Belker

My Feedback: (9)

So, I finally got some decent weather to break in my new ST-1. I've had it for 3 weeks now, and have poured over everything again and again. I decided to break the engine in using the heat cycle method. To make a long story short, I adjusted the needles from the rich side just enough to get it "two stroking" and took it out on the first run. I ran it into a small ditch, and when turning around I ran into some loose funk (dry leaves, gravel, and small branches), something kicked up (I am guessing a loose branch) and kicked the RX switch off and guess what? . . . I had an uncontrollable rocket on my hands! It went full throttle for maybe 200 feet and hit a cast iron water meter cover which sent it on a barrel roll for another good 50 feet! Good news is that I only broke the ball link on the bottom of the left front shock, bad news is that the engine went full r.p.m. for about thirty seconds before it finally starved itself for fuel. God, I hope that I didn't f*%@k up this engine!!! Only me!

dittch

having broken in countless engines, some in a very cruel way , I bet your engine is fine

when I started in in nitro, I didn't even break my engines in (ignorance) and didn't have a problem...I think they're very forgiving

Belker

My Feedback: (9)

Thanks dittch, I kinda need the moral support, and some confirmation right now! I can't think of any other way that could have been more cruel to this poor little mill! I hope it doesn't hold it against me.

UG0TB4NN3D

My Feedback: (1)

Lol. I let my dad drive my CRT, and he hit a car with it at full throttle, breaking the shock rod, front A Arm, and upper A arm holder. :P

revoskid32

^^lol He barely broke a thing.

EDIT: i mean the st-1

mtbkym01

30 seconds shouldn't have done much damage, if any. Lesson learned though, try and only run it on bitumen without a body. Good luck with it from here on

Belker

My Feedback: (9)

I had the body off of it, and was running on oil-and-chip (kinda like asphalt, just isn't packed as tight), I just didn't have enough steering expo dialed in to make the 180 without getting into the ditch (my bad). I'm glad to hear that short, yet puckering burst of w.o.t. probably didn't shorten my engine's life. It just gets a little frustrating at times because it seems like this kind of sh@t happens every time that I get a new model. I try to convince myself that God really doesn't hate me, it's just that the Devil likes me just a little bit more!

Coopz

$3 throttle return springs are a great insurance investment

Belker

My Feedback: (9)

Coopz, I think that the return springs are already there in stock form, but whatever kicked up under the tires flipped the receiver switch off which stranded the throttle servo wide open. I wish that it would have kicked the steering servo in one direction (it may have been possible to catch it). I just hope that I got lucky, and didn't damage a brand new engine.

Am I mistaken, or have I read somewhere of a "failsafe switch" that will act as a kill-switch if the signal is lost? The surface radio thing is new to me. My Futaba 7C air TX has this feature built in.

jombo

i think the stock engine has one i know the mgt21 has one on from the factory i am not sure of the st1 since all my stock engines are in zip lock bags in oil and different engines on the trucks.

Belker

My Feedback: (9)

By-the-way guys, I am not raising one ***** about this truck. I am impressed with the way it bounced off of that cast iron obstacle, and basically turned around (in a round-about way and pretty much gave it the finger). I just wanted to get some consolation that maybe, just maybe . . . I didn't ruin a perfectly good, brand-spankin-new engine.

jombo

i dont think so , if you run it lean for a few tanks then yes you will ruin it but not for 30 seconds. half the time if you flip the trucks and they land on its lid if you dont run over to it and flip it back it will run lean for longer than 30 seconds and i havent ruined any of mine yet (knock on wood lol)

chrobar

Something similar happened to me with my Matrix. I was stupid and I still ran with the 4 cell batt. pack, and one of them fell out. full throttle down the street, me running after it like a lunatic, crash into a curb, 10 ft. in the air backflip on the arm, kept going, into a car, flipping over, tires ballooning, and I got in time to kill it. From now on, the worst thing I can hear when driving my car is a full throttle run away that I can't control. Talk about a run on sentence..lol
But the thing about failsafes is that they only work when your transmitter loses power, or when the batt. is low in the receiver. It doesn't work if the pack is disconnected or turned off.
So yeah, a throttle return spring is one of the best investment for a RC car.
BTW, with all of the carnage my car endured, it also only broke an A arm, and lost a screw or two. lol

ericem

Think about it this way. The engine is now pretty well broken in. I wouldn't be worried about it. IF there is still compression and it turns over it's fine. There is a return spring. Only problem is the stock servo's have ALOT of resistance and setting up a return spring to work is pretty tricky. If you had the body on I doubt this would have happened. I guess whenever you have the body off remember to take it easy. I have had MANY runaways. Most of them were disastrous. Now all my vehicles run return springs and I tension them perfectly. Easiest servo yet I have found to use a return spring is the z270 and the z590m. They both have very little resistance. the z270 was the easiest yet the only servo I had fail on me the most. I for fact cut the return spring shorter you might not have to though, and ran it from the linkage to the brake pin. This way there is alot less linkage resistance. I will take a pic. To test it you basically go full throttle then shut off the receiver power. Also invest in a failsafe so that if your battery runs low or you get interference it will hit he brakes.

madmax22

the ST-1 comes stock w/ a return spring.

jessemxt

The ace 1313 has very little resistence