RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

The question in the subject line is a bit incomplete, not expecting a complete answer from anybody if there isn't one because it's 3 issues... This tank has metal gearbox, plastic tracks and the 2.4 ghz radio if that matters.

First issue is when the tank is in motion it pulls to the right. If you drove it 50 feet straight at the end the tank would be pointing almost at 3 o clock...I'm guessing the starboard motor? No binding of track or wheels I can see...

The other issue is the turret motors don't function. I got it ebay and the gun elevation never worked, it just clicks. But the turret did traverse normally now it doesn't move. I disconnected the upper hull and plugged the turret cable to my known- good HL Tiger-same issue. I Ordered an eBay turret traverse ass'y for $8 without stopping to think it might be different-looks like the same one but, of course, that's no guide...(did you ever try to cancel an ebay transaction once you clicked the pay pal???? I really need to learn my lesson someday...) I figure at worst I can swap the traverse motor anyway...anyone had experience with turret issues?

Meanwhile I did a search on something called "RCParty.com" who do seem legit, and cheap, for a gun elevation ass'y. They claim to have it and only $11 shipped, however I go back to recheck the order because it was unclear pmt went through and didn't want to double pay and now the status says "BACK ORDERED"??!!! WELL we all know what that little word almost always entails after all...

Since the gun elevation motor at least clicks (kind of a click/whir) I wondered if anyone has fixed these issues of this kind on the turret and can offer some ideas? Thanks-

Hi Marc don't know if this applies here but I scratch build and have a collection of various tranverse motors and I have noticed that some elevation motor gearboxes have a stop pin in them so to operate they turn one way for elevation and then reverse direction for depression. Overs just rotate continually to drive the gun up and then down. If you have a "stop Pin" version fitted and a controller that will only go oneway then once the gearbox has got to the stop pin then you will only get the clinking noise and no movement which is the gear slipping. I have 3 in my spares box at the moment 2 have white gears and continually rotate in one direction and 1 has orange coloured gears and is fitted with a stop pin and needs to be driven in both directions to operate. regarding your traininng motor disconnect it from the turrent ring and unplug from the lower hull, then apply 3v to the motor terminals directly, if the motor/gearbox works you either have a duff wire or your RX-18 may be duff (check the wiring first some of the soldering is pretty awfull sometimes)
regards Denzil

Greetings Mark... this is the Panzer III that went off the table right? the fall could have jogged something inside the elevation unit...from you description it sounds like the motor runs... so there is a good chance a gear rod came out... open it up... realign the gears.. I think it should work properly from there

What Hawkeye said it true... but not on the Heng Long... one elevation unit that has the stopper it Mato...but that's because all the electricals are different

ALPHA

Thank you all very much for the good suggestions. Here is an update, I fixed the tank elevation motor myself with no parts. Completely by chance but the point is the elevation works now. Since the elevation motor whirred I realized there was probably hope for it so i tore apart the turret, first time doing this on an HL tank.

I just took apart the turret, unscrewed and removed the elevation motor to watch it function-and something must have been just stuck inside because now it works-SUCCESS. Carefully i put the meccano set back together-using glue on the turret rear bin this time, you know they don't like being taken apart and something always breaks. Like i said whereas previously i had traverse and no elevation, now i have the opposite. Gun goes up and down and does this little wobble thing but it works so GOOD ENOUGH-its fixed as far as i'm concerned

On the off chance I might achieve a twofer repair I tried the Tx lever for the turret traverse motor (with the tank hull tummy resting on a plastic bowl to keep the treads off the ground) hoping to at least hear motor noise-it too might be stuck? And somoehow, i got some motor activity for a second-naturally the first question was WHY only a second?- but NOPE its kaput. Don't know if it's the motor-hopefully it is that since one's on the way-I measured for voltage everywhere i thought there might be any-contacts-but no go. I must be measuring in the wrong places.

waiting for a turret traverse motor to get here, perhaps this week. No unsoldering for me, i'm splicing thosee wires...I have the soldering skills of Koko the gorilla with slightly better communication skills



Here's the tank now since the part is supposed to be here in a couple days. Lara croft is not my tiny tank mechanic, I found her (an old birthday present from my ex-wife- Tomb Raider 3 actually) looking for something else and somehow she wound up on my small table and just took the picture. Too bad i don't have a tiny tool set to match, it might have been fixed overnight?

