PB Mini Mustang Refurb

[Dadio]

I've been looking for a PB Mini Mustang for a while and this one came up on E bay hidden by a Ferrari Testarossa body and just listed as Vintage RC Car , looks like it may be one of the ECO versions as it has plastic bushings on the diff out drives not bearings, its a single speed gearbox , looks like it was used on carpet as the axles all had a mat of fluff wrapped round them , its had a fair bit of use but no great harm come has come to it , i think the Testarossa body was on there a long time so some sort of track car maybe ? it also came with a very old ESC , the type with a relay for full speed but FET's as well , there's no identification on it and the circuit board has been fitted into a piece of mica to mount it , the same mica has been used for the rear body mount and front body mount as well as the bumper bracket .the wheels are ? i don't know but they had been fitted straight to the axle cross pin and the drive flanges are missing , up front even the drive pins are missing from the axles and a bent piece of wire was used !
The shock's seem to be in pretty good nick and still hold oil and work pretty well ! it has a Trinity Monster Horse Power motor that's also a very nice item , I'm not sure of the wind and its not written on the armature either although its a very pretty pink colour .
So far the butchers bill will be
1 front bumper and mount
2 axle drive flanges
3 rear body mount
4 bearings for diff's
5 body and wing






After a bit of a clean










If any body knows anything about the ESC I'd love to know more about it , it may even be a home brew or a build your own kit .
When I first looked at the car I noticed it had a nice pair of UJ drive shafts , I thought they looked a bit like the Brimod ones on one of Dinglem's threads but on closer inspection they are quite different but still very nicely made and cleaned up well .
With Christmas coming and me having 4 kids and 4 grand kids the budget is going to be a bit thin till new year , I have ordered diff bearings and some new drive flanges , a friend has lent me some Hot Shot wheels so I'll be able to have it running soonish .
I think I'm leaning toward a Maxima body , not sure if it will fit so if anybody knows then chip in and let me know .
I have some Kydex that I can make a bumper and bumper mount from for now and I'll hit the 3d printer for the rear body mount , I might even make up some shock towers out of GRP .

[Dadio]

One really odd thing is that the fibreglass chassis sits under the polycarbonate under tray at the bottom of the car , I thought it had been built wrong but looking at pictures it looks like its meant to be that way ?

[XLR8]

Very cool!
Is it belt or chain to the front wheels and gears to the rear?

[Dadio]

Its a single belt from the gears to both ends , no direct gear drive to either end .

[Dadio]

Been doing some fabricating , I had some Kydex laying about left over from making a Dogfighter chassis so I made up a front bumper mount , from what I gather these are a weak spot so the Kydex one may be stronger than stock ,tomorrow I'll make up a Kydex bumper to fit as well , I'm not patient so I also designed and 3d printed the drive flanges to fit the Hot Shot wheels on , I have genuine PB ones coming but not till next weekend , I also found an anti roll bar for £7 delivered off eBay so I grabbed that as they are both missing but the little fittings for the suspension are still there , or at least 3 of them are so I print a fourth one when I find another roll bar , I can't spend any more money on it till new year so its scratch build and make do till then .
The other thing I had a little play with this evening was the old ESC , I soldered on a servo plug and very carefully plugged in an almost flat 7.2v NiMH battery , I was half expecting to need to connect a receiver battery pack but it has got a BEC ! , I don't think it has veverse but the motor span up and responded to control , I had to push the trigger forward to stop it so I think it needs setting up , its got a trim pot so I guess I need to adjust that to set up neutral , i was getting steering servo responce so its powering the receiver OK ! The old Acoms servo that came with the car has the wrong plug for modern radio gear so its untested but I wouldn't be surprised if it works as well .

[Fracek]

Vote for Demon ESC they have similar second side of esc maybe it's good clue.

[Dadio]

Thanks I'll have a look.

[Dadio]

The diff bearings arrived today so i fitted them and added some lube to the diffs , also changed the servo while i was there . I 3d printed some drive flanges and a spur gear cover as well , threw some borrowed Hot Shot wheels on and now she's a roller ! Here are a few pictures including the Kydex bumper and bumper mount .

[XLR8]

Very nice upgrades, Dadio.
That ESC looks like someone's science experiment - it's amazing that it actually works.
Have you decided what to do for a body?

[Dadio]

Much to my shame I let the smoke out of the ESC , I was trying to set it up by adjusting the pot and I was using an unmounted motor , the motor was running slowly sitting near the ESC and it lurched into the ESC as I turned the pot the wrong way, and shorted it out ...... its pretty open plan so when I have time I'll see if I can find and replace the component the burnt , I'm trying not to think about it right now .
On the bright side I threw a receiver and modern brushed ESC in and gave it a test drive , hard to really get a feel for it driving on wet tarmac in the rain but its very smooth running and predictable , goes at a nice pace too , I don't know the wind of the Trinity Monster Horse Power World Champion motor but I'd guess at 19-21 turn , I was out yesterday with my friend who was running his C.A.T and it sounded very similar and in terms of similarity to drive its not far off .

[Coelacanth]

That cleaned up very nicely, and you gotta love motors with aluminum endbells. Sorry to hear about the ESC though.

[Dadio]

I noticed another upgraded part in the transmition while I was installing the diff bearings , the belt tensioner is an alloy idler with ballbearings not a plastic idler with plastic bushings , I'd read about modding the tensioner with Hirobo size bearings and was going to look into it but now I don't have to , so its got a nice motor , UJ front shafts , an upgraded tensioner and a very early ESC but then it had been left with plastic bushes for the diff's and was fitted with road wheels and a Ferrari body , bit odd

[Incredible_Serious]

Looking good so far mate.... nice refresh of all the necessary items, and seems like you've got all the useful upgrades sorted too. That bumper and mount look pretty nice... I grabbed a bumper mount off Shapeways a little while ago, but yet to use it. Can't really tell from your pics, but one thing to be careful of with the bumper mount is that it was scalloped slightly to clearance the bottom of the front diff.... as long as you have that, you should be sorted.

Look forward to a new body and some offroad tyres, and see this going!

Alex

[Dadio]

I milled a slot in the inside of the bumper mount to clear the diff , there's no contact , its 3mm thick Kydex and the slot is 2 mm deep on the inside for clearance , my only fear is its being too strong and transferring too much force into the backbone in a crash , I did think of 3d printing a bumper mount but I have the Kydex on hand and its much stronger .
I'm looking at the Maxima body and under tray as I prefer it but all spending is on hold until after Christmas , however my 50th birthday is on the 6th December so who knows .

[Dadio]

Well i might be skint but i can still 3d print (poetry supplied free) , so i made up the quick release battery clamp , its a pretty cool feature on these cars but I'm not using it as an electrical connection , i also printed wheel hex's for 12 mm hex wheels and a rear body mount , the mount is bound to need redesigning when i know how the body fits but for now its bracing up the rear shock towers .Almost forgot i printed some shock collars as well , the rear only had the clip on adjusters , hate them , so i made some , mine also have the inner sleeve that keeps the spring held off the shock body and stop rubbing , the originals up front didn't have the sleeve and the spring rubbed annoyingly so i swapped them out as well .