BL Savage woes.......
 

Okay, first off, I got a BL Savage from bigair78 a while back, and just recently got a 9920 for it and have taken it out for a few runs. I've been asking Serum and MetalMan for help with the issues I've been having, but could take any help I could get at this point.

I've kinda been having issues with my Savage running a 9L and 9920, it just isn't working right. From a dead start, it stutters bad, even with a freshly charged rx pack (thought it was the BEC at first), and I can't even get it going good without either having it stutter or rolling the throttle painfully slow. It has this problem on both 12 and 14 cells, even with matched GP3300's with 1.185 or better voltage cells. I think the gearing might be off, the spur is a 49t but I don't know what the pinion is right now......I could check though.

Oh yeah, and most disturbing of all, the whole stupid system overloads and shuts down after being on for 2 or 3 minutes......no idea why. Everything still has power, but the steering servo will turn to the right (or left sometimes) and hold there, while everything falls silent and won't take any input from the rx. I know it's not a voltage issue, all batts are charged (rx, tx, GP3300's)........I've got no idea on that one.

Any help would be great!

i think it might be thermalling. you might want to gear it a little lower or higher. not sure. what kinda temps are you getting?

Gearing higher wouldn't decrease cogging. I suggest checking the gear mesh.

yeah, and what gearing do you use. No binding in the drivetrain?

If the servo is hanging like that without your holding the wheel you may have a bad reciever

Re: BL Savage woes.......
 

Dont know about the rest but this one sounds like maybe an interference problem, or something wrong with the reciever or control maybe? If you have a spare control and reciever you could try and swap them over.

Whoa! Lots 'o replies, lemme address each one.

squeeforever: NOT thermalling, I'm running fans on both the motor and controller, but didn't at first. Even then the motor was 85, and the controller 110, still very much in the acceptable range. I do, however, think it could be a gearing problem.

MetalMan: Very possible, I never did check the mesh or even gearing when I got it, just figured it'd be okay. I didn't really want to mess with the gearing anyway, the motor screws are kinda hard to get to.

Serum: Yeah, um, I really gotta find out what gearing that is, and check the mesh, and all that junk......then maybe go from there. As for binding, it seems to roll just fine, but that only means the one way is working good, no idea about the tranny innards (I'll check the mesh and gearing first so I don't have to do an unneccessary tear down).

crazyjr: Don't think so, because the whole stupid electronics cut out: the servo swings to one side, then locks up, the controller blanks out, and the braking servo won't budge.

Basketti: Not likely, but maybe. I run a Airtronics MX-3 with a FM rx on ch. 80, don't think it'd be interference, but I could always try out my brother's rx, crystals, tx, and stuff to make sure it isn't. The only other controller I have is my Ofna's 9918, but I don't totally feel like unsoldering everything to try it out: again, I will check the gear stuff first.



So, after all that, looks like priority would be to check the gear mesh and gearing. If that's not it, then it gets a bit harder.

Just count the no of teeth on the pinion, the spur has got his no of teeth written on it.

i actually ment the control like the radio, the thing you hang on to lol i dont know what its called. My mate had trouble with his servo and we tracked it down to the radio. Just a thought.

My MX-3 system is probably over a year old, maybe coming up on two.......can't remember. But anyway, it's still doing good, I doubt the transmitter is the problem, I'd more suspect the receiver of causing problems.

EDIT: Just took a trip out to the garage and counted the teeth on the pinion after I pulled it out.......turns out the current gearing is 16/49. Not sure, but just from what I've heard, that sounds a bit high........could that be to blame for the weirdness?

It would assume that the gears mesh was not right or had binding. The motor would run hot and esc to. Have you tried a reciever pack or ubec. Check to see if your capicators on the esc are in tact. Can you turn the spur gear with you finger. Keep us informed.

Not sure about the gear mesh, but if it had been off, the motor would have been way hotter than 85 after 3 or 4 minutes of bashing.

I've been running it recently with a rx pack, but i do have a regulator from MetalMan on my Ofna's 9918 that would do the same job as a UBEC.

