Reviving my Team Associated SC8

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Racer 1966

What are we doing today?
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Location
Joplin, MO
RC Driving Style
  1. Bashing
If any of you have seen my slash project thread then you know I am waiting on supplies to do up a body and finish that project. In the mean time I decided I needed to revive my team Associated SC8 and thought I would show some pics of the process.

For those that haven't seen an SC8, it is a nitro powered 1/8th scale short course truck. It is one of my favorite trucks and I actually bought it thinking there would develop a class for them so I could get in to racing. But other rc makers didn't get on board with the 1/8th nitro platform so it never developed. It then became a part time basher truck that I ran mostly on parking lots and on hard packed snow. Overall though it hasn't had that much Use.

Ok, so let's get a look at it. I got l bored and lazy before I quit the hobby a few years ago so as you can see in the pic, it's a bit dirty.
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The tires look dried out a bit too or that's salt from the road because if I remember correctly, a snow covered road was the last time I ran it. Let's pop the lid off and see how she looks under there.

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oh yeah, there's the cage. That is one of the coolest features on the truck. It may be plastic but it's tough and does a great job protecting the import parts of the truck. It just mounts on the same way and on the same posts as the body. Let's get'er off and see what we have to work with.

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Well I've seen worse. The motor is stuck, no surprise to me, and I see the rear sway bar end is not connected. A little more inspection reveals a loose and I assume, worn out steering link. The rest seems ok so I pull the wheels and the motor and pipe so I can start the repairs.

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I will start with the engine. Removal of the cooling head and back plate reveals gummed up internals but no severe damage I can see. So I will remove the carb and soak the block and back plate with WD-40 and let it sit for a while.

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In the mean time I will move on to checking my battery situation. OOOPS!!! I left batteries in 2 of my igniters and in the receiver box. Luckily the connection in the receiver box only has a slight amount of corrosion and is easily brushed off. Likewise, the red igniter is light and I am able to easily clean it up too. The blue igniter however looks pretty bad. To clean it I try the same solution of baking soda and water that works great on lead acid battery corrosion on a real car. This corrosion from alkaline batteries doesn't seem to work very well. But I will let it soak and move on.

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I had wrapped paper around an AA battery to make it work in the red igniter but it actually uses sub-c cells. I have 2 on hand and surprisingly both have some charge in them. I picked the one with the highest charge reading and just for heck of it I hooked it on the glow plug. It actually lit the plug! So I dug out both of my chargers and started charging both the igniter and the LiPo receiver battery. Then I got the transmitter. Again I had left the batteries in it but to my surprise there was no corrosion and they were still good. Ok, so let that stuff be and move back to the engine.

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Using pliers I rocked the flywheel back and forth and kept plenty of WD-40 on it. Without too much effort it free'd up and I was able to rotate the crank. I went ahead removed the piston and sleeve. I continued to lube and spin the crank but there was roughness in the bearings that wasn't going away. So I grabbed an empty butter container, filled it with old fuel and dropped the block assembly in. I quit for the day here to let it soak overnight.
That night, not finding Associated parts available, I found an HPI sway bar end link kit that I thought would fix the SC8. I also had to order a header pipe seal and retaining spring. Again no Associated parts so I ordered Team Losi parts I know those are the same for this fix. I also found some neat street wheels and tires too luckily all from one supplier. All that is ordered

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The next day I start with cleaning up the main chassis. I am not taking every single thing apart since nothing appears broke or damaged. I use some spray cleaner and then wipe it down with my special sauce cleaner to make it look almost new.

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Next up we go back to the motor. Taking out of the fuel soak, I spin the crank and yay! Nice and smooth. I spray off the owb with brake kleen, wipe it dry and check that it's functioning on the starter shaft. With that all good, I check the fit of the piston/sleeve. It looks perfect and the pinch feels great.

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So I put the motor all back together bolt it to the chassis, set the spur mesh and set the pipe in place. I use WD-40 on the tires to try to moisturize them and make them look nice too.
Then I install them on the chassis.

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I wash and clean the roll cage with my special sauce and put it in place.

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And finally, I wash the body and install it. That's all I can do for now until the new parts arrive.

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The parts arrive pretty quick so now let's go back and fix what's broken.

