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1990 Desert Viper radio shack car questions

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castellanocreep

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okay so not sure what I’m doing here if this is correct place. I went to st Vincent de Paul today and I have been eyeing this car up. They wanted $75 for it. I tried to get it cheaper but couldn’t get them to budge. After seeing it for a week i did buy it today. Now prior to buying it did note on tag for sale that the battery was not original ( photo is what they used for it). It did start up. Worked a lil bit. So then I messed with it it moved around well and started fine. Controller worked fine. Then it got slow and then it didn’t drive anymore. They said might need charge or new battery but they said it worked and was open about it not being the correct plug batter for it and maybe the charger was wrong as well. So I got it home shook the dice on it thinkn I’ll just plug it up and hope it can rock . Well it started up, made a lot of spinning wild wheels movements, so I was like great. I charged it up for bit and now it is not working at all. After I did try to put it outside on ground and have it cruise it didn’t move much. Barely wanted to move. So I figured the battery unit is completely weak. It does take double A batteries In the car unit but even with new batteries it seemed to not wanna work at all. But when I plugged in the battery pack unit it did fire up. So maybe the double a battery section is not in use or working. So I guess now my question is what is the original battery pack I can use for this or look for online??? Also is there anyway I could check if it’s the battery pack that’s faulty or the car now?? I don’t wanna put a lot of money in this if it’s not worth it. But I would love to get this working again. It did show signs of life prior so I did see it working.
So does anyone know what battery pack I can use for this and how do I check possibly the battery? Plus it seems as this is not the original pack that I think slipped inside the bottom unit. How can I make this battery pack stick to this? Zip ties or I just am not very savvy on stuff so just looking for some rough basic help. Any help is helpful so hopefully I could get some help on what I can try. I want to get this working for my son. Thanks for any help
-Cristian
IMG_9614.webp


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Welcome in @castellanocreep , cool looking rig.
To be honest, if it were mine, I would clean it up and display it on a shelf
because chances are, you are going to have a tough time finding parts.
If any unfortunately.
 
Welcome to RCTALK.COM.
That's a good looking truck!
Have you been able to locate a manual for this truck? There might be a switch or jumper for AA battery or battery pack selection.
Do you have a volt meter so you can check the battery pack output?
The pack might be the problem if the voltage is too high for the truck. As mentioned, if the truck calls for a 7.2 volt battery, that's where I would start.
If you are handy with that volt meter, you could even chase the power from the AA side of the car.
AA batteries are going to be your cheapest option for testing purposes.
I would start there.
Test your power source. If you have a low battery, your r/c is likely to act all sorts of ways you don't like.
Please keep in mind that as mentioned before, this prob isn't a great beginer truck because there are no parts availible for it. I would be careful about investing in this kit for purposes of any actual use.
Its a cool truck and "The Shack" probably provided a fair number of the folks here with their starter R/C's too!
I would consider this truck for light indoor use.
Perhaps consider a newer model that has a good source of parts that you won't have to order from oversea. Its no fun waiting for the parts boat to dock or for customs after that!
If your son is just learning r/c, its VERY likely he will also be crashing/breaking parts. A durable kit is what you should be thinking about.
My last purchase was an Arrma Gorgon.
It is reasonably cheap, it comes ready to run with everything you need to make it run. I have been running mine for a coule months now without any breakage at all! Its not super fast out of the box but its very upgradable! It can grow with your son's ability and interest.
Parts are durable, inexpensive and availible on line as well as in hobby shops.

If you are absolutely set on fixing up this Viper kit, verifying your voltage is correct and your battery(ies) capable of running this truck is the place to start.
Verify your radio batteries are also new and DEF NOT the issue.
This is the base for electrical diagnosis.
Unfortunately, I don't know this specific truck. With some basic info, we might be able to get this Viper going again.
Whatever you do, good luck and welcome!
 
 
So you have $75 in the car and now $50+ on a battery. You're already into "ready to run" hobby grade RC territory. Another $25 and you could have grabbed one of these.
https://www.amainhobbies.com/arrma-...2XZfudD1nKq4u9TwVxGYARGdWPuNvl0hoCK0AQAvD_BwE

I'm with TunedFrog on this one. It would be a shelf queen.

But what I would do if I wanted to run it is tear it apart and clean and test every component. You likely won't find parts for it, but you might be able to grab another motor that fits, if indeed it is the motor.

Welcome to the forum. Have a look around and hang out and have fun learning about this great hobby. There is a lot to learn here.

By the way - if you can cancel that ebay order for that battery, I would. That is WAY too much for that battery. This one has over twice the milliamps (twice the run time) and is 1/3 the price.
GOLDBAT 3600mAh 7.2V NiMH RC Battery with Tamiya Connector for for RC Evader BX Car Truck Truggy Buggy Tank Car Racing (3600-7.2V-Tamiya) https://a.co/d/enmLnhS

Oh, and that battery was probably held in with rubber bands wrapped around some tabs in the car and around the pack. The body should keep it from sliding out, but hard to tell by looking at the pics.
 
No I bought a used one $17 shipped . I didn’t see that one on Amazon I would have bought that :/
If it doesn’t work I’m just goin to retire this all. I thought this was gonna be simple sorta but I definitely am not looking to get deeper into this thing money wise. Also she did give me 20% off it so was like 63$ still not anything great I guess where I’m at now. Just thought I could get this and shake dice on it…..take it home and maybe it would charge up and I could rip on it around a bit. I’m definitely regretting buying it now

IMG_9619.webp
 
castellanocreep said:
No I bought a used one $17 shipped . I didn’t see that one on Amazon I would have bought that :/
If it doesn’t work I’m just goin to retire this all. I thought this was gonna be simple sorta but I definitely am not looking to get deeper into this thing money wise. Also she did give me 20% off it so was like 63$ still not anything great I guess where I’m at now. Just thought I could get this and shake dice on it…..take it home and maybe it would charge up and I could rip on it around a bit. I’m definitely regretting buying it now

View attachment 200139
Click to expand...
The only thing bad about that is it is an OLD pack. Old batteries don't hold the mAh they used to typically. That, and that battery is only 1200mAh to begin with. The Amazon one I posted has 3x that, so you would get a lot more run time out if it.

My guess is your battery is just old and has gone bad. Hopefully it's not your motors, or whatever circuit board inside it is using to send the power to the motors (I see that kit has 2 motors).
 
op doesn't know anything about Nixx batteries.. Ni batts dont ago well....do some research..
 
tntpoof said:
op doesn't know anything about Nixx batteries.. Ni batts dont ago well....do some research..
Click to expand...
It's a Radio Shack RC car. What do you recommend? A LiPo? 🤣
 

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