try removing the starter, and cleaning the one way bearing out real good, and clean the shaft. reinstall, and see if it helps. works for me most of the time........


davey

we tried that and it didn;t help.. my buddy's spring flew out of his.. any tips on getting the recoil spring back in?? we did clean the parts and it didn't make any difference..

oooh. spring came out eh? well, good luck on that one! i think i may have gotten one back in, but it was a major pain. i guess you have to be pretty careful when removing the bearing, holding the 'reel' portion in, while removing the bearing.

anyway, either a new start shaft or bearing will probably be in order. i have never worn one out, but i would think the bearing may be the culprit? there is a very small tolerance between the two, i would imagine less than .001" wear would probably ruin the capability of the bearing/shaft relationship. so, try a new bearing, http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXMMJ6&P=7 or a start shaft, http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXMML3&P=7 and go from there. a new starter for your buddy, http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXMMJ4&P=7 has the new bearing in it already, so that might help you two if you combine efforts. as cheap as they are, i would just get both the start shaft and the bearing for you, and see which one fixes it, then you have some spare parts, or, you have everything you need.

really, considering the abuse these boats take, this is a cheap fix. but as we all know, this hobby takes $$$ and patience to do, nothin' lasts forever!


davey

ok. thanks for the links.. i looked and could not find those parts at tower.. i will fix the pull start and use a belt to start it. that wy the pull start is a backup.. my vegas came airborne and dove underwater!! it disapeared for about 3 seconds and i thought for sure that it wsa gone!! then it floated back up and was totally full of water.. i use 2 auto bailers on my vegas, one where the stock rubber plug was at and another on the other side.. i raised the strut some and it helped a lot, i think i can still go further.. i also ported the header, shortened the tuned pipe, added a header cooler, removed the head shim, added a grim racer turn fin, sharpened and polished the rudder, and removed the tail; fin.. seemed to pick up the speed quite a bit!! i also cut out the rear of the canopy(turbine). i have been debating on blueprinting the hull.. is it worth doing?? and how is it done?? i also have a 3 blade prop on the way.. should i call aquacraft to see if they will cover the pullstart under warranty?? boat is about a month old..

well here is some bad news!!! the engine in my vegas pretty much blew up today!! it stopped suddenly while idling.. i wen to crank it and it locks up when the piston reaches the top of the cylinder.. so i decided to pull the head off to inspect it.. the piston and slleve are trashed.. the head button is pitted, and the crank bearings are gritty.. this is only the third time this boat has been on a lake since i bought it new 2 months ago.. would warranty cover this??? i think i am going to just order a new engine for it from tower hobbies.. they are only 84 bucks.. break it in right and hope it last longer than this one did.

new piston and sleeve is only about 30 bucks. take a good look at the con rod too

also on that pull start, #1 when you remove it use a small screwdriver to make sure the whole thing comes off the shaft as an assembly. You don't want the spring to come apart. also I use the flex shaft grease on the shaft and oneway bearing. makes it last much longer. metal shaft and metal one way bearing and no lubrication at 28,000 rpm will only last so long.

yea the rod in the motor is chewed up on the very end, the crankcase is pitted and the rod was rubbing.(there is a lot of metal pieces scattered throughout this motor) the rear bearing is also pretty rough!! i think i will get a new motor.. i found one for 75 bucks shipped.. i do custom powdercoating so i may powdercoat the spare head and maybe crankcase.. might also play with doing some porting on the crankcase(the old one of course).. the lube on the one way bearing sounds like a good idea!! i just didn't know if it would make the pullstart slip with the grease on it.. i will try that too.. thanks for the input guys!

The pitting in the head is proof of lean running, on the new engine resist the urge to lean the mixture, my boys run 40% nitro and 18%oil with castor and start at 3 turns out and work down to maybe 2 1/2 turns after breakin.

well when i first got the boat i was breaking the motor in and it kept overheating!!! i then discovered tht the water pickup(inside the rudder) was full of metal shavings, which is why it was overheating!! no water at all was circulating!! i would say that this was hard on the piston and sleeve to overheat that much during break-in!! i will start over with a new motor and keep check on things better..

When i first got mine, I couldn't figure out why mine was running lean and burning exhaust couplers, even 4 turns out on the screw. Finally noticed that fuel pickup in tank was all the way against bottom of tank restricting fuel flow.

