RC10Talk - The Net's Largest Vintage R/C Community

SteveK wrote:

SnoopMaxx wrote:I have a black 10T nose plate and black RPM 10T a arms and now I can finally get a black chassis and motor plate

And I got one RC10 Classic on order
I always wanted one of the early ones, but the 6 gear hassle had me think twice ...
However
I didn't have to think twice ...I didn't think at all...When the Classic was released

I have only read the old manual and tuning guides in magazines, and from those I thought I never even wanted to see a 6-gear in person, but reading the new manual it looks much easier now. Not having to file each gear, grind the spine plate, align all the gears, etc. is probably a big part of that.

I agree. The perfection of Tamiya kits has spoiled me for decades so I'm even less tolerant of any assembly issues now. Those fit and finish issues were something most people probably didn't want to have to deal with and neither do I. I never actually knew about the hassles of the original 6-gear until recently reading about them here so I'm glad I never got an original back in the day. I'll be interested to see how my re-re goes together.

You guys are really blowing the six gear out of proportion. Although to get good performance from one there are a lot of steps, I built one when I was 12 with bushings and the only issue I had was getting the retaining clips on. Other than that I ran the heck out of it and never had an issue

knixdad wrote:

SteveK wrote:

SnoopMaxx wrote:I have a black 10T nose plate and black RPM 10T a arms and now I can finally get a black chassis and motor plate

And I got one RC10 Classic on order
I always wanted one of the early ones, but the 6 gear hassle had me think twice ...
However
I didn't have to think twice ...I didn't think at all...When the Classic was released

I have only read the old manual and tuning guides in magazines, and from those I thought I never even wanted to see a 6-gear in person, but reading the new manual it looks much easier now. Not having to file each gear, grind the spine plate, align all the gears, etc. is probably a big part of that.

Where's the fun in just screwing something together? Even with the newest kits I remove flashing, tap threads, clean all the teeth on every gear.

I guess I'm weird, but that's the part I enjoy, the mechanical process.

I can definitely understand that type of enjoyment and I do those same things when necessary (not required often, fortunately). However, IMO, those fit and finish issues are annoying, slow down the process of the build and are not something I think should have to be dealt with given the cost of modern kits.

gomachv wrote:You guys are really blowing the six gear out of proportion. Although to get good performance from one there are a lot of steps, I built one when I was 12 with bushings and the only issue I had was getting the retaining clips on. Other than that I ran the heck out of it and never had an issue

I don't know either way because I never had the opportunity to assemble an original but it sounds like they are citing those many steps needed to address the (unacceptable?) fit and finish issues in order to get good performance out of an original 6-gear not necessarily any lack of reliability once assembled properly. It was a top-notch, race-bred car afterall despite the drawbacks so it makes sense that you wouldn't have had any issues with it.

What I am trying to say is that you didn't need to do all that extra work, I would be willing to bet that 90% never did. They just threw em together and ran em.

The fit and finish "issues" with the 6 gear transmission are the same "issues" every other car had back then, it was all about doing everything you could to make the transmission as efficient as possible so you could go as fast as you can for five minutes racing when you are using 1200mah cells. Having to deburr the metal gears is nothing compared with how many modifications were needed to get a Tamiya Frog or Hotshot to be reliable enough to race.

The vast majority of them would be built according to the instructions, and strangely enough we never heard tales of RC10 gearboxes wearing out fast or breaking all the time. The fit and finish "issues" with the 6 gear are the same "issues" people have today with modern chassis. The people who worked over a 6 gear back then are the same people who spend 3 days building a modern kit, going over everything to make sure it is as efficient as possible.

I think what they are saying is all this talk you have heard is from racers who are trying to get every last ounce of performance from the kit, steps that were not necessary just to build and run it. Racers by definition will do any last minor thing they might think would give them the 0.00001% edge over someone else or to just be on par with all the competitors who polish their shock shafts with rare imported polish and marinate their rotating parts in unobtainium superlube.

If you are just building it to build it most of those racers tips can get overboard.

Chris

gomachv wrote:What I am trying to say is that you didn't need to do all that extra work, I would be willing to bet that 90% never did. They just threw em together and ran em.

Oh ok, gotcha. It sounded like that extra work was required for every 6-gear to work properly.

terry.sc wrote:The fit and finish "issues" with the 6 gear transmission are the same "issues" every other car had back then, it was all about doing everything you could to make the transmission as efficient as possible so you could go as fast as you can for five minutes racing when you are using 1200mah cells. Having to deburr the metal gears is nothing compared with how many modifications were needed to get a Tamiya Frog or Hotshot to be reliable enough to race.

The vast majority of them would be built according to the instructions, and strangely enough we never heard tales of RC10 gearboxes wearing out fast or breaking all the time. The fit and finish "issues" with the 6 gear are the same "issues" people have today with modern chassis. The people who worked over a 6 gear back then are the same people who spend 3 days building a modern kit, going over everything to make sure it is as efficient as possible.

Gotcha, although I assembled my fair share of cars in the 80's and, beyond removing excess sprue material, never had any of the fit-n-finish issues (deburring metal gears, grinding plates, etc) that some describe here with the RC10. While I never had to prepare a car for competitive/sanctioned racing, I always took pride (and still do) in making sure every moving part worked smoothly, properly and perfectly so they could've been raced if needed. Can you tell me how I can add a link here to my Tamiyaclub showroom?

R/Cat wrote:

gomachv wrote:What I am trying to say is that you didn't need to do all that extra work, I would be willing to bet that 90% never did. They just threw em together and ran em.

Oh ok, gotcha. It sounded like that extra work was required for every 6-gear to work properly.

Halsey's transmission work was "extreme" for the time and wasn't needed to just have fun. Plus a lot of the things he did found their way into the design of the later transmissions, like keying the diff rings.

Although I could never get a transmission to continue spinning freely for as long as he said, especially in the one RC10 video. I think he said it should freewheel like 30 seconds or more.

If I replace the bushings with bearings in the 6 gear, does it require 2 bearings in each of the drive gears ?
The bushing look like the one in the CE rear hub

However
The Classic rear hub uses 2 flanged bushings in each

If you switch to bearings it takes two 3/16x5/16 unflanged and two flanged as the bushing is both made into one

Thanks I sort of guess that
but it's better to be sure
I think I've read or flipped through this manual more than 100 times (does that make me a geek ?)
I just can't wait to build this kit

If you decide to put 3/8 x 5/8 bearings on the outdrives you can reduce some rriction by leaving out the unflanged bearing inside and making a brass ring to fill the gap. Then the outdrive has good support.

I tried that once without the brass, the outdrive is not held by the screw anymore- make sure if you do it (as said above) that you add that brass tube 3/16 ID and the width of the bearing so the screw still holds the outdrive