I noticed that almost all of the play in the steering is due to the tie rod (that passes through the servo) having small connecting arms, which slide into the front knuckles. Because of their small size, these arms have lots of room to wiggle around. Has anyone come up with a way to firm up this part of the steering?
Also, a new, metal gear servo would probably help. Are there any good ones people recommend?
Thanks,
Josh
I add a smal piece of tamiya masking tape on the \'U\' of the tie-rod that fitting the servo gear.
It makes the tie-rod & servo gear tight.
But, it would also easier to break the gear as no room for it while crash.
the play in the knuckle holes can be reduced by using toe in bars. the car\'s forward motion would push the wheels outward in a V shape, so offsetting the toe-in a little bit. try 1 degree toe in.
WHEN MY CAR ISN\'T MOVING OR TURNING, WHEN IT\'S JUST SITTING IDLING, THE FRONT WHEELS CONTINUE TO TURN LIKE CRAZY. THIS STOPS WHEN THE CAR MOVES FORWARD OR WHEN I TURN. DO YOU THINK THIS MIGHT BE A STEERING SERVO PROBLEM?
yes it could be. or maybe your motor is not really at idle and the intermittant electrical pulses to the motor is creating some noise. try trimming your idle throttle before you play with the servo.
Additionally, I wouldn\'t recommend aluminum servo gears...you\'ll just end up breaking parts inside the case or the tbm vr. Servo gears are cheap to replace.
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I just got my first Mini-Z (the $89 beetle from tower) and I have the same problem, the front wheels jitter when the car is just sitting there. I\'ve adjusted the trim pot on the xmitter and all that did was straighten them out (when the car is off, the wheels have about a 5 degree turn to the right) but they still chatter.
While I\'m at it, is there some way to \'straighten\' the wheels? It seems to me that when the car is off the front wheels should be pointed straight ahead, not off to one side (like the car is turning) but I can\'t seem to find any way to adjust this. Have I missed something?
it is normal for it to twitch a bit, and for the wheels pointing to the left, i dont think there\'s any problem with that, i think mine does that sometimes too.
I think its normal for them to twitch a bit when ther is no command. Servos are continually checking, sampling and correcting their position. It happens to mine, as soon as you give a command it stops. It may be stray RF signals that is the cause too.
Anyone modified the \"tie bar\" to use real ball jointed tie rods, like they have on Mini-RS4s?
bigd,
i thought about doing that, but it\'s so small! i think the real ball joints will resolve ALOT (if not all) of the slop.
I\'d be interested to hear from anyone that can answer bigd\'s question also!
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I found my steering tightened up nicely by upgrading to alloy knuckles (any degree) and an alloy 1 degree toe-in rod.
I went with the Powerline parts.
However, if anyone is good at micro machining on a lathe, I\'ll bet they would sell a bunch.:)
Ernon
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That chatter drove me crazy, especially when it occured at high speed and caused my car to fly off the track on a straight away. The fix is \'the paper trick\' you might have heard about. Look in the \"Tips and Tricks\" section under \"Misc tips\". The last tip called \"Eliminate steering twitching\" is the one. It works like a charm.
With the servo fixed and a 1 degree toe-in rod, my mini-z goes straight as an arrow. Hope this helps.
Ernon
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Well, that location only mentions the trick. Here is a link to the memeber\'s site that contains instructions and pictures.
http://minizcanada.com/tech/suspension.htm
Ernon