I have mastered my tunnelboat, and now I own a miss vegas. After reading hundreds of pages on this thread, I have the problems others have and after trying what was suggested, it almost hooks up in the straights. But cavitates horrible in the turns. Motor is running good with 30% fuel. I have had the prop set everywhere, no luck.

what prop are you using? i always had issues with the stock prop, but once i went to the grim prop, or an octura Y535, no more problems, no matter where the strut was set at........


davey

Yup they probably should supply the boat with a better fuel tank and a grim prop right out of the box and some good instruction on strut adjustments.

Hey hey hey, guys! Long time no talky. I just moved up to Michigan and remembered Ron was from here. Is there any ponds that anybody knows of that I can run my Vegas at in/near Farmington Hills?

Well as I said a few days ago my miss v came in to it, soooooo much fun. My girl friends mv came in to it last night we got to run together it was a blast. When I got mine I did notice it seemed very thin and when we got hers it is twice the hull and paint is great, but I noticed last night the hole belly pan is cracked on mine bad I called hobby ser. they where very very nice and offerd to replace it, if I would send them the boat but with the end of summer coming and having so much fun Im gona fix it myself hell I will most likly cut it up mod. it any way

anybody from around ,Mi., let's race Rochester Spencer park, sunday the 28th, let's get em out here!!,

man o man o man, hard day out on the water saturday. i managed to break almost every boat i took out, the vegas, nitro SV 27, and my TZ powered proboat......

so, i am running an OS VZ-M .21 in the vegas now. i have got her running pretty good, can't seem to top my 49.5 mph mark, i have tried, but just can't quite get there. i took out one shim, also tried an X442 with the tongues removed, but could only muster 47.5 yesterday. so, let's see: i hit a log doing 40 plus, (doh!) and that really smoked my hull. it is really smashed up in the front, the left sponson is completely torn, hull split, not pretty!! then, i lost a conrod. it's been awhile since i have heard that awful sound of a motor stopping instantly, you just KNOW it's not good. and? i was right.

so, smashed my boat to smithereens, and blew my motor. awesome!

well, a visit to tower found me a conrod, and in an impulse buy, i found a scratch and dent vegas for cheap, as it's missing some parts. parts that i don't need anyway, with what i am doing. so, vegas 'round two' will be coming up shortly. all in a days fun right? you betcha. gonna take more than this to take me down, now i have some projects! (anyone need a beat on vegas hull?)


just wanted to share, alls good, take care peeps......


davey




ps, how do you strengthen the cross width of the vegas hull? as in sponson to sponson, like across at the nose/gas tank level of the boat? i can't remember where it is, some kind of cross stringers? any info/pics on how to do it/materials, would be greatly appreciated, as i want to strengthen the new hull. thank you!!!)

To strengthen the front of a MV, remove the fuel tank and run a piece of 1/2" wood dowel across the hull. Use epoxy or glass resin to hold in place. Have the dowel extend into the sponson cavity by an inch or so on each side.

JD

ouch, hate to see all the bad luck man,,. m mv is awaiting a new motor also... sent you a pm

Most folks I have seen, use a fiberglass or carbon fiber rod/tube across the front of the boat in front of the fuel tank. It is almost like it was meant to be there. I guess the short of it is, that most of the hulls crack down the sides of the nose piece, so this is where most folks experience their flex. A fiberglass tube across it stiffens it up. If you can't find fiberglass or carbon fiber rods/tubes anyplace, try the local sports equipment store/department and pick up some arrows. You should should even be able to find fiberglass arrows at Wal-mart for that matter.

Sean

Ouch... Sorry to hear that. Did you geta new piston / sleeve too? I'm sure you noticed, but the one in the pic is cracked.

yikes! man, i about freaked out when i saw that too just now in the pic, now that you mentioned it, so i went and looked at it, it must have been a hair or something as the piston looks fine there. but, there is a small corner that broke off on the skirt where the rod smacked it, but it is minimal, and the cost of a new piston and liner is not, so i am going to just roll with a rod for now............





davey

D - Lo Just wondering, I was looking at your engine, did you modify the crankshaft?

no mods, but she went lean and revved out, so the rod journal is a little burnt looking, but no marring, just a 'looks' finish issue. i'll polish it out before reassembly.........


davey