jester_s1

I don't know much about these trucks, but that didn't stop me from trading an old airplane that I haven't flown in a year to get one. I've been flying plane for a long time so I know how to set up the RC gear and tune glow engines. I've run it once and the engine was reliable and everything works. So that's good. What I'd like to know is how to tell what, if anything is worn out on the truck or simply needs to be upgraded. I found the steering in mowed grass to be pretty tight, considerably more so than with my electric Traxxas Stampede. The truck has an OS .12 engine (starter box type) and I couldn't break the rear end loose even trying to. It also had no tendency to do wheelies (not that I really wanted it to). I'm just a basher so I don't care about getting the last 1% of performance out of this truck, but I do want to perform as it's meant to.

So the specific questions I have are:

1. Is it normal for all the wheels to wobble? I'd say the ones on the RC10 are as wobbly as on my stock Stampede, maybe even looser.
2. I have a good 5 degrees of steering slop. It looks like it's at the servo which is pretty old. I expect much better precision from airplane servos and my Stampede's steering is tighter, but is this normal on the steering servos from 20 years ago?
3. I can make the clutch slip with moderate effort by hand. Is there a guideline for how it's supposed to be set?
4. The wheels spin on the starter box, but the truck will sit still on the ground with the engine idling. Is that how it should be?
5. What's the recommendation for read end gearing? The engine was screaming pretty good to my ears and not losing much at all going over bumps and taller grass.
6. Are there any "must have" upgrades for these trucks that make a considerable improvement in the durability or performance of them?