretend it's catching. Is it really important to have a buddy blip the throttle for you as you try to pull start - especially a new engine?

I know I'll get there ........eventually.

I set my carb open with the adj. on the controler...left my needles alone, put a finger on my exhaust hole. pulled the cord 3 times WITHOUT the glowstarter on. now the carb is open +10 on my controler the first time. put your glowstarter on your glow plug and give the pullstart quick short pulls at the angle the casing let's the line out, only pull about 8 to 10 inces. that's kinda far. you might have to give it more or less gas when you start...try and keep it under 25% to get started and very very little gas to keep it running, do not rev...did 3 idel tanks and 2 slow tanks and on the 6 tank about half way through i started to do my high speed runs...if you have a temp gun keep a eye on your temps...

i'm using byrons 30% in my truck...

ummm...i know i'm forgeting something...

that's what i forgot...i cracked the glowplug a very little

Starting this motor for the first time is a PITA!!! But after you get it going it's the best motor around.

What I would recommend and what would have helped me initially is make sure both TX/RX radios are on and servos responding, then prime the fuel line by putting your finger over the exhaust port and give the starter a few tugs until the fuel line fills full of fuel up to the carb/high speed needle. Once it's primed, rest your right hand on the handle and put a finger on the end of the spring-tensioned throttle linkage and push on the end to give it gas, you might get a feel for how that works before you move on, you should see the carb open/close. This way you can just give it gas with your finger and still hold on to the truck and keep it from taking off on ya.

Once you're comfortable with that, put the igniter in and start tugging on the pull starter, don't give it much gas by hand, crank it a few times first and make sure it won't start on it's own, if not give the throttle a little nudge and keep pulling. You don't want to give it so much gas that the pull starter gets stiff and hard to pull, if it does, stop. And clean out the fuel in the motor before you continue.

You might have to give it a little more then a nudge, you might have to crack open the throttle just a little to help it for the first time, but little bit at a time, as not to flood it.

Also set your idle higher then normal, so that the clutch just barely starts engaging and the wheels spinning at idle (propping the truck up off the ground is helpful during this process) that way it's harder for the new engine to die on you, it will want to, and it'll be just as hard to start for the first few tanks when it dies..

Just don't over-extend your pull starter, 1-2 engine revolutions is about it, anything more and you risk maybe over-extending it. It's a PITA for the first few tanks, once it loosens up it starts like butter

Good luck and be patient, it is well worth the wait. Also another tip, when you're cooling down the motor between tanks make sure you put the piston at bottom dead center or BDC as the cylinder is tapered and gets smaller at the top vs. the bottom, this will give you higher compression and longer engine life from what I've heard. What I do is take out the glow plug and rotate the motor, watch the piston move, when it's all the way down at BDC I mark the flywheel with either a screwdriver or sharpy (which *will* wash off) that way it's easy to find BDC without taking the glow plug out again..

Good luck!!

As was suggested, use the trim adjustment to open the throttle for you. You don't need much, watch the carb end while you adjust it and stop when you see it move just a bit (1mm). If you get your buddy to open with the trigger I reckon it will be too much and after a pull or two you will have flooded the engine. Keep pulling, short and quick, a new cold engine may take a few tries.

When you drained the excess fuel, you should have flipped it upside and pulled the starter several times, then put the plug back in reasonably tight, right? My first mistake was to not tighten very much but it really needs to be sealed at least. You can tell if its not by quirting a bit of wd40 at the plug and looking at the plug while you pull the cord. If you see bubbles or movement then the plug isn't tight enough IMO. My truck wouldn't start at all until I had it tight, dispite what the manual says about loosing the damn plug to make it easier. Don't forget it will need to be primed again.

Craig.

Interesting, mine came with a grove mark.

Craig.

Mine came with a few scratch marks on the flywheel, not really a groove, I put the piston at BDC and re-marked it anyways just to be sure.

It would be nice if it came pre-marked with a notch from the factory, that way you always know where BDC is..

Yep your not wrong!! After getting the insides of my fingers blistered from pulling the starter I eventually got the beast into life. Has anyone ever tried to break an engine in inside your house......ok so I had the car in a room with the door shut and window wide open but my god those fumes sting your eyes like what I can only imagine teargas might be like. For the next few tanks it's gonna be me and car in a lonely and very much in the open spot. My wife has started to refer to the car as'it'......always a bad sign I think.

LMAO, "IT" is never a "good sign"......... But i can see her point if ya started this beast IN THE HOUSE I started mine outside, and i couldn't take the fumes, i had to sit a few feet away. Also, i'm taking heat for the oil stains on the front sidewalk, i just promised to get out the pressure washer lol..

Of course you can always do what i did........ Buy her one In fact we bought hers 1st . All she had to see was the neighbor running his LST, and her 1st words were "Honey you could get one of those " Off to the LHS it was.

lol, your breaking in your truck inside your house?!?!? Make sure you got something under your exhaust catching all the excess fuel. Yeah, I already blew my glow plug, I just ordered 3 os #8 plugs off tower and a few other goodies.

Breaking in your truck INSIDE your house might not be a good idea, those fumes are not good for you, not to mention if you have pets..

I would at least put a big floor fan in your window facing outward to exhaust the fumes, and you'll probably want something like a pan or tupperware type container under the exhaust port to catch all the unburned fuel.

Good luck with that

now that's a new one in my book