Help restoring an old RC10

[Klocwork]

I recently uncovered an RC10 that I built 20+ years ago that was in storage at my parents house. I was hoping to get it running again, just to play with, not to race.

First thing I did was buy a new NiCd battery and hook it up to see if there was any hope of it still working. To my surprise, the motor fired right up. Thinking that it might be an easy fixer-upper, I bought a new Futaba radio with servos (the old transmitter had gone missing). I installed the servos and they are working fine. I attached the battery again and started fine tuning the throttle servo. However, after running for about 10 seconds this time, the motor just quit.

I was hoping you could help diagnose the problem - this is the only RC car I have ever built. Is it a miracle the motor started in the first place? Could the new battery be incompatible and something fried (the old battery had a three prong connector, the new has only two).

I have attached some pictures below that may help. Please let me know if you need more information or photos.

Any advice you could provide would be appreciated. Thanks.

[liquidrc.com]

Give a tug on the motor brushes. They are on the motor, held in by curly springs, and have the bare copper color wires. The should slide in and out easy. They may be worn out, but jiggling them may make it run again.

A little piece of sand or grime will bind up the brushes up and make the motor quit working.


Also, you mat want to review your speed control. A cheapie electronic one will cost about $40 and make your car run so much smoother.

[Lonestar]

Any advice you could provide would be appreciated. Thanks.

that 5th picture is worrying with non insulated wires

could be 50 things that went wrong, really. Try to isolate the issue, no need to be an rc car expert for that

Try to plug pack directly on mill. if it revs, then plug pack-speedo-mill and turn speedo by hand. if it revs then the issue is on the radio side... you get the idea.

good luck - and isolate all wires

PAul

[rctenracer]

If it were me I would lose the mechanical speed control and go with a inexpensive ESC such as a duratrx or futaba if you are just looking to run it for fun.

[Klocwork]

Thanks for the comments.

Well, I took a look at the brushes. Jiggling them didn't help, so I popped them out and reseated them. Still no luck.

I stripped down the wires on my battery pack and touched them directly to the leads on the motor. Nothing. Theoretically, should this have worked?

If so, I am assuming the motor is shot. Any suggestions for getting a replacement? Any reason to suspect that I would just fry a new one if I hooked it up in the same manner (still wondering about the difference in connectors to the battery pack)?

In the future, I may add a ESC, but part of the charm was reconstructing the car in its original format.

And once I get everything working, I'll be sure to wrap all the wires

Thanks again.

[RC10resto]

I stripped down the wires on my battery pack and touched them directly to the leads on the motor. Nothing. Theoretically, should this have worked?

yes, as long as your battery was not shorted out

[Lonestar]

I stripped down the wires on my battery pack and touched them directly to the leads on the motor. Nothing. Theoretically, should this have worked?

yes, as long as your battery was not shorted out

which could have happened based on what we see in pic #5

Paul

[Lonestar]

recharge battery and see if it takes some juice. if not you've killed it somehow. those $10 battery packs aren't really tops anyway

Motors don't just "quit" working like this, unless (1) brushes don't make contact anymore or (2) it threw a wind. Running it 20s shouldn't have generated either.

It'll work

Paul

[Klocwork]

Found the problem - my battery charger was no longer working. Purchased a new one, charged the battery up and was good to go. Apparently, there was just enough residual charge in the batteries when I purchased them to start the thing up for a few seconds.

Of course, now my radio dosn't appear to be working. Haven't had a chance to troubleshoot it yet. Maybe it's just batteries, too.

Thanks for getting me looking in the right direction.