The tranny thing sounds like more of a possibility, I'll have to check it while I still have the pinion off. BTW, i think the mesh was fine, but I didn't check last night, I just wanted to get the pinion off and see how many teeth it had.

Something similiar happened to my Dad's E-Maxx running the Novak HV-Maxx. Steering would work for a bit, then go crazy, the motor would cogg and it wouldn't stop unless it had a rolling start. My Dad figured it was the motr, I figured it was the receiver/radio. Turned out to be the Reciever/radio, he was running an XS3 FM Synthesized and he swapped it out for an older AM combo, it worked just fine. I'd suggest trying another radio setup, it might fix your problem. Also, your gearing seems to be too high, you should maybe go with a 54 tooth spur, unless you have the 2-speed still running. Good luck fixing your problem.;)

Turns out the pinion's actually a 15t, guess I can't count good or something. :D

Radio, huh? I might have to try one of the cheapo ones we have laying around, or at least my brother's MX-3. I do still have the 2 speed, no idea what that does to the gear ratio that I'm supposed to have, I don't even know when it's shifting! Oh, and the biggest spur for a Savage is a 52t, or at least that's the biggest that Hobby People carries.......might have to get one of those tomorrow and try it out right there in the store (I get bored when there's no customer's sometimes).

Trickle charged the rx pack at .5a for almost 4 hours today, then let one of the guys at the shop take it out.......worked fine. It still has nasty cogging if you peg the throttle too fast, but if you roll it (still can't roll it as fast as my Ofna's) it still has some good get up and go. I'm still thinking about putting one of the 52t spurs we have in stock in it, just to see if that helps with the cogging.

I also noticed while the pinion was off that spinning the tranny in either direction has a hiccup once every turn, think a tooth got messed up in there somewhere. Even with the not so perfect tranny though, it was going like a champ, and didn't even cut out.......I was surprised.

Still, even though I think I finally got it going good (enough), the thought of a 7xl is soooo tempting, it'd be more versitile too. :D

You going to take tranny off and see what the deal is. Have to let us know. The 7xl will pull the truck around pretty good. It can take a taller gear as well. so the speed won't be as much as you may think. Hope it works out for you.

I don't know if I have to pull the tranny out or not, I could tell right there in the store (yeah, I got bored today) that something inside is notchy, but I'd bet it's only one tooth on one of the gears. I s'pose that pulling the tranny out of the truck would make it apparent real quick if the problem lies with it or not, if the resistance is gone with it out of the truck, then it could be a diff or something.

How would the speed compare to the 9L's right now? I think i'm at least tapping 40, if not in the mid 40's. I'd want the same kind of throttle response as my Lehner 2800xl though, that thing spools up like nothing and BOOGIES.

I got my 7xl. I want to make a new video of it. I post it and you can see for your self. I am not running until this weekend. how many cells you like to see.

Well, I don't think it'd like just 12 cells in a Savage, but do what you got.

I have 6cell pack 7 cell 8 cell and 10 cell so i have to 8 and 10 celll for 18

How about 12 cells as a start, then go from there!

I can tell you that hacker recommends on there b 50 7xl 10 - 16 cells. I not sure why they are different than feigao. I try to get a video of 12 cells. I had a video of a 9xl on 12 cells.

Got a 52t spur now, just gotta install it and adjust the gear mesh to go with the new ratio. I'm hoping this will solve the problems I've been having, even though I kinda found that rolling the throttle a bit more gently made the cogging go away.

Yeesh, this is harder than I thought it'd be! In order to put the spur on, I had to yank the old one off, and that wasn't all too bad, but then it got interesting. The motor wouldn't slide over far enough, and I couldn't get the allen wrench to the screw head all too easily, so I just took off the pinion for starters. Then I decided I'd need to remove the motor to try and get it in there better, but couldn't reach the screws, so I had to take the motor plate out. To take the motor plate out, I had to undo two screws through the stock engine mount holes, but couldn't get to one because the rear driveshaft was in the way. To get the drive shaft out of the way, I had to remove the whole back of the stupid truck.......but at least then it slid out easily and every thing was easy as pie.