Marc780 wrote:Thank you all very much for the good suggestions. Here is an update, I fixed the tank elevation motor myself with no parts. Completely by chance but the point is the elevation works now. Since the elevation motor whirred I realized there was probably hope for it so i tore apart the turret, first time doing this on an HL tank.

I just took apart the turret, unscrewed and removed the elevation motor to watch it function-and something must have been just stuck inside because now it works-SUCCESS. Carefully i put the meccano set back together-using glue on the turret rear bin this time, you know they don't like being taken apart and something always breaks. Like i said whereas previously i had traverse and no elevation, now i have the opposite. Gun goes up and down and does this little wobble thing but it works so GOOD ENOUGH-its fixed as far as i'm concerned

On the off chance I might achieve a twofer repair I tried the Tx lever for the turret traverse motor (with the tank hull tummy resting on a plastic bowl to keep the treads off the ground) hoping to at least hear motor noise-it too might be stuck? And somoehow, i got some motor activity for a second-naturally the first question was WHY only a second?- but NOPE its kaput. Don't know if it's the motor-hopefully it is that since one's on the way-I measured for voltage everywhere i thought there might be any-contacts-but no go. I must be measuring in the wrong places.

waiting for a turret traverse motor to get here, perhaps this week. No unsoldering for me, i'm splicing thosee wires...I have the soldering skills of Koko the gorilla with slightly better communication skills

Just as a trouble shoot ...did you try switching the motor plugs to the RX ?

ALPHA

Alpha no i didn't but i did try plugging in the turret to my known good tiger with the same type of 2.4 Ghz receiver and whole different Tx. Same result. In the past when i'd had this issue it was because the Tx had been smacked (batteries) or dropped. In this case the motor worked on second and the next it didn't. I should try that-bind my second transmitter to the Rx and see what happens.

Marc780 wrote:Alpha no i didn't but i did try plugging in the turret to my known good tiger with the same type of 2.4 Ghz receiver and whole different Tx. Same result. In the past when i'd had this issue it was because the Tx had been smacked (batteries) or dropped. In this case the motor worked on second and the next it didn't. I should try that-bind my second transmitter to the Rx and see what happens.

Well if you switch the terminals to see if the motor is still sketchy...you might save yourself a lot of work lol.... it could just be a bad wire or solder point ...but really do what you feel comfortable with

ALPHA

I'm suspecting it's the motor for the traverse since a bad connection is usually bad - period? I tried tapping the motor a little bit to see if that did anything-it didn't. The weird thing is - sometimes - when "freshly hooked up" the motor will funtion for a couple seconds then go dead! I hope it is just the motor-that little square piece with all the wires soldered to it looks far too formidable to mess with! I am going to cut the wires to the motor. Will have to do that anyway once the new unit gets here. Then i am going to put power to it and see what happens. My wife is asleep so i can't do it-its 10:40 am and she is sleeping like Rip van heusen and i don't want to wake her up-quiet wife = happy husband! anyway the new unit is supposed to be here tomorow or the next day. That will be very interesting, it will either be an easy fix or a hard one-would you believe a self-propelled Mark III gun with a fixed turret? I put on some silicone grease i had from my airguns, to the turret movement area on the hull, while the turret was off so it spins smoother. Why not? Of course this grease does not react to plastic. I also have some silicone shock oil for model cars-i use this oil on the road wheels once in a while.

I'm also thinking of finally installing my steel gearset into the King tiger. I have added solderless connectors already and everything-I like being able to swap electronics easily-but could not make them fit last time! People say there's a trick to it, not sure what that could be! I miked the motors for diameter and they are the same. The old motors came out very easily and went back in easily...I'm even thinking of just swapping the motors..m