well, if your idle screw is worthless than loosen the grub screw in the collet on the throttle linkage to pull the linkage towards the rear of the car a little bit so that at idle it closes of the barrel opening to less than 1 mm. Then when it is idling, use the throttle trim on the controller to fine tune the idle to where it will idle, but not stall and not roll.

the carb doesnt open when the rpms are are going crazy, i personally think this carb is just junk...and i wouldnt run rechargable aa batteries there pretty useless as well, seems they stop taking charge after so long anyhow, and as far as 6v goes, wouldnt you want as many volts as possible?...wouldnt it make it more "snappy" because ive always heard the higher the volts the better, and dont nicads have to be discharged before you can charge properly...?

my carb opens fully when the servos go crazy. after the carb opens fully the car doesn't respond at all. its as if the receiver or transmitter is off, but they're not, and the battery's are full. the car swerves off the road, and the carb opens fully, until it crashes into something, and i shut it off. everything works fine until i take it into snow. maybe there is some coincidental interference.

if the rpms are going crazy and the carb barrel isn't moving, it means you have an air leak in your engine somewhere. Take the engine off the buggy and give it the soap bubble test to find the air leak.

http://www.*********.org/engine-tuning.htm

are you running a failsafe?

i dont have a fail safe. i cant afford it[&o] im only 16 and i dont have a job

if you don't have a fail safe you must have gotten some water in the servos and its causing a short. they are sealed pretty good so it might take awhile for the water to dry out, but once it does, they should be ok again.

check all the bolts, in the head and in the back plate, sometimes they come lose.

well my car kinda got drenched servo's went crazy again...so im letting it dry out...i hate rain...and i live in the sticks so there isnt any thing but gravel, tall grass, and puddles(mini lakes). ok well i got it to idle really well and it drives good now. and i went to wal mart for those batteries and they didnt have nothing...prolly cause it isnt a supercenter. And i hope that everyone is going to have fun tonight seeing as how its new years eve....party hardy

Hey docphysics, thanks for your advise.

I ran about 5 tanks of fuel today so think it is time to start leaning it off a bit. Could you tell me what a good base setting would be to start with for the 2 mixture screws on the carb?

Thanks.

For the High speed needle about 2 and 1/4 turns out is a good place to start, and for the low speed needle, put the head of the screw flush with the brass bushing (something about 2 turns out as well, maybe a little less, can't remember.)

my car can idle forever, but when i give it any real gas it stalls right away. both my low and high speed needles are around 2 turns out.

Sounds like the low speed needle is too rich, turn it in 1/4 turn or at most 1/2 turn, see if that helps.

i think it sounds like your high speed needle may be too lean and engine running to hot. causes fuel to boil in the carb and it wont get enough fuel. if you get bubbles in the fuel line thats the case. just a thought.
happy new year everybody! have fun with your nitro toys

my car's low speed needle was apparently to lean. i richened it up a whole bunch, and it seems ok now. my electronics seem to be working now also

sweet! think i might give the buggy some fresh air tomorrow if the rain can give me a break..

well today i ran my car for about 4 hours not one problem only died once and thats because it fliped over about 200 ft away and didnt get to it in time, im surprized this thing is as fast as it is...my friend was running his traxx (not sure the particular make) but mine smokes it..all i can say that its a shame a $156.98 can smoke a $500 dollar truck, and his kept needing tuning...only problem so far is the rear springs on the smartech sucks!!!! it sqwats bad in the rear even after i streched the springs out

Had my buggy less than a week & have modified the rear shocks already. I got a bit of 15mm copper pipe & cut a sleeve of about 10mm which slides over the shock body just nice. This makes the springs a bit stiffer & makes it harder to bottom out.

yeah smartech shocks sucks. mine started leaking oil after a few days.. so that soon became the first upgrade. got me some AL shocks along with a ball bearing upgrade kit from rc-mart, works perfect and handles a lot better.

yeah...i would put some copper or something like that on the rear shocks....but im just going to get some better shocks and springs...the front work fine...just the rear sucks...im also trying to find some good rechargeable batteries to put in it...just hard to find a good pack that will fit in the tiny battery compartment..any suggestions?

codykrr, instead of buying a pack, you can buy individual cells, and put them in the pack, and take them out of the pack to charge them. and i think you can buy rechargeable receiver packs that are already assembled with a charger from a hobby store

do smartech receivers have futaba type connectors? i mean can i use a futaba connector failsafe without changing connectors?

that should work fine. think all brands uses a standard connector.

codykrr: these are good shocks and they came with two different types of springs and they are fully adjustable. I used 80 mm rear and 70 mm front, 60mm will also be suitable for the front.

yep, futaba style connectors.