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It turns out that the loose steering link is just a loose nut. I put some locktite on it, re-tighten it and that's done. Next is the rear sway bar. What has happened here is the lock nut in the ball-link end came loose, stripped and fell out. I was right, the HPI parts kit had a ball end insert with new set screws. So that was also an easy fix. In the pic, the worn out one is the left one of the two standing side by side.

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Next was to install the new header seal and attach the header/pipe unit to the motor. Installing the new retaining spring wasn't without a struggle but it's on. Finally is to put on the new shoes, replace the roll cage and put on the body. It looks great but the stance just isn't right for street/parking lot running.

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Looking for a remedy I notice I have a lot of spacers in the springs so I remove all of them. That makes sit how I want but the suspension feels too soft. I will figure out what I want to do with that later. Next thing I will do is see if it will run. I will update you on that later, for now I'm done. It's time for a cold one, DR PEPPER that is!

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Great looking truck and the Dr Pepper is absolutely stunning....

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Well I thought I would fire this puppy up and take it for a spin but it was an epic fail!!

First off all I have is old fuel. I have a little Byron's 30% in a fuel bottle, even less of some Losi Nitrotane 20%, about a 1/2 gallon of Traxxas 10% and a brand new bottle of Blue Thunder Sport 20%. The Losi fuel has no zing to the smell so I know it is no good, I am pretty sure it was bought in late 2011. The Byron's is also flat and I have no idea how old it is but older than the Losi fuel. I honestly don't even remember where I got the Traxxas fuel, I don't remember ever buying 10% fuel. Then there's the Blue Thunder. It is a new/never opened bottle but I bought it several years ago and never used it. If the date on the bottle is a manufacture date then it is from 2013, if it's a "best by" date then a little older.

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If that isn't a date then I don't remember for sure when I bought it before November 2016. I say that because that is when I bought my Mustang project car and dropped out of the rc hobby. I also know many of you guys think you can't run old fuel too but that is basically bs. If stored properly, it will stay good for a long time. I have ran 10 year old fuel with no issues and I have no doubt that the Blue Thunder will run. The Traxxas smells like it should run too but I will probably never find out. Here's a pic of the cabinet in my garage where the fuel has been stored. The red plug is still in the neck and my finger shows how full the bottle is.

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But as I stated at the start of this post, we aren't going to find out today if the fuel will run. I rechecked the charge on all the batteries, dumped the Losi fuel and filled the bottle with the Blue Thunder, filled the tank on the truck and prepared to start it. I pulled the fuel line off the carb and ran it to a cup, put a plug in the exhaust and the starter shaft in my cordless drill. I engaged the starter shaft into the motor and gave it a spin. I was immediately greeted with fuel spraying everywhere except out of the fuel line. A quick check revealed that I somehow overlooked a big crack in the top of the fuel tank! ? :eggface:
It appears the constant pressure from the spring holding the cap closed has fatigued the plastic so it cracked. Some searching shows I am not going to easily find a replacement either. I will let you know if I find some and try again to run this thing.

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How’s the revamping of the Sc8 going? I’m doing the same! I have 3 of them 2 SC8e’s and one nitro. Revamping the nitro cause it was my favorite. Do you know if we can use the Rc8 shock rebuild kit for our big bore shocks ?
 
How’s the revamping of the Sc8 going? I’m doing the same! I have 3 of them 2 SC8e’s and one nitro. Revamping the nitro cause it was my favorite. Do you know if we can use the Rc8 shock rebuild kit for our big bore shocks ?
Got any parts for sale? I just picked one up too and I remember these trucks back when I was younger. I had to pick it up!!

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Is it just me or does it look like the drive shaft is connected to the sway bar? Just a funny thought is all. Also, are those trucks 2wd or 4wd?
 
oh nice
is that little bubble thing on the fuel line used to help bring the fuel up to the engine?
 
Is it just me or does it look like the drive shaft is connected to the sway bar? Just a funny thought is all. Also, are those trucks 2wd or 4wd?

LOL, yeah I fixed that issue. I thought it was in this thread too but shortly after finishing it up I took it for a spin around an old go-kart track. It was a blast and I got permission to use the track any time but I never have. I can't believe this thread is 2 years old!
 
LOL, yeah I fixed that issue. I thought it was in this thread too but shortly after finishing it up I took it for a spin around an old go-kart track. It was a blast and I got permission to use the track any time but I never have. I can't believe this thread is 2 years old!
Yeah!
 
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