Driving Straight

[Ryuenjin]

Hey there people, im a recently new owner of a 350Z, and it being my first bit char-g ever, i happen to know very little.

My first question however is about how my car doesnt seem to drive completely straight, ive tried adjusting the little thing to the left/right under the wheels but doesnt seem to help much. I was wondering if any of yous can get your bit to go completely straight. Thanks for any/all the replies.

[Impreza]

Hey Ryuenjin, if you look thru the forms a few other people have posted this problem before. It most likely is a tourqe issue with your motor, more power to your left rear side. I can’t remember the exact physics but look thru the tech forms and you should find an answer. How do you like the 350z?, it looks sweet. What freq, motor, etc???

[Ryuenjin]

Hey imprezza, thanks for the reply. Im trying to use the search option to find a post on my problem..cant seem to find any. Could you possibly tell me a keyword? Or i direct link to the post…

I love the 350Z with the very useful 2spd. i have 2.2 motor on it right now but i also bought a 3.0 that im not using as i hear the 2.2 is much better andis 57Mhz with medium tires.

Anymore help is appreciated!

[Ryuenjin]

Small update, ive found the previous post of taking out the front (which i have done) but still, my car does not drive straight. Ive looked at my car alot closer today and realised my front two steering wheels are very loose, could this be the problem (my car does not happen to steer in one direction, always left, or always right). If that would be the problem, anyone know what i can do? I tried to smash/knock the silver thing in the middle of the wheel but it wont budge!! Plz anyone, help!

[Admin]

You have to adjust the lever slightly each time until you get it right, but I know what you mean. One of my Compacts constantly inclines to the right and I can’t get it to center too well. The wheels seem to have a bit too much freeplay too.

Shouldn’t be a torque issue with the Z – mine’s fine, they only run a 2.2

[GT-ahh]

i have this problem with my skyline (2.2)i found that if i added a soft suspension spring to one side it would help the car stay straight.

My clone with a 2.6 doesnt seem to have this prob tho.

[Impreza]

Hey Ryuenjin I found one of the posts in the form that talks about your problem. Check out General Discusions. Topic: Micro Racers (OEM bullet cars). It is not as clear an answer as I first thought but it may help? check it out.

cheers.

[Trueno]

One of my cars also had this problem. Unfortunately all I did was get it as close to straight as possible. Regarding the 3.0 motor, as long as it’s a good one get some gears and use the lowest one. It still won’t be as quick off the mark as a 2.2 but it will be very fast.

[DaveF]

A freind got one and his always drove off to the left. He found the spring inside was a little bent. he straigtened it with some long nose pliersand it runs dead straight now.

Mind you, this doesn’t sound like your symptoms, so it’s probably not the same problem.

[Admin]

i dont have this prob so ha ha but how i fixed mine was takeing out the crystal and putting in im my futaba 3pj then i just hit my menue on my remote and used the str. trim and fiwne tuned it. works kick ass only thing i had ta do was take the charger dock outta my con. and put it on my duratrax intellipeek pulse charger at the lowest setting but hey im useing 2 batts anyways. but you can pick up a remote for like $50.00 and with a few mods you can get it ta work just make shure it uses the same mhz. mine is a pcm so i can use it on any car as long as i have the crystal. remember fm wont work on these so get a am or a pcm

[PandaBear]

Quote:

Originally posted by lancer_evo on 04November2002

i dont have this prob so ha ha but how i fixed mine was takeing out the crystal and putting in im my futaba 3pj then i just hit my menue on my remote and used the str. trim and fiwne tuned it. works kick ass only thing i had ta do was take the charger dock outta my con. and put it on my duratrax intellipeek pulse charger at the lowest setting but hey im useing 2 batts anyways. but you can pick up a remote for like $50.00 and with a few mods you can get it ta work just make shure it uses the same mhz. mine is a pcm so i can use it on any car as long as i have the crystal. remember fm wont work on these so get a am or a pcm

What the F@*K are you on about, thief? :smiley7:

This is the Bit CharG section!!!

re:- http://www.ausmicro.com/forum/display_topic_threads.asp?ForumID=3&TopicID=1291&PagePosition=1

[PandaBear]

Quote:

Originally posted by DaveF on 04November2002

A freind got one and his always drove off to the left. He found the spring inside was a little bent. he straigtened it with some long nose pliersand it runs dead straight now. Mind you, this doesn’t sound like your symptoms, so it’s probably not the same problem.

No, this is probably about right.

If you’re willing to muck about getting it right, take the front end apart (DON’T LOSE THE SPRING!!) make sure the steering is working properly.

If the white lever doesn’t give enough adjustment to help, you can also try padding the sides inside where the centering spring touches with tiny pieces of sellotape.

It does take a fair bit of time to get right… do you have the patience?

