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  #1  
Old 08-29-2002, 02:08 PM
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Angry Steering issue

I have one of the OEM - Regular bit-chars and am now having trouble with the steering. I've read a billion posts here and elsewhere about it but I just can't seem to get it cleaned up. When I originally got the car, the steering was ok, not good, not bad. I opened it up and went to work and played a bit with the steering spring and the steering was well nigh perfect upon reassembly. It ran great for a while. Then I tried to do the spring suspension mod and the poor thing hasn't been the same since. I've played with the steering spring many times since and it never seems to have ANY affect. The symptoms are VERY hard right turns (doughnuts automatically unless a little left steering is applied) and weak left turns.

I don't think the steering spring is the problem in this case. I took the spring out and held the car off the ground and played with the left and right controls. It seems the magnet assembly does not go the same distance to either side. So when I hold the right control, the assembly moves so far, but with the left control held it doesn't move quite so far. I'm wondering if this is due to uneven strengths in the electromagnets? The other possibility that occured to me is that the magnet assembly is riding up on the wheel knuckles unevenly when turning each direction.

Has anyone experienced this? I'm at my wits end after having tinkered for many hours to no avail. On a side note, when poring over these forums looking for answers I got interested in Mini-Z's and Mini-X's and have posted a question on the Mini-X forum asking for advice moving into a more serious RC domain.

Thanks in advance for any advice/help.

link to my Mini-X post
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  #2  
Old 08-29-2002, 11:22 PM
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cdog4w, first of all welcome to the Forums! As far as your steering problem, do both wheels spin freely?
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  #3  
Old 08-30-2002, 12:04 AM
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wheels

Yes, both wheels spin freely. I also remembered wondering whether or not slight alignment differences in the steering knuckles (plastic imperfection?) could also be causing problems? Though bear in mind I had perfect control for a while and lost it with no notable crash, but just disassembling and reassembling with spring suspension. Also, if the socket holes that keep the knuckle in line are too big, this could also cause some misalignment of the knuckle? Yet again this probably isn't the case as that wouldn't have changed with a disassembly.

On a side note, are the steering wires leading to the electro magnets in the legit Tomy bit chars insulated or are they just exposed copper wire as in my OEM?

Thanks for the help, hopefully I can be back in the drivers seat soon. Then on to more mods :P
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Old 08-30-2002, 12:58 AM
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The TOMYs are exposed too. How is the steering in reverse?
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Old 08-30-2002, 07:53 AM
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reverse steering

It steers right going forward, and also going backwards (as if I were holding right that is). Holding left I can straighten and even turn left a bit, but the right turn is way oversteered and the left way under. As I said, if I give it full gas forward it just doughnuts to the right... Heh, these things are great when they work, but man are they a pain to fix :P
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Old 08-30-2002, 10:43 AM
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kinda like a fiat...
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Extended wheelbase. Trim lever is almost left at default position. I feel, very, scary.
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  #7  
Old 08-30-2002, 12:18 PM
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you know that little switch thing that you can use to change the steering power or wheteveritscalled, well i know an OEM has it, not too sure about really bit char-g's but where do you have yours turned to?
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Old 08-30-2002, 01:58 PM
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I've tried setting the steerig adjustment lever from extreme to extreme. As I mentioned above, even without the steering spring installed, the steering aparatus would move further to one side than the other when a direction was pressed and held.

This one is pretty perplexing I guess. Wish it were as simple as a steering spring miscalibration. Think I might just have to buy a real bit :P
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  #9  
Old 08-30-2002, 02:05 PM
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what about..."accidentily" driving it off your kitchen table, and hope it will fix itslef like some bits have strangely been known to do....maybe try this as a last resort
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  #10  
Old 08-30-2002, 02:12 PM
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heh heh...maybe you should try moving your electronics around in the car. There are some exposed wire that can get tangled and do funny stuff to steering...or at least thats what the guy at kick's hobby said. it worked for me....
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Extended wheelbase. Trim lever is almost left at default position. I feel, very, scary.
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  #11  
Old 08-30-2002, 02:37 PM
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crossed wires

Good point cowfish, but I've tried poking the wires around quite a bit. I'm wondering now if it is the connection to the electro magnets. Maybe one side has a crappier connection due to cheap wiring and therefore can't deliver as much power to the magent? I don't think its interferance between wires since I get a very distinct left and right with no twitching, but one is just noticably stronger than the other. Any EE people reading that could confirm my above theory on electro magenet strength being the cause due to cheap wiring?

It could be interesting trying to improve the basic design of the bits (or at least the cheaper oems) so that problems of this type would be far less likely to occur. Who knows, maybe it could clean up steering even on bits that currently drive fine? Or maybe its just a $10 car
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Old 08-30-2002, 02:42 PM
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im not sure if it helps but while ago while i was cleaning out my car, i lost the steering spring, -_- so i went out and bouthgt a bullet, and i took the spring out of the bullet and put it in my AE86 i noticed that the steering was so bad it pulled to the right, so all i did was open up my car again and i made the spring more tight so it would center faster and stonger and when i tried steering again it was better then b4, so i guess the spring is not stong enought to center itself????
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  #13  
Old 08-30-2002, 02:58 PM
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cdog4w, you mentioned that you performed a spring suspention mod. How long did you cut your springs in relation to the post they sit on? The only reason that I ask is because that when I first did this to my cars , they also wouldn't steer correctly. This is due to the springs being too long. When you cut them, If they are the same length as the post they sit on, They are too long.. Make them a little shorter, and if that doesn't work, start over and take out the springs and try that. You said that your car steered correctly at some point, So it's probably not deformed plastic knuckles. Try this and see what happens. Hope I helped.

silla
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  #14  
Old 08-30-2002, 04:39 PM
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still no lovin

I've tried after taking the springs off and putting the stabilizer bar back on. No love tho. I did actually cut the springs pretty short (sortof on accident). I also thought it might be the springs getting in the way of the magnet assembly and effecting it since the springs I used were pretty large compared to the steering knuckle post. As I said this didn't seem to be it since I took off the springs and restored the stabilizer bar (is that bar what people call the stabilus or something of that nature?). Thanks for the continuing advice everyone.
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  #15  
Old 08-30-2002, 05:10 PM
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Wow, I'm clueless at this point. Anybody elae got any ideas?
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