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Old 2006.05.03, 06:17 PM   #1
Eric M
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Unhappy Crazy steering problem please help

Hey guys,

I've been running my awd for a couple months now.. I LOVE IT. I have only recently run into my first major problem. That I have so far been unable to solve.

When I turn on my AWD the Steering goes hard left or hard right. Never straight. If its hard right and I turn it left using the controller it immediately shoots hard left. I couldn't get it to do anything else but Hard Left or right. Never straight. I took some of the parts out and I was taking a look at the tiny motor that turns the gears that moves the (?? Servo??) and the tie rod. When I turn it on the tiny motor Just spins wildly in one or the other direction. Thats what is causing the steering to either be totally left or right. That small motor shouldn't spin at high revolutions it should interact with the (??Servo??) If I mess around with the controller (ie. the steering trim and the actually steering wheel) I can get the motor to stop spinning wildly and stay sort of stable. but it still spins in one or the other direction.

My question is.. What the heck am I doing wrong? Is there some way to fix this problem. It makes my car unoperable. Its a sweet car too it bloody boots but not when it can only turn full right or left. I've run it in its current configuration before so I know its not some new hopup I added.

Any.. And I mean any help is much much appreciated.

thanks in advance,

Eric
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Old 2006.05.03, 07:20 PM   #2
imxlr8ed
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Sounds like a bad potentiometer to me, fairly easy to replace. You already seem to know how to disassemble the car, so it shouldn't be a big deal to solder a new pot on. The potentiometer is the black circular piece that mounts into the main gear, it has an orange and green wire to it. That is where you want to solder the new one on at. Take note that one of the wires installs to two of the metal tabs... make sure you duplicate this when connecting the new one.

BUT...

Before you go ordering a new pot... make sure:

You have the right frequency crystals installed.

The frequency crystal isn't shot... try the car with a different one.

The batteries are all charged and installed properly, controller and car. (you'd be surprised how often I've seen this one first hand)

Try another controller, if possible.

The pot is installed properly into the main gear and doesn't pop out when installed into chassis.

Make sure all the wires are connected to the board and the pot, and the servo motor and they are not losing their solder connections, and fraying apart.

Make sure there is no binding on the tie rod. (this one doesn't sound like your issue though)

Good luck !
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Last edited by imxlr8ed; 2006.05.03 at 07:31 PM.
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Old 2006.05.03, 07:24 PM   #3
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Actually... this sounds like the same issue I ran into when I was converting an MR01 board into an MR02 chassis. What I did to correct that was swap the wires from their respective sides on the potentiometer. keeping the "double connected wire connected to the middle connection post of the pot.
Worked fine in an 02 then.

Has your board been modified ? Is it an absolute stock board ? Check the fets... if they are 3004 fets, it's not an AWD board.

As far as the connections to the board itself, I'm pretty sure they've never changed. I always try to think of grass outside in the dark. (just a little way to remember that if you are looking down at the board, either side, the green potentiometer wire is on the outside, and the black servo motor wire is on the outside... get it ? Grassy and dark outside !.... yes, I know I'm nuts ! )
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Last edited by imxlr8ed; 2006.05.03 at 07:28 PM.
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Old 2006.05.04, 01:59 AM   #4
herman
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imxlr8ed... is spot on... try everything... and here's one more... maybe the linkage to the servo saver jumped or their might be dirt between the servo gears that is preventing it to move (happened to me once)... clean them out and put them back in their correct order... and it does help to have the manual close by... good luck, and let us know what happened...
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Old 2006.10.11, 12:20 AM   #5
gnehcoel
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Quote:
Originally Posted by herman
imxlr8ed... is spot on... try everything... and here's one more... maybe the linkage to the servo saver jumped or their might be dirt between the servo gears that is preventing it to move (happened to me once)... clean them out and put them back in their correct order... and it does help to have the manual close by... good luck, and let us know what happened...
Hi Herman:

You mentioned about dirt between the servo gears preventing it to move. I wanted to see if my situation is similar to yours.

When my car is off and when I try to manually turn my front wheels to left and right ... it kinda work, then it will get stuck at the far right turn and i can't move it back. But when I turn on the power of the car, it goes back to neutral position, do you think this is related to servo "dirt" issue?

Thanks in advance,
Leo
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Old 2006.10.11, 01:38 AM   #6
herman
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Quote:
When my car is off and when I try to manually turn my front wheels to left and right ... it kinda work, then it will get stuck at the far right turn and i can't move it back. But when I turn on the power of the car, it goes back to neutral position, do you think this is related to servo "dirt" issue?
your situation is pretty normal... sometimes when i manually move the wheels when they're off, it gets stuck to one side... and returns to neutral when you turn it back on...

actually in one of the the cases i experienced... (the one above in particular)... i dissasembled the servo gears and there was a small piece of dirt, or it seemed to be a very small pebble that was stuck in between the teeth of the gears...

this prevented the car to properly turn left or right.... after cleaning the teeth with an old toothbrush (i wouldn't suggest using your current toothbrush) and dislodging the offending small pebble, it was fixed...

is there any other situation that you are pertaining to?
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Old 2006.10.13, 11:58 PM   #7
gnehcoel
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Quote:
Originally Posted by herman
your situation is pretty normal... sometimes when i manually move the wheels when they're off, it gets stuck to one side... and returns to neutral when you turn it back on...
This is the exact situation I am referring to.

Quote:
Originally Posted by herman
actually in one of the the cases i experienced... (the one above in particular)... i dissasembled the servo gears and there was a small piece of dirt, or it seemed to be a very small pebble that was stuck in between the teeth of the gears...

this prevented the car to properly turn left or right.... after cleaning the teeth with an old toothbrush (i wouldn't suggest using your current toothbrush) and dislodging the offending small pebble, it was fixed...

is there any other situation that you are pertaining to?
I think I probably have something in in the servo gears too ... because I run on RCP tracks all the time ... when i peek through the back of the car ... it looks kinda dirty.

I am worried about opening up my car to clear the servo gears because there are too many wires hooked up to too many places and I am not good with soldering. So I don't want to open it up ... but looks like I don't have a choice ...

Did you have to unsolder any wires to open up your servo box? I found it hard to take it out ...

thanks,
Leo
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Old 2006.10.15, 10:10 PM   #8
herman
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if your car turns equally left and right when it's on... then it's ok... you won't have to open up the servo... but if you have limited turning on one side... there could be some problems... like your servo might be dirty... (or in another case i experienced, the tx was busted)...

taking it apart isn't that difficult... although it may seem that way... just remember where everything goes when you disassemble it...

and maybe while you're at it you might want to consider changing the first servo gear into an alloy one (mr01) i forgot the ma010 has a servo saver...
good luck...

Last edited by herman; 2006.10.15 at 10:19 PM.
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Old 2006.10.15, 11:57 PM   #9
gnehcoel
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thanks herman ... it turns both left and right "somewhat" equally ... I can still drive my car without problems ... I will open it up one day =)
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Old 2006.10.17, 03:47 AM   #10
gnehcoel
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Originally Posted by gnehcoel
thanks herman ... it turns both left and right "somewhat" equally ... I can still drive my car without problems ... I will open it up one day =)
I opened up my servo section in the car (No unsoldering needed.) and clean up my servo gears ... there is a lot of dirt in there ... after cleaning ... my servo movement are as smooth as new ... =)
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Old 2006.10.18, 04:53 AM   #11
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good to hear...
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