May 27, 2004 (More updates at the end of the page).
Good news and bad news!
The good news were in the mail: I ordered a few little things from rcmart.com, in HK and they arrived just today: GPM aluminum rear wheel hubs, GPM aluminum servo stay and Team Losi's original oil shocks.
The servo stay we managed to break, while we were pushing on it trying to insert the pin, and the battery was not in its proper position in the chassis slots. Our fault, really! Lesson learned!
The shocks work admirably well, and the same holds true for the ball bearings for the wheel hubs front and rear! In conjunction with the stronger 7.2V/1100mAh batteries the Mini-T will do wheelies, as you can see elsewhere in these pages! However, care must be taken not to overtighten the rear wheels, because the hubs will bind the shafts. After tightening the rear wheels, take a half turn or as much as you find needed of the nut out, until the rear wheels turn freely. Visual inspection showed that the aluminum and original plastic hubs are identical. I don't know what to suppose, here...
The bad news came yesterday, when Jason called me at work to report that the "steering was not responding". Upon coming home from work, I took the servo out and saw that there is no sign of life in it, while the servo head moves too freely to sound good. A phone call to DSAW Hobbies revealed that the servo gears are probably ground, and because of the small size, you cannot hear the servo motor spinning. Replacement parts are due to arrive early next week. Till then, we did a thorough cleaning of the car, managed to replace the painfully small e-clips that hold the rear hub shafts in place and left the truck on the shelf...
Unfortunately, the servo is very micro in size, and also has a 5-wire pin, which makes it difficult to replace with any of my S-135-sized miniservos, like the ones used on my 1/8 Kyosho bikes.
Update May 30, 2004:
Mode bad news: The Mini-T has been on its stand for 2 days now, waiting for the servo or its gear, but with the new shocks already installed. Jason came to me this morning, Mini-T in hand, and pointing at some oily residues on all four suspension arms! The shocks leaked badly, even though the model has been static for two days!!!!!!!!!!
I took the shocks out, inserted the second seal into each, bled them again, and put the Mini-T on its stand. Hopefully it will be fixed! Otherwise we will have to follow the instructions of the 1/18th site... Plumber's tape! Ridiculous?! You tell me!
Update on the servo replacement, and a small story of BAD SERVICE!
