jtboogie
RCTalk Talkaholic
I recently got a t-maxx right before Christmas. I'm new to nitro but got a hang of how to tune pretty quickly. Did the break in procedure truck performed great, had a small issue with when the body was on but then I cut out the windshield and back window and only oiled the primary air filter and left the outer one dry, and from then on truck ran great with the body on, of course by the end of the first week I had took a rough crash when I was going full throttle and then hit the breaks a little too hard and the truck locked up and did about 10 front flips landing on the front end almost every time. Broken bulk head and axel carrier, no big deal 20 bucks worth of parts. However I have no idea how to take the truck apart and am completely nervous to do so thinking I will never get it back together. So I take it to my LHS takes them a week and cost 25 dollars to do so. Once again, no big deal. About a gallon later, the slipper clutch went, bought a heavy duty rebuild kit, and decided I wanted to add a Integy 3 piece clutch and flywheel kit, as well as reverse. Took it too my LHS again and the guy told me it would be about 10 days. well that was January 3rd. I just got the truck back on Tuesday Feb. 15th Really wasn't happy about that. But the guy who did the work claimed the whole motor and trans had to come off and that there is 100's and 100's of pieces involved in installing the reverse and clutch and slipper clutch. This was of course why I didn't even think about trying to do any of that work myself either. But now I take my truck out yesterday, fires right up, find a good tune real quick. I had also had him install a aluminum bulkhead, so now I can't pop a wheelie at all but I could tell from how the truck was taking off and running my tune was right. I had checked out the reverse with the truck off and saw the servo was pulling the pin out, but when i fired the truck up I didn't try it out at first. So anyways I'm bashing around making high speed runs cutting donuts. However I was starting to realize the truck wasn't stopping anywhere near as quick that it use to. Like I said before it braked so hard that it would flip itself forward if you hit them too hard. I figured maybe it was because of how much heavier the front end was with the bulkhead. Well I ran up to close to a fence, and finally after starting to walk towards it to turn it around remembered I had reverse, so the truck was stopped and i flipped the button on the remote, waited a second and gave it throttle, the truck backed up. I stop making sure the truck is stopped I'm even holding the brake for assurance I flip the button on the radio back to forward, and I take off forward and bring it back around to me and stop. I know the truck is for stopped because i'm again holding the brake. I flip the button down for reverse, and give it throttle, and it backs up but horrible grinding, sound. DAMNIT I couldn't believe that after all the time I spent researching it and asking if reverse was a bad idea to install, and most people said not to, and I went and spent 50 dollars on the part and 50 to have it installed and it breaks the first time out, and I even made sure to stop there wasn't even a question if it was stopped or not. Truck runs fine going forward but continues to make the noise when in reverse. So i decide to run the tank of fuel out before putting it up and I realize when I tried to climb a dirt hill that the front wheels aren't spinning. I lift it off the ground give it a small amount of throttle the back wheels turn and one of the front one kind of half turns and the other front one does nothing. I put it back on the ground and lift the rear wheels off the ground, and with the front wheels touching the ground they do nothing just the rear wheels spin. Then as I'm finishing the little left in the tank I'm running across loose gravel and realize when I brake only the back wheels are braking? I'm so pissed that now there is more problems with the truck after only being out of the shop for a day and being in the shop for over a month. Of course I already am taking it back to the LHS to get what ever is wrong now fixed because I feel maybe the trans wasn't put back together right or something. And I told them if the reverse was already stripped to just take it out, I guess I learned a hard lesson and wasted 100 bucks while doing it. Like I said I know nothing about taking these trucks apart, but after this trip to the LHS I really don't want to have to take it back there ever. So my question is How do you guys learn to work on these things? and I mean how did you learn when you knew nothing about it? I feel this is the only way I will stop dumping money into the hobby shop to fix things over and over again. And I really want to learn how so I can just buy the parts and fix stuff myself, and not have to worry about how long my truck will sit in the shop and wonder if it will work right when ever I do get it back. I really enjoy the hobby, and don't want to have to get out of it because I go broke paying someone to fix it because I don't know how to.