Why You Really Need To Run Your Gas Car
As you can see when it comes to Sledgeammer S50 pictured at the top here, this RC Nitro car is practically new. In fact, it was only run twice in its life from new. This RC Car sat around for approximately 8 years since then and had not moved from the last body clean down after running the car and engine clean for storing.
I decided to to try and run the car for a change to lube it it a little only to find to my surprise that the truck would not roll whatsoever. Totally seized gearbox. No wheels would turn over
It just goes to show that to avoid unnecessary RC car repairs, or needing an RC Car shop to fix your RC, you really need to run them every now and then.
As an RC car Professional, I know that for anything “NOT ” to break sitting there, you still need to operate it.
Still, this was nothing to worry about anyway. It was water or moisture that sat somewehere on a bearing and seized it temporarily.
Having said that, it was a bit of job to still pull it apart just to free this bearing.
After that, the wheels rotated just fine and all that was left to do was to start it and give it a run.
The tune was still near perfect even after 8 years of not having moved.
I decided to to try and run the car for a change to lube it it a little only to find to my surprise that the truck would not roll whatsoever.
Totally seized gearbox. No wheels would turn over
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Two Speed Thunder Tiger Gearbox
Take a look at this Thunder Tiger Gearbox here. Quite the unit would you not say ?
Compared to your conventional single speed gearbox which is basically one driven gear on a shaft, these RC gearboxes are becoming quite technical to say the least.
You look at the size of this gearbox and it is basically the size of your hand.
Having to take into consideration the weight of the car and size, is it any wonder why it needs two speeds to get the weight going and why it needs a 50 size nitro engine to boot its Ass along.
I knew that there was nothing majorly wrong with this gearbox nutr a seized bearing and more than likely from one single spot where water may have sat and formed a rust spot.
I attempted to load the weight on the vehicle to try and free the bearing through the wheels of the car but it would not have it.
In cases like this, if you persist in attempting to free a stuck bearing, you could inadvertently break an axle so we had to take the plunge and remove the entire box from the car, and manually break free the hold this bearing had on the gears.
That is all it was, just a stuck bearing. After freeing, it spun well, no abnormal noises so there was no need to replace the bearing
Quick Operation Checks
As you do, once a major componenet like this is out and considering it had a bit of a stuck bearing, we decided to just pull the housing apart to ensure there was no rusted components within like rusted gears or other bearings.
It is not often you pull one of these RC gearboxes apart. They are generally very reliable units considering the punishment they also take from nitro engines.
I have to admit, when I do my cleans after running a gas car, they are generally very thorough, especially if it is a new RC car
You can’t help but sometimes that water will get into some areas whe it is not supposed to and it’s probably something that sometimes can not be helped. We often use spirits to disipate any water and help it evaporate and it works well but in this circumstance, water got into a bearing clearance which over 8 years caused a rust spot and just temporarily seizing the bearing.
With a little bit of work, we freed the bearing and judging by the condition, there is nothing really wrong with the bearing itself.
The point of this post is that you can run your car into the ground racing it but it can also break down sitting on the shelf. We buy these things to enjoy them. While you are here, if you are looking for an RC Car for the kids to bash around with, check out our WL Toy review
If you have any Nitro RC problems, give us a call and we’ll get your little animal back up and running. From broken gearboxes, to blown RC diffs and Nitro engine rebuilds, we do it.