[Impreza]

Be very careful with the spring, it tends to pop out on you. I would suggest doing what PandaBear suggest either over a large white sheet of paper or on a large flat surface. I almost lost a spring in the carpet when I first tried to re-glue a coil on one of my clones. It is kind of like a contact lens when you loose it…

[PandaBear]

Quote:

Originally posted by Impreza on 04November2002

Be very careful with the spring, it tends to pop out on you. I would suggest doing what PandaBear suggest either over a large white sheet of paper or on a large flat surface. I almost lost a spring in the carpet when I first tried to re-glue a coil on one of my clones.

Ya- agree! (warning in ALLCAPS too!)

When you take the car apart, you can do some preventative medicine by using your soldering iron to melt down the spring post a little, so it cannot come off. Or just put a small drop of glue on the spring’s coil, same thing.

If you know you’re clumsy and hamfisted, just work inside a large transparent plastic bag. I’m not too bad and I’ve never (yet) managed to dislodge the spring; just be very careful.

[Ryuenjin]

Hmm thanks for all your input guys, its really, really appreciated, ill try that spring fix asap…but for now i got other things to do :smiley2:

Thanks again

[Ryuenjin]

Hmm well thanks for suggestions but my car is still suffering steering problems….

Is it possible i got a defect? and that i wont be able to fix it…?

[Admin]

Ryuenjin, I don’t think the spring is your problem. If the spring were bent wrong or installed wrong your car would always pull in one direction. You said your car pulls randomly toeither direction right? I think you just need to lube or clean your front axles. Use dry graphite lube. If they are not lubed then one side will drag a little more then the other at random and pull one way or the other. If cleaning is necessary there are forums for removing the axles.

Another possibility is your rear wheels. Make shure both wheels are attached firmly to the axle. I noticed one of mine was VERY loose so it would pull left when accelerating and right when slowing down.

–Peter

[PandaBear]

Actually, maybe we should get back to basics first. Your 1st car, right?

Ok, 1st thing:- remove body & yank the 4 tyres off. Make sure the wheels are round and running true. There’s probably some excess molding on the wheels, trim these nicely with a hobbyknife – with this, its better to cut off a ‘bit more’ than to leave any bump at all.

When the tyres are back on, check that they’re been molded correctly too – some are pretty messy and don’t sit right. I’ve had to turn them insideout, and snip away the excess (a nailclipper works great for this).

Hope you’re running on a flat ground too… :smiley2:

The bad thing with the 350Z is that it comes fully assembled, so you don’t know which bits went in. I’d spend 1hr+ (no joke) building each car previously… first thing I did with the Zed was to pull it apart and restart.

[Admin]

“Hope you’re running on a flat ground too…”

Yep, I found even if you are running on what seems to be flat concreat, you still get random jump to left and right, it seem the small bumps in the concreat are enought to send the cars in allsorts of directions.

on my wooden polished floor no such problem apart from really cool overstear

[Admin]

I found the best combo for bits is a 3.0, 12:1 gearset, med-soft tyres, soft-medium sway bar + springs. I had a 3.6 v nimh but i coocked it. My car tracks dead straight, turns equally in both directions, and goes like all hell. I think the 3.0 doesnt quite rev out with the stock gearing. With the 12:1 it is faster, and qiucker off the line than a 2.2.

[Admin]

I found that my BIT turned differently right to left. I got it to go straight, but it understeered left andspun out going right.

I found that the two white prongs of the top of the front suspension were not resting on the swaybar evenly. One side was taking all the weight, and I filed down the taller side until they were both at an even height and the swaybar was horizontal….now it was much better but still not perfectly symmetrical, basically the wheels would turn to a steeper angle going one way.

I bent the pins holding the front wheels a tiny bit, so that when you rotate the pin the angle of the wheel changes, and I adjusted the angle such that at full lock, the wheels are both at a similar degree of lock.

…now it’s perfectly symmetrical 🙂 Not easy to achieve tho!

[Ryuenjin]

:smiley14:Thanks guys!!!! my car is going straighter than before with all your great and informative suggestions which i tried all at the same time, (so i dont know whos one worked or whos did nothing) . However its still not 100% perfect (but im satisfied enough but if you can help…). Ive set my trim all the way to the left, it goes straight but when reversing it tilts to the right, similar problem with want my car was like at the beginning….and ideas?

[Admin]

could be your tires becouse mine usta pull youright like hell into a spin out then i changed the tires ad it gos str8 enought. i used the radio shack tires. for some reason thy hoop up better than the super soft slicks. but with the super soft slicks and 3 batt.s you can get a nice powerslide on turns but its hard to pull out of it.

whats your settings on your car?

[Ryuenjin]

My car is currently STOCK, medium tires, 2.2motor, 9.86:1 gears etc

[Admin]

Mine doesn’t quite reverse straight either, I guess it’s a small price to pay for having it work perfectly going fwds 🙂

[Author]

Posts