The maker of the motor plate only drilled holes for the 15/49 ratio, so I put it in the vise and put the spiral cutter bit in the Dremel, and lengthened each of the mounting holes, as well as opened up the center "shaft" hole for clearence. I'm done with it for the night, but tomorrow night, I should have it all back together and ready to go by Wednesday to show off to the guys at Hobby People.

Got it all worked out tonight, the motor is as far over as possible and the gear mesh appears to be perfect. I had to work a bit to get it to work, but it's solid, and should hold well. I also bolted everything back together, and will take it in to work tomorrow for some testing fun.

Took it out today for the first time with the new ratio, and some 7 cells I charged on Tuesday and ran half down, it still ripped! The cogging has gone down quite a bit, but will still happen if I roll or stab the trottle too quickly, I gotta get used to the slower roll needed for this system; my Ofna's 2800xl spools up so quick it doesn't have time to cog and I'm too used to that. The new setup is so much better, I even managed to pull a few wheelie flips with the not so recently charged packs........and killed my rx pack's lead.

I was screwing around in the street, and pointed it uphill, rolled the throttle slowly, ramped it up to full, and the sucker launched into a flip.........and landed hard on the rollover hoop. The crash landing popped my rx open (it wasn't held together all too good anyway, I'll fix that though), and ripped the rx pack plug out. I walked over to it, flipped it back onto the wheels, and saw smoke coming from the front bumper.....where the two rx pack leads were touching and melting the wires. I quickly shut off the power, and took it in for a temp check and a bit of work: both the motor and controller were 85. I soldered in a new lead on the rx pack, and it'll be ready for the standard size Crime Fighter MT's and a track outing with some friends tomorrow!

Can't wait to see it in action!

Yeah, it boogies big time, and the mechanical brakes are great at locking it up in less than 10 feet after full power. I think the shocks might be a bit soft and induce body roll, but it soaks up a drop from 4-5 feet easily.

yeah, those shocks are soft for sure.. it make driving much harder.. get a set of the FLM shocktowers and a set of the UE shocks, fill them up with 90-100wt oil and the handling will improve for sure.

I've already got some kind of funky aftermarket shock towers, no idea who makes them though. I don't have any pics of them yet, but should after today. Here's the closest I've got:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a5/4718/DSC02528.jpg

i would personally get the savage towers from rockconcept.net and run proline powerstroke shocks. the powerstrokes are the best shock i have ever seen.

the towers that you have Dabid, are Nova towers.

@squee, did you ever seen the UE shocks in person? with the powerstrokes, you need a few sets of extra springs.

for a savage, i take the UE shocks over the powerstrokes. 4 of them is enough.

Aren't those UE shocks the exact same as Ofnas pro buggy rear shocks? Nice quality!

Yeah, they only come with nitrid coated shafts, 8 springs and spacers. They are Ofna, very true Daniel.

Okay, I've had a pretty good experience with the shocks on both this truck and my buggy, but don't really have the time today to tear them down and change the oil. So what springs and wt. oil do you suggest? It's got some kind of chrome ones on the front and whites on the rear, and a fair amount of preload.....I'd be afraid that with heavier oil the springs wouldn't extend again.

90 or 100wt oil, and the white/red red/blue springs should be fine.

the thickness of the oil isn't responsible for the springs to extend, it is responsible for the speed they take to extend.

The nice threaded ofna front shocks (exactly like the UE ones) can be bought on ebay for about $100 for a set of eight. That's where I bot mine. They usually end up selling for around $20-25 a pair. Sometimes even less.

I raced this truck today, and I gotta say, the current setup was amazing, I don't know if I could improve it! It soaked up jumps perfectly, and floated over the bumpy stuff with ease.......I wish my Ofna could do that!

I think the only thing lacking was the motor, that and the tranny. The motor was being overworked I think (even though it never topped 95), and the powerband was okay, so I think I'll have to invest in a 7xl.

Mike will have a sale out on the feigao's i think..

I thought the ue was more like the rear ofna buggy shocks. My ue is shorter than the front ones on my